avast! Home is one of the best free anti-virus applications you can have protecting your PC, rivaling even some paid solutions on the market. It’s fast, reliable, and relatively easy to use (for the most part). However, one of the biggest complaints about their product is the interface, which can be a bit confusing or unwieldy at times (which can be made more straight forward by disabling skins).
avast! is now testing Version 5 of their product which promises multiple improvements, and a new interface. Beyond just the core product though, new to the line is avast! Internet Security, which combines anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall protection, and more into one streamlined package.
While other “all-in-one” type security products — in my opinion — have been weak in at least one area (i.e. great anti-virus, weak firewall), having this type of product come from avast! is still very exciting, given their track record of excellence, and innovation in their free product.
I’ve installed the beta and done some high-level testing and so far everything looks good, while the user interface is vastly improved against the older avast! Home Version 4 series. There is still more testing to be done, and the all important firewall tests as well that need to be done. It would certainly be nice to have a great all-in-one solution finally, and not have to rely on 2 or 3 separate products to protect your system.
avast! Internet Security is currently in beta and free to try while in the beta period, for testing. Check it out at the link below.
Features:
- Anti-virus protection
- Firewall
- Anti-spyware protection
- Antispam
- Process virtualization
- High performance antivirus engine
- Anti-root kit protection
Download: avast! Internet Security
