Installation is smooth and simple, and you aren’t guilt-tripped about opting for the free version, although an initial scan will detect “advanced issues” that can be solved by getting a premium subscription, even on a freshly-installed PC.

Includes malware scanning and real-time protection.

It blocked all malicious content in AV Comparatives’ real-world protection tests, with two false positives and one legitimate software identification at a potential threat that required user intervention.Īnd SELabs found that it protected against 100% of malware, but it misidentified samples of benign software, giving it a legitimate accuracy score of 96%.ĭespite this, Avast is well worth using, as one of the few antivirus suites that actually blocked all malware during this test period. It achieved perfect scores in AV-Test’s latest real-world exposure and reference file-scanning tests, with no false positive identifications of legitimate software.

Malware detection performanceĪvast is one of the few detection engines to have protected against all malicious software in recent tests by three labs.

However, free malware defence is what Avast is best known for.īut is Avast One Essential one of the best free antivirus options? Or are you better off with the likes of Microsoft Defender Antivirus instead? Here are my thoughts. Like stablemate AVG, which uses the same detection engine, Avast also offers more feature-packed paid-for subscriptions for home and business. It’s recently merged with erstwhile rival NortonLifeLock to form a new company called Gen Digital, but everything’s keeping its original name for the moment. Free VPN: 5GB per week free VPN serviceĪvast is a long-standing favourite in the world of free malware defence.Gaming mode Ceases notifications and CPU-intensive activity when a game or application runs at full screen.Per-folder ransomware protection Select specific folders to be protected against unauthorised changes.

What is avast antivirus pro