avast! 4 Home Edition is a free antivirus software includes on-demand scanner with two interfaces (simple for novices and advanced for experienced users), an on-access scanner with Standard Shield (which protects against execution and opening malware programs) and an embedded e-mail scanner which scans incoming and outgoing email messages.
What's new in v4.8
- avast! now contains a built-in anti-rootkit protection
- avast! now comes with a built-in anti-spyware protection
- new self-defense function to prevent active malware from terminating avast! processes as well as corrupting avast! files and registry items
- scanners now display a progress of current scan (percentage of work done)
- fixed a vulnerability in AavmKer4.sys kernel-mode driver (problem applies to Windows NT/2000/XP, 32-bit only); special thanks to Tobias Klein
- improvements in boot-time scanner (detection & removal of hidden or hard to delete files)
- boot-time scanner will not start when booting into Safe Mode (the program was "invisible" in that case, no progress/messages could be seen)
- improvements in many unpackers
- ACE and RAR unpackers now work even in boot-time scanner
- IM Shield: added support for QQ
- improvements in handling of NTFS streams
- Internet Mail provider now displays the name of the sending/receiving program in the tooltip of its taskbar icon
- implemented a protection against false positives in critical system files
- removed a small memory leak in one of avast! drivers (Windows Vista and XP 64-bit only)
- added support for 64-bit WHS connector (available in WHS Power Pack 1)
- greatly improved performance of the updater, especially in cases where many increments are being downloaded (e.g. avast! installations with outdated virus definitions)
- silent installation now also includes scheduled tasks, if any
- resolved a compatibility issue with Acronis TrueImage (XP 64-bit only)
- compatibility tests with Vista SP1 and XP SP3
