avast! is a free antivirus that offers basic protection against viruses and spyware.

Currently, having a computer with no anti-virus protection is quite unusual and also dangerous because there are many chances that some type of malware, spyware, or viruses can infect an unprotected computer. This is because, thanks to the Internet, access to information is much simpler, and we can download files and applications quickly and easily. This implies that we are more likely to download a file infected with malware.

avast! offers a free version of their antivirus that we can use unlimited. This version makes it possible to reach basic protection against many threats that “dwell” on the Internet. Despite being free and offering basic protection, this anti-virus will be more than enough for a large number of users.

When we install this anti-virus, we should keep in mind that we are accepting that avast! gather data from program usage, and use them for behavioral studies and statistics. The installation is simple, and we can choose which components to install by clicking on the option “Custom Installation.”

Once the installation is done, the antivirus will run and launches a quick scan to search for viruses and malware in our PC. At any moment, we can choose the “Full System Scan” option to explore threats residents in our Computer comprehensively.

The program is simple to use; even so, at the end of the installation is a brief tutorial with the basic steps to follow to protect our Computer. It is convenient to take a look at this tutorial, as it quickly exposes the options and basic functionality of antivirus.

In this type of program, having the virus database up-to-date is critical, so the software will be automatically updated every 240 minutes (we can change this number), and it also offers the option to force the update of virus files by pressing a button.

In addition to protection against viruses and malware, this free antivirus comes with many tools that make it very attractive:

• Software Updater: this tool monitors installed programs on the PC and informs us about available software updates. It's very useful and important because many viruses and malware take advantage of discovered vulnerabilities in programs in order to infiltrate the system and infect the Computer.
• Browsers Cleaning: this tool is responsible for examining installed web browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) and offers the possibility of eliminating annoying toolbars that are typically installed in the browsers. This function is useful and avoids the typical problems that arise when installing any of these unwanted bars.
• Rescue disk: this tool creates a bootable CD or USB with the latest antivirus definitions and allows us to analyze the PC using a boot drive. This is very handy for those cases in which, for some reason, PC will not boot up properly, and we need to scan the computer for viruses and threats.

As a curiosity, the anti-virus allows us to view statistics of analysis that has been collected over the use of the program, where we will see a number of blocked viruses, updates that we have made, etc. In addition, we will be able to see global statistics, where we will see a world map with countries in which more threats have been prevented and blocked by the antivirus.

The software is free, and the only requirement to use it free of charge indefinitely is to register via our e-mail account or Facebook. We may use the anti-virus for 30 days without having to register.

A well-known detail of this anti-virus is the female voice that accompanies it, which warns us, very sweet, that the anti-virus is started, the virus database has been updated, or the analysis is completed.

As we can see, this antivirus brings a lot of possibilities, all this despite the fact of being free and offering basic protection. So we can say that avast! is a great option to install on our PC, we can use it free of charge indefinitely, and the basic protection it offers may be sufficient for many users.