Avast - anti-virus

Avast is a full-featured anti-virus program that will clean and guard your computer against viruses and malware. It is free to register and includes automatic program and virus-definition updates.

Homepage www.avast.com Computer Requirements All Windows Versions 50 MB free on your hard drive Version used in this guide 4.8

Installing Avast Read the brief Hands-on Guide Introduction Click the Avast icon below and 'Open' or 'Run' the installer. If necessary, save the installer first, then find it and doubleclick it Read the 'Installation instructions' in the next section before you continue If you saved the installer to your computer, you may delete it after installation Avast:

License:

• Freeware (Note: Avast 4 Home Edition is free for non-commercial use on a home computer. If you meet both of these conditions, Avast can be registered for a fourteen-month period. You can then re-register your copy at the end of that period.)

Required Reading

• How-to Booklet chapter 1. Protecting your Computer from Viruses, Malware and Hackers

Level: 1: Beginner, 2: Average, 3: Intermediate, 4: Experienced, 5: Advanced

Time required to start using this tool: 20 minutes

What you will get in return:

• The ability to search for viruses on your computer and to remove them
• The ability to protect your computer from new virus infections
• Free virus-definition updates from the Internet

1.1 Things you should know about this tool before you start

Computer viruses are malicious programs that can destroy files, slow your computer down and use your address book to find and infect other computers. Avast is a full-featured anti-virus program that guards against viruses that might infect your computer through downloads from the Internet, email attachments, or transfers from removable media (CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, USB memory sticks, etc).

• New viruses are being developed all the time. To effectively protect your computer, Avast must have an up-to-date database.
• Make sure that you do not have two anti-virus programs installed and running at the same time. If you are currently using a different program and you want to switch to Avast, you must uninstall the other anti-virus program before installing Avast.