Avast 5.0 Released!

On the MG front page yesterday (Jan 19 2010) we had the release of the new Avast 5.0. While this may not seem like a big deal, it actually is. It has been totally reworked with a new GUI, added spyware protection, and other cool improvements. I had a tough time finding screen shots, but here's some from the beta or alpha from the Fall of 2009:

http://blog.avast.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/72.PNG


http://blog.avast.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/1.PNG

A full review in PDF format was performed by the folks over at VirusBulletin (home page: http://www.virusbtn.com/index) and it has screen shots from the new release as well as a comprehensive run-thru of the whole program. It looks like the new Avast may be installed on my home PC soon (I use Avira currently). Avast has an improved (faster) scanning engine, an improved updating routine, and is less resource intenstive. Hopefully, they got rid of the speaking status notifier: "The database has been updated!". I really disliked the fact that an AV program would talk to me, and the first time I heard it, it scared the :crap out of me!!! LOL

Anyway- here's the link to the PDF review: http://www.virusbtn.com/files/Avast-Jan2010.pdf

Once I get this new version of Alwil's Avast Free Antivirus installed, and I get a chance to run it for a few days, I'll post my comments here, and I'll ask for input from all of you....
:-D

[dlb]

(edit- WOW!!! :eek I didn't realize the screenshots would be so B I G ! ! ! LOL )

 

It turns out the screen shots or of Avast Internet Security, and not from the free home version, but the general style and theme will be the same. The PDF article discusses both the free version, and the paid Internet Security.

 

Thanks for the info, dlb - I've been an avast! supporter/user for years, and I'm looking forward to trying out this newest version, although, since 4.x is working so well on many of my customers' machines, I might wait a little while for Alwil to work out any inevitable bugs...

 

The screen shots I posted above were gleaned from a different site, and aren't my personal shots. However, I downloaded the Avast here at MG and the setup file properties said it was still v4.8 :confused So I went to the Avast site and downloaded the free version from them. I installed it and have been using v5 now for about 30 minutes and I must say that I do like it. It has a real GUI instead of that weird "media player" interface they had with the previous version. This new version seems much more responsive and 'snappier' and seem to be lighter on resources. I'm running a scan on this PC, surfing the web, and doing other stuff, and I'm noticing no real lag (XP MCE SP3, 1gb RAM, Core2 CPU 1.86ghz). Attached below is a screen shot of a scan in progress, and a zip file with some other shots.

Oh yeah- the program still talks to you LOL "The database has been updated". But now it's a more friendly female voice; the previous voice could scare the hell out of you if you had your speakers turned up real loud! roflmao LOL

 

The scan speed also appears to have been improved on.... I attached a cropped screen shot of the final scan results, 115gb scanned in 38min... pretty good!!!!

 

I forgot to mention: this new Avast was selected by Google to be part of something called the "GooglePack" (or something similar) and therefore the browser "Chrome" is bundled with Avast v5. It's easy to not install as long as you're paying attention during the Avast install, but you don't just blindly click Next-Next-Next-Next-Next as fast as possible anyway, do you?
LOL roflmao :-D LOL roflmao

 

I've been a fanboy of sorts for Avast! but I am really impressed with the update. Since it now has a behavioral scanner, I dumped Spyware Terminator and my 7 year old computer is really flying now.

 

Interesting dlb, I'll wait until they update my 4.8xx install. LOL@ the 'voice'! I've gone to bed forgetting my volume settings and had the :crap scared out of me!:-D My gf loves the voice on her laptop.:drool