

The Tools menu exposes further functions, including the option to create a bootable Rescue Disk (on a CD or USB flash drive) for cleaning up an infected PC. In Avast’s case, the whole tab is superfluous: you can just press the orange “Smart Scan” button in the middle of the main page to scan for all issues at once, which took less than a minute on our mid-range laptop. To be fair, most packages offer such controls, but we’ve never seen the sense in scanning only for specific types of threat and ignoring others. Considering it’s free, the feature set isn’t bad either – although it isn’t as generous as the four-tab interface (divided into Scan, Tools, Passwords and Store) might initially suggest.įor starters, the Scan menu simply offers a range of options for launching specific types of scan, such as searching exclusively for viruses, network threats, browser add-ons, and so forth. It even outpaces paid-for packages from BullGuard, Eset and McAfee.Īvast is one of the more pleasant packages to use, with the latest version offering a tasteful white and orange interface. That’s a better performance than free rival AVG, and a long way ahead of Windows Defender.
#Does avast safezone update automatically software
This is partly down to the excellent protection stats it has maintained over the years – and we’re happy to say that those haven’t slipped.ĪV-Test found that the software achieved an excellent 99.4% protection rate against zero-day threats, and an even more impressive 99.9% against established malware. Avast Free Antivirus has long been our favourite free security package.
