Try Avast 4 Home Ed 4.1 AV-Alwil-free
Does a good job. free checks mail.
http://www.asw.cz/i_idt_153.html
Antivirus kernel
New version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection
abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection
of In-the-Wild viruses (the ones what are really spreading amongst
people) and very good detection of Trojan horses, all that with only a
minimum number of false alarms.
The kernel was certified by ICSA; it frequently takes part in the tests
of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.
Simple User Interface
Simple User Interface is used to start on-demand scanning, work with the
results, change various options etc. Basic resident protection settings
can be modified here.
Simple User Interface is the main application of avast! 4 Home Edition.
You can start additional avast! modules from here, such as the Virus
Chest, Updater or Log Viewer.
The appearance of Simple User Interface is very flexible. It supports so
called skins, i.e. changeable appearances, so there are many
possibilities the interface can look like. The main package contains
three skins, additional ones can be downloaded from our web pages.
Standard resident protection
Resident protection, i.e. the real-time protection of the computer, is
one of the most important parts of an antivirus program today. avast!
features a powerful resident module that is able to detect the virus
before it has any chance to infect your computer.
avast! Home Edition contains resident protection of the computer file
system and resident module for e-mails.
The file system protection ensures that no virus will be started on the
computer. It offers a wide range of settings - e.g. it is possible to
specify that files will be scanned during copying, or that the scanning
will include files with given set of extensions only.
E-mail protection consists of two independent modules; first, there is a
generic scanner working on the SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 protocol level. It is
capable of protecting any existing e-mail client that uses these
protocols. Second, there is a special plugin for MS Outlook only; it is
completely transparent, requiring no special settings.
New feature of version 4 is heuristic analysis of e-mail scanners. It is
extremely useful in protecting against new, unknown viruses and worms
that are not possible to detect by the usual means. The heuristic module
performs a thorough investigation of every e-mail message and watches
for suspicious signs that might announce virus presence. When the number
of those signs exceeds the user-defined level, the message is considered
dangerous and the user is warned.
Automatic updates
Automatic updates are another key point in virus protection. Both the
virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The
updates are incremental, i.e. only the new or missing data are
downloaded, thus reducing the transfer heavily. The typical size of a
virus database update are tens of KB, the program update usually has
hundreds of KB.
If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed
completely automatically in fixed time intervals. If you connect to the
Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to
perform the update when you are online.
Having the up-to-date virus database and antivirus program all the time
- it is the most certain way to protect your computer.
Virus Chest
The Chest can be thought of as a folder on your disk having special
properties that make it a safe, isolated place suitable for storing
certain files. You can work with the files in the Chest, even though
with some security restrictions.
The main properties of the Virus Chest are complete isolation from the
rest of the operating system (no outside process, i.e. no virus either,
may access the files inside) and the fact that the files inside the
Chest may not be run (i.e. there is no danger in storing viruses there).
System Integration
avast! antivirus features outstanding integration into your system. The
scanning can be started directly from Windows Explorer, by clicking a
folder or a file with your right mouse button and selecting the
corresponding choice from the menu.
Another interesting feature is a special screen-saver that performs
scanning for viruses during its run-time. avast! antivirus works
together with your favorite screen-saver, so you don't have to change to
anything you wouldn't like.
Another new option is the boot-time scan (Windows NT/2000/XP/.NET only).
It is important in the case that a virus is suspected to be active on
your computer. The boot-time scan is performed before the virus may get
activated, so the virus cannot influence the scanning in any way.
Main features
ANTIVIRUS KERNEL
- Almost 100% detection
- Outstanding performance
- Reasonable memory requirements
- ICSA certified
USER INTERFACE
- Memory test during the program startup
- Very intuitive Simple User Interface
- Testing whole disks or selected folders
- Working with the scan results - actions with infected files
- Virus encyclopedia
- Log Viewer
- Various appearances - skin support
- Running from Explorer context menu
- Antivirus screen-saver
UPDATES
- The system of incremental updates guarantees low traffic
- The updates can be completely automatic
RESIDENT PROTECTION
- Standard Shield protects the file system
- Generic SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 scanner
- Specific MS Outlook plugin
- Heuristic analysis in e-mail modules
REPAIRING
- Limited capability of direct repair (especially macroviruses)
- Repairing files using automatically generated Virus Recovery Database
(VRDB)
PLATFORMS
- Windows 95
- Windows 98
- Windows Me
- Windows NT 4
- Windows 2000
- Windows XP
