Nowadays, the sheer number of malicious programs and software exploits has made it so that no computer is ever considered Internet worthy without an antivirus program. This is further complicated by the fact that antivirus softwares tend to be either expensive or not effective. Luckily, there is Avast 4 Home Edition, an antivirus that is as effective as the most expensive PC security suites, yet available for download free of charge.

There are lot of free antivirus programs on the net but only few does the job that is needed to prevent viris and clean it once it gets infected. Avast 4 Home Edition has a lot of features that a user hopes needs to have in his anti-virus software. There are a lot of things that has been included in this software and Avast is intelligent enough to know where it should check, such as the overlooked places where viruses and other malicious files can possibly enter. These places include the following:

-Web traffic;

-Mail;

-Peer-to-peer programs; and

-Instant Messengers.

Avast 4 Home Edition is very easy to configure which is especially beneficial for novice users or people who have no prior knowledge of how to set up antivirus programs. It also includes an Outlook Express archive unpacker which scans email attachments from Outlook Express, perfect for helping you weed out harmful attachments from real attachments that came from friends and family. This also gives you a much needed sense of security as you feel free to open any attachments without worrying if the person who sent the mail to you is infected.

The main features included in Avast 4 Home Edition are:

1.Real-time protection:

2.On-Demand Scanner:

3.Web Shield: this monitors the incoming traffic from the Internet.

4.Email real-time protection: It monitors the incoming and outgoing emails from any SMTP, IMAP4 and POP3 email client.

5.Peer-to-peer programs: Checks the files being downloaded from Kazaa and BitTorrent. Also files from IM messengers specifically ICQ and Miranda are checked together with NNTP newsgroups.

6.Automatic Updates: Like other free antivirus software, this application checks for necessary updates. The updates are needed to make the application more robust when it comes to dealing with viruses and other malicious files.

7.Log viewer: The user will be able to review the threats that were detected by the software and the action taken.

8.Virus Chest: This is where the viruses and other malicious files are placed or quarantined when it is not removed or cleaned. This prevents further infection and also allows avast to collect more information about the thread, making other PCs safer in the future against the threat in question.

9.Boot Time Scanner: The application scans the disks at the same time Windows does CHKDSK.

10.Antivirus Screensaver, which allows Avast to run and scan your system everytime you let your computer idle.