avast! 4 Home Edition is a free complete ICSA certified antivirus software for home noncommercial use. avast! obtained VB100% awards in 2002/4 Virus Bulletin comparative reviews under Windows.

avast! Home Edition includes the following components:

• On Demand Scanner - with Skinnable Simple Interface - just select what do you want to scan in which way and press the Play button.
• On Access Scanner - resident scanning of all files being opened, read and written and behavior blocker monitoring dangerous actions of viruses.
• E-mail scanner easily integrates with most mail clients and it checks both incoming and outgoing mails, it provides heuristic analysis of mail content to protect against new Worms.
• Network Shield - scans traffic for malicious content - lightweight Firewall.
• Resident protection for IM programs (e.g. MSN Messenger, ICQ) and P2P programs (e.g. Kazaa, DirectConnect).
• Boot Time Scanner - scans disks in the same way and in the same time as Windows CHKDSK does (on NT/2000/XP only).
• Explorer Scanner - right click on the object allows you to scan it.
• Screen Saver Scanner - scans PC during your coffee breaks.
• Virus Chest - safety isolated folder to store infected, suspicious and even some system files - to restore them.

True incremental updates of size under 100 KB are available at least twice a week and within couple of hours in the case of emergency of new virus. avast! automatically checks for new updates - downloads, installs and loads them without restart or logoff. Program upgrades are available time to time, they are incremental too (about 300 KB).

avast! 4 Home is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japaneese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and other languages - check http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html to download avast! in your language.

You will download a 60 days fully functional demo. You will obtain the FREE license key by E-mail after the registration at http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php?lang=ENG.

What's New in version 4.8.1227:

• improvements in some unpackers (WinExec, SFX CAB, LHARC, ZOO)
• check for critical system files is now performed even in the on-access scanner (as a prevention of false positives)
• command line scanner (ashCmd.exe): fixed displaying of directory count
• Windows Vista: during a scan of system drive, duplicate entries are now handled correctly (symlinks)
• Explorer extension process (ashQuick.exe) now ends immediately after aborting a scan
• fixed a bug in SMTP alerts (adding of random characters to the address)
• verification of digital signatures now fixed even for the on-access scanner (Windows Vista and Windows XP x64)
• fixed the setting to disable checking of infected files during on-demand scans
• Enhanced UI: it is no longer possible to delete a default task by using the Delete key
• solved a synchronization problem that could potentially lead even to a hang of an avast component (e.g. the Outlook plugin)
• Windows Vista SP1: solved an issue in the kernel driver aswSP.sys (problems during system shutdown)
• added a workaround to a compatibility problem with NComputing NCT
• Standard Shield: improved handling of exceptions
• improvements in the rootkit submission system
• mail scanner: fixes in IMAP handler (Thunderbird)