Free Software And More Stuff: avast! 4 Home Edition 4.8.1229

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)