These are by far the most annoying issues in Avast. These deceptive methods to trick the user into buying a product, is what we refer to scareware tactics, something which is often used by rogue antivirus programs. In case you missed it earlier, the Webcam shield test is one of the premium features. Hey, that's a cool trick Avast, asking permission to use the webcam and telling me its vulnerable. It asked me to allow the program to access the camera and after I did, it told me this is what a hacker can see. Once, I got a pop-up from Avast Free Antivirus telling me that my webcam could be at risk. A "Start your free trial" pop-up also appears, giving you an option to try the premium features for free. It shows some information such as your IP address and your location, and recommends using Avast's VPN to protect your personal information. But clicking that displays a pop-up with privacy risks.
The method is used by scareware applications to get users to pay for software to fix issues but it is not as bad as those as Avast does not display fake or useless findings to get users to pay for an upgrade. You are asked to buy a commercial version of Avast software to fix these issues on your device.
I did not notice any major impact on the system resources even during scans.ĭespite the browser extension being disabled, Avast instantly detected and blocked malicious web pages which I visited on purpose. I ran scans when using the computer, and I'm happy to say that the scans were mostly fast. The color scheme and the large icons are perhaps what gives it a '"heavy look". I didn't have any trouble locating specific features. The antivirus' interface is bloated for sure but still manages to be user friendly. There is a Do Not Disturb Mode which some may find useful but I prefer to be alerted when something is blocked.Īvast Free Antivirus - An overview of its pros and cons The Pros You know what that means: stay away from it.
The website of the product highlights a 7-day free trial but there are only paid options available. Unless I'm mistaken, SecureLine VPN does not support a free tier.
Of these, only SecureLine VPN can be used for free and it installs the company's VPN client. Privacy and Performanceīoth these tabs are completely unnecessary for the program to work. This is where the good stuff basically ends. You can delete detected items or exclude them from being flagged again.
This is the quarantine in Avast Free Antivirus. Use the Avast Free Antivirus settings menu to customize how the shields work.
The custom scan has 2 predefined options: a quick scan and smart scan.
You can run a full virus scan, a targeted scan (only scans selected folders/drives), boot time scan and custom scans.