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To uninstall Avast Free Antivirus from Windows, follow the steps below according to your preferred method:. Avast Free Antivirus is now uninstalled from your PC. If you need to reinstall Avast Free Antivirus, refer to the following article:. Under Content , click JavaScript. Click the Add button next to Allowed to use JavaScript. Click the shield icon to the left of the address bar. If any attacker attempts to move or delete these files, the program blocks access and notifies the user.
More on this later. All of these extras are frankly a distraction from the core of the scan itself — the malware detector. Independent lab tests show that Avast has a highly-rated antivirus engine, demonstrating advanced features and flagging zero false positives.
Few antivirus engines scored higher. In addition, testing-under real-world conditions shows that Avast is efficient at detecting and mitigating the vectors — such as drive-by-downloads and code injection attacks — by which malware propagates. To summarize, Avast will detect most forms of advanced malware, and prevent most of them from even installing on your computer.
If any malware gets by, an automatic scan will usually detect and destroy the infection within a day. When malware attempts to execute on a computer, Avast springs into action. It will detect most known malware samples immediately, then quarantine and delete them. If Avast detects an unknown file that acts suspiciously, Avast kills the process and analyzes the malware sample at its corporate headquarters. If you suspect that Avast has missed a file, you can right-click on any file in your Windows Explorer panel and select the file or folder for individual scanning.
It detects most sites that attempt to distribute malware before they start downloading onto your computer. Phishing sites — sites that attempt to duplicate banking login screens and social media — are far more common than malware sites, as well as being a bit simpler to produce. Although this is a paid feature, Avast has the ability to protect users from phishing sites with surprising efficiency.
Outside of the core antivirus function, Avast offers a host of features in both its free and paid versions that are designed to keep your data secure. These features range from the expected to the exotic, with many of the paid features being perhaps more useful to power users. First of all, Avast offers a series of advanced security scans. Full Virus Scan is both slower and more thorough than the primary smart scan.
Although it takes quite a bit longer — up to a couple of hours on a slower machine — it has a better chance of detecting and resolving threats. A Boot Time Scan restarts your computer and watches for suspicious programs that try to execute while the computer is running, and then stops them in their tracks.
Lastly, Avast offers a full-featured WiFi scanner designed to protect you at your home and on the go. When I ran it, it discovered every device connected to my WiFi in under a minute — my desktop, laptop, console, cellphone, and kitchen speaker. If my devices were unsecured, it would have pointed out vulnerabilities such as ports exposed to the internet, default passwords, and other weaknesses. Meanwhile, CCleaner is free. Want to get rid of particularly sensitive materials? Avast offers a secure erase function that can delete a file by writing over it many times, removing all trace of it from your computer.
To summarize, Avast has won me over with its free version, but it has lost its balance when it comes to paid and premium pricing. This is an area where Avast frustrated me.
What irks me, however, is the liberal use of dark-pattern UI in order to get me to pay up. With that said, Avast goes a long way towards burying its goodwill by offering other confusing and intrusive upsells buried in its software. When you click on SecureLine VPN, for example, a separate program installs itself on your computer, and then asks you for money. Avast takes you all the way into installing a new program on your computer, and then asks you for money.
The most egregious example happened with the password manager, which is free but not great. Imagine my surprise when Avast started to import my passwords anyway! Although I was able to cancel the transfer, Avast also installed their proprietary secure browser on my machine — again without my permission. This is a bit worrying. Avast offers premium support services for its antivirus product at every pricing tier. These walk inexperienced users through the operation of the product and allow them to do some basic troubleshooting on their own.
The tech support specialists are able to provide detailed and helpful information within a short amount of time. This information should be helpful for both inexperienced users and power users alike. When compared to other antivirus programs, Avast is roughly average in terms of expense.
It includes several useful quality of life features that the free tier lacks — a Real Site option that protects against phishing sites, a Ransomware Shield to protect your files from encryption, a firewall that stops intrusion attempts, and an anti-spam feature.
Upgrading to Premier gets you the superfluous data shredder and disk cleanup features, while upgrading to Ultimate gets you the VPN and the password manager. Avast Antivirus is a mostly-great product that will absolutely keep your computer secure. Its free version offers a huge amount of security, although usability issues make it difficult to access some of its more granular features without getting besieged by pleas for an upgrade.
You can read more about our decision here. Sophie Anderson has spent the last 10 years working as a software engineer for some of the biggest tech companies in Silicon Valley. She now works as a cybersecurity consultant and tech journalist, helping everyday netizens understand how to stay safe and protected in an online world.
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The acquisition gives Avast the largest and most advanced threat detection network, based on our massive user base, and further diversifies our product portfolio, geographic base, and revenue streams.
CVC Capital Partners becomes a strategic investor. Our mobile products reach the million download milestone faster than any other mobile security tools in Google Play history. Avast's mobile family apps hits the 1,, subscriber milestone through mobile carrier partnerships. Avast Free Antivirus is the most downloaded software on Download. Summit Partners comes on board as an investor. Alwil is rebranded as Avast to match the name of our iconic software.
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