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New version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (the ones that are really spreading amongst people) and very good detection of Trojan horses, all that with only a minimum number of false alarms.

The kernel was certified by ICSA; it frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.

Simple User Interface is used to start on-demand scanning, work with the results, change various options etc. Basic resident protection settings can be modified here.

Simple User Interface is the main application of avast! 4 Home Edition. You can start additional avast! modules from here, such as the Virus Chest, Updater or Log Viewer.

The appearance of Simple User Interface is very flexible. It supports so called skins, i.e. changeable appearances, so there are many possibilities the interface can look like. The main package contains three skins, additional ones can be downloaded from our web pages. Enhanced User Interface (Professional version only)

In addition to the Simple User Interface, the Professional Edition presents the Enhanced User Interface, giving you all the features and possibilities for extensive scanning.

Unlike the Simple User Interface, the scanning is performed by so called "tasks". First, you define a task, including various parameters - areas to scan, what to scan, how to scan, etc. Having the task, you can (possibly repeatedly) run it. Each task generates a list of results; you can work with them later.

Another important feature, closely connected with tasks, is the Scheduler. It gives you the ability to schedule the tasks running, either one-time or periodically.

Of course, it is possible to set all the existing options of scanning (task), not available in the Simple User Interface.


Resident protection, i.e. the real-time protection of the computer, is one of the most important parts of an antivirus program today. avast! features a powerful resident module that is able to detect the virus before it has any chance to infect your computer.

avast! Home Edition contains resident protection of the computer file system and resident module for e-mails.

The file system protection ensures that no virus will be started on the computer. It offers a wide range of settings - e.g. it is possible to specify that files will be scanned during copying, or that the scanning will include files with given set of extensions only.

E-mail protection consists of two independent modules; first, there is a generic scanner working on the SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 protocol level. It is capable of protecting any existing e-mail client that uses these protocols. Second, there is a special plugin for MS Outlook only; it is completely transparent, requiring no special settings.

New feature of version 4 is heuristic analysis of e-mail scanners. It is extremely useful in protecting against new, unknown viruses and worms that are not possible to detect by the usual means. The heuristic module performs a thorough investigation of every e-mail message and watches for suspicious signs that might announce virus presence. When the number of those signs exceeds the user-defined level, the message is considered dangerous and the user is warned.


The resident protection of the Professional Edition includes an additional module, not contained in the Home Edition - Script Blocker. This module watches all the scripts being executed in the operating system (so called WSH scripts - Windows Scripting Host). It also scans all the scripts run as a part of a web page within your web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator and Mozilla).


Automatic updates are another key point in virus protection. Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically. The updates are incremental, i.e. only the new or missing data are downloaded, thus reducing the transfer heavily. The typical size of a virus database update are tens of KB, the program update usually has hundreds of KB.

If your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically in fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online. PUSH updates (Professional Edition only)

A special feature of the Professional Edition are PUSH updates. It is a dramatic change in the philosophy of updates. Usually, every installed program checks every now and then whether a new version is available. PUSH updates, however, are initialized by our server; they result in your computer quickly responding and performing the necessary update. The system is based on the SMTP protocol, i.e. on usual e-mail messages. The updates itself are controlled by the avast! resident e-mail providers (MS Outlook and Internet Mail).

The whole system if protected by asymmetric ciphers and is resistant to unauthorized misuse.


The Chest can be thought of as a folder on your disk having special properties that make it a safe, isolated place suitable for storing certain files. You can work with the files in the Chest, even though with some security restrictions.

The main properties of the Virus Chest are complete isolation from the rest of the operating system (no outside process, i.e. no virus either, may access the files inside) and the fact that the files inside the Chest may not be run (i.e. there is no danger in storing viruses there).


avast! antivirus features outstanding integration into your system. The scanning can be started directly from Windows Explorer, by clicking a folder or a file with your right mouse button and selecting the corresponding choice from the menu.

Another interesting feature is a special screen-saver that performs scanning for viruses during its run-time. avast! antivirus works together with your favorite screen-saver, so you don't have to change to anything you wouldn't like.

Another new option is the boot-time scan (Windows NT/2000/XP/.NET only). It is important in the case that a virus is suspected to be active on your computer. The boot-time scan is performed before the virus may get activated, so the virus cannot influence the scanning in any way.


Experienced users may like another Professional Edition feature - command-line scanner. The scanning can be controlled by many arguments and switches; to use as a pipe filter, a special STDIN/STDOUT mode is available.

The module is intended to be used in BATCH programs. Its output is the same as the output from the Enhanced User Interface tasks (including the report files).


avast4 Professional Edition

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The antivirus kernel of avast! for Linux/Unix is completely identical to the Windows version; it means that all the top features present in the Windows avast! kernel apply for the Linux/Unix version as well.

New version of avast! antivirus kernel features excellent detection capabilities, combined with high performance (data throughput). You can expect 100% detection of ITW viruses/worms (In-The-Wild, i.e. the really spreading ones) and a very good detection of Trojan horses, all that with a minimum number of false alarms.

The kernel was certified by ICSA; it frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, yielding the VB100% award multiple times.

Similarly to avast! for Windows, avast! for Linux/Unix also supports the scanning of archives (compressed files). The list of supported archives is similar as well (only the CAB - Windows specific format - is missing, as well as NTFS streams that are irrelevant for Linux/Unix). For example, the supported archives include TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, ZOO, ZIP, RAR, ARJ, ARC, LHA/LHZ and all MIME forms.


The main component of avast! for Linux/Unix is the basic on-demand scanner, implemented as a command line tool. It can scan files in given directories, both of local and remote disks. It works correctly even on Samba shares.

The program is very flexible and offers a number of parameters. It can create detailed report files that might be useful for later analysis. The scanner can work in a special STDIN/STDOUT mode; in this case, it behaves as a filter; you can use it e.g. in various shell scripts, in combination with pipes/redirection. Resident scanner
The resident module (called "avastguard") scans files both on their opening (i.e. before the application requesting the opening gets the access) and on their closing (i.e. when the changes are committed to disk). It is important in the server environment with remote users storing many files to the disk. Of course, it all works with Samba shares, so it can be used for Linux/Unix servers working as a file server for a network of Windows clients.

When a virus is found, the access to the corresponding file is blocked. This way is it assured that noone gets infected. An automatic action can be set - e.g. deleting of moving the file.

The resident module of avast! for Linux/Unix uses the kernel module called Dazuko (http://dazuko.org). It is a GPL-licensed module, i.e. available including the source code. The administrators thus do not have to worry about bringing closed-source code to their kernel. Currently, the module requires Linux kernels 2.2.x or 2.4.x.


The avast! for Linux/Unix package includes a special module (called "avastrelay") that makes it possible to connect avast! for Linux/Unix to the most common mail servers - Sendmail, Postfix and Qmail to name a few. It works as a standalone SMTP relay and features a number of customizable parameters that let you deploy it in a wide variety of environments. For example, you can decide where to insert the relay module in your data stream -- whether before or after your real SMTP server.


An important point in evert antivirus are efficient updates, both of the virus database and of the program itself. avast! for Linux/Unix features a script that lets you easily update the virus database at any time.

If the computer has a permanent Internet connection, it is possible to set it up in such a way that the updates are completely automatic, performed in fixed time intervals. Virus action, notification sending

If a virus if found, it is important to perform some action, and notify the administrator about it. avast! for Linux/Unix makes it possible to define the actions to be performed with the infected files (e.g. disinfection, deleting, moving to a special directory, etc); it is important especially in the resident module working on a file server.

avast! can also log all incidents to the system log and send virus warnings (notifications) to the responsible persons, using the standard electronic mail - SMTP protocol


avast! 4 Linux / Unix Edition