2013 Antivirus Software Reviews

Like this page

avast Internet Security 2012 (7.0) Overall Score: 85%

by Kevin R. Smith, Co-Editor

Avast has grown from a basic, free antivirus software into a robust Internet security suite. This year's version has a good interface, interesting features, and decent virus and spyware protection.

There are a few concerns, but for the most part, avast continues to grow each year as a viable alternative to other Internet security suites out there.

avast handed in its best scores with its real-time antivirus protection, antispyware and adware blocking and worst with its virus removal abilities.

Resource usage was very good, but it came at the expense of slower than average scan times when doing either a full system manual scan or a specific folder.

Technical phone-support is available, but only for basic issues.

There are also a few useful extras in avast this year, making their Internet Security 2012 (7) an interesting program worth considering.
Avast scored well with average to high results in independent testing. For the most part, avast Internet Security 2012 did quite well with only two real concerns.

It scored well with real-time protection against viruses, trojans, and spyware, and the major testing labs saw similar results with avast:

• VB Bulletin
• AV Comparatives
• Anti-Malware Test Lab
• PC Security Labs
• AV-Test

One of our concerns is that avast had trouble removing stubborn viruses that were already present in our test PCs. Avast still received average scores in this department from the majority of labs, but we weren't thrilled with its performance here.

Another concern is avast's anti-phishing feature. When we hit several known phishing sites, avast wouldn't always trigger their web-site blocking mechanism (anti-phishing).

We'd sometimes get a warning, or a trojan block, but we'd like to see a full page block every time to avoid accidentally entering sensitive data into a malicious web page. All other anti-phishing mechanisms do this, but avast had trouble with this.

Ultimately, avast is great at blocking real-time threats attempting to invade your system but isn't the best choice for removing viruses if your PC already has an infection.
Resource usage was low to average for avast Internet Security 2012. Only 1% of CPU was used when our computers were running idle, and only 58% of memory was used.

During a manual scan, 23% of CPU was used, while only 65% of memory was used. That's fairly light compared to some of the heavier Internet security suites out there, but it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows. The light load came, in this case, at the expense of slower than average scanning times.

If you're someone who likes--or needs--to perform scans while you're using your PC, avast might be a great choice thanks to the minimal effect it has on system performance. It'll take longer to get the job done, but your PC will be usable the whole time.
The user interface (UI) for avast Internet Security 2012 is one of our favorites. It's basic enough for most users but has some advanced feature settings as well.

There's really not much needed once the software is installed since the things most people are concerned with are wisely pre-selected.

For those wanting more control over the firewall or various antivirus shields, you can drill down deeper to access options that give you more control.

Each section also has real-time charts of what's happening. At first we felt like the feature was all fluff, but it actually helped assure us that the software was running as advertised.

Overall, avast's interface is nice. It's clean. It's easy to use. And there's enough information to assure you that everything's running smoothly. We like it.
From the user interface there's a help button that launches a standard help-topics index. Within this window, you can access the main web-support options or go straight to the avast help site.

Avast's knowledgebase is extensive, easy to use, and should cover any issue you can imagine. For more help, you can also visit their user forums to ask other avast users for help.

Unfortunately, if you need professional help removing a virus, their tech support, outsourced to iYogi, can't help, as they're limited to minor issues like installation, registration, and the like.

Aside from still having controls to allow you to manually update the software anytime you'd like (something many programs have done away with), avast also intelligently downloads new updates by default.

Although they're set to download every four hours, which is a bit long for our liking, setting them to download more often is a cinch. (We like to have updates run hourly.)

We also really like that avast lists the last time definitions were downloaded and reports the download version number. This gives you huge confidence your updates are downloading and installing regularly.

Oh how we wish everyone's updates were this good, particularly companies like Trend who've taken all these controls and information out of the users' hands.
Some Internet security suites only have extra features that don't add up to much in the way of extra protection. Avast Internet Security 7, however, comes up with some clever and useful extra features worth exploring, namely Sandbox and SafeZone.

It didn't take much to convince us they were useful tools that actually helped improve overall PC safety.

Both the basic version of avast and the high end Internet Security suite include "Sandbox," a great feature which gives you a virtual "area" where you can run suspicious files or programs in a safe, isolated environment.

Anytime you're unsure if a program you've downloaded is safe to run, you can run it in Sandbox first and find out.

This is a similar system to what many antivirus companies themselves use in testing new malware samples; it's great to see it making its way into an Internet security suite where average consumers can benefit from it, too.

SafeZone is an interesting feature similar in some ways to Sandbox and one not seen in other Internet security suites or antivirus software.

Click a button and a brand-new desktop and browser open. The difference: this desktop and browser are nothing but bare-basics. There are no browser plug-ins or add-ons that spyware typically lives in.

You use this stripped-down, isolated browser anytime you're doing online banking or shopping. Then when you close it, avast Internet Security 2012 resets it to its defaults, so each time so you have a clean, safe browser. Smart.

Avast's Internet Security 2012 stacks up well against the competition with strengths in real-time virus and spyware protection.

Unfortunately, it didn't do as well in removing viruses on systems that were already infected.

Independent testing labs all confirmed what we saw: while avast is good at blocking zero-day, real-time virus attacks but isn't as good at cleaning existing malware you may already have on your system.

We also saw avast's anti-phishing miss several known phishing sites that other software (and most browsers), were able to block.

It should be noted that avast successfully blocked trojan and keylogger attacks from these sites, but it failed to outright block the sites as it should have.

Despite this, avast's SafeZone and Sandbox features are smart, useful features that can help keep a PC virus free.

If you're sure your computer is virus-free, and you're looking for extra protection when shopping and banking online, avast Internet Security may be a great choice.