subject: Top Features Of The Highly Popular Avira Free Antivirus 2012 [print this page] Lately, Avira has stirred quite the buzz in the online antivirus community, first by launching a faulty update and then offering another update to fix the fault. The Service Pack 0 updated the ProActiv module present in their paid antivirus suites viz. Avira Antivirus Premium 2012 and Internet Security 2012. This means free users were unaffected by the buggy update. If you are a paid user and have been unable to restore the antivirus to its correct working condition, we recommend taking Avira Support from a third-party service. Meanwhile, let us look at a few features of the free version that have made it one of the most-popular free antivirus products of all time.
Avira Free Antivirus 2012 features a two-step installation, enabling you to install the software in just two clicks. As with any other security software, Avira doesnt work well in the presence of another antivirus package, so, if you would like to use this one, we recommend you to uninstall any other existing antivirus. If you dont, Avira will automatically do this for you. Another point to keep in mind is if your computer is already infected with a virus or another malware, it might take more than a single attempt to install the product successfully. You may take help for Avira antivirus setup from an independent tech support provider if the problem persists after multiple attempts.
Once known for its cluttered interface, which made it difficult for users to find important buttons quickly, Avira has brought about a refreshing overhaul in its latest Avira Free Antivirus 2012.
One of the most important features of an antivirus is its effectiveness in detecting, removing and preventing malware threats; after all, isnt this why we have security packages in the first place? For a free antivirus, Avira does reasonably well on this front, faring better at malware blocking that at removal. Barring a few exceptions, its very good at blocking rootkit viruses, scareware and harmful downloads. The fact that it has been awarded the ADVANCED+ rating by AV-Comparatives and VB100 by Virus Bulletin, which are the highest possible ratings from these independent testing agencies, speaks for itself.
A good feature of Avira is it requests user-permission to quarantine or deal with a detected malicious program/file. This works well for an advanced user who knows the difference between a valid program/system file and a suspicious one as he/she can then direct the software to act accordingly, quarantining malware and leaving false positives unharmed.
Besides the traditional signature-based detection, Avira employs Advanced Heuristics Analysis and Detection for behavior-based blocking. Most leading AV packages employ a similar technology, giving it different names. Behavior based detection can be tricky though, as the recent buggy Avira antivirus update to its ProActiv behavioral module demonstrates.
Avira Free Antivirus 2012 has an integrated scheduler to help users schedule scans at a time of their convenience.
To round up, Avira is a trusted antivirus provider and Avira Free Antivirus 2012, a solid performer in the free software league. However, its not the best free antivirus solution out there, as it could perform better in malware detection and have a better feature set. It has aced the rating tests though, so, do not be quick to discard this software from your list of good performers. For Avira antivirus support to remove Avira package, contact a third party support service.
