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Configure avast! Free Antivirus

Last modified: 2012-05-14 14:32:47 EEST

After installing avast! Free Antivirus, you'll see avast!'s orange icon in Taskbar Notification Area (aka System Tray) and a "Welcome to avast!" message pops up. Close it. On Windows 8, you might have to restart your computer to make avast! start properly.

If you hover your mouse pointer over avast! Free Antivirus icon, you will see system status - normally this should be "avast! Antivirus: Your system is secured". This means that no action is necessary. More information about different statuses and messages is available at the end of this article.

Additional protection features, such as AutoSandbox, Browser Protection (WebRep) and Site Blocking are covered in an separate article.

Registering avast! Free Antivirus

Registering is only necessary for new users and for users with expired license. If you upgraded from avast! 4 Home Edition or avast! 5 or 6 Free Antivirus, you do not need to take action - your free license still works fine.
avast's free license works for one year, after this you can re-register for free again.

Right after installing avast! Free Antivirus, a Welcome window opens. Click Register your program to get the free license.

If you missed the Welcome window (or avast! did not start on Windows 8), right-click avast!'s icon in Taskbar Notification Area and select Registration information: and click Register Now in avast! user interface.

A promotional window will appear. As you need the free version, click the gray Select button.
Make sure your Internet connection is working!

avast! Free Antivirus Registration window opens. Since version 7, it is necessary to create an avast! Account to register for a free license. Enter your e-mail address (the working one, this will be double-checked later ) and create a new password. Make sure to create a strong password! Finally, click Continue to get free license.
In case you already have an avast! Account, click the Already have account link on the top right. Fill in your e-mail address and password and click Login to get free license.
 

Another promotional offer appears after registering. Just close the window.

Re-registering avast! Free Antivirus

avast! starts reminding you 30 days before the free license expires. A red window appears above Taskbar Notification area, stating that "Your subscription for avast! Free Antivirus is about to expire". Click the Renew now button.

Alternatively, you can right-click avast! icon in the Notification Area and click Registration information.
Then click Register now in the avast! Free Antivirus window.

Now everything goes exactly as in normal registration process described above.

Configuring avast! Free Antivirus settings

If avast! Free Antivirus is not open yet, click its orange ball-shaped icon in Taskbar Notification area, or click Open avast! user interface button (the left one) of avast! Desktop Gadget.

To configure avast!, click Settings link in the upper right corner of main window.

avast! basic settings - enhancing performance on Windows

Let's start by checking Basic settings. In case your computer is not very fast, you can uncheck the box named Animate the icon when scanning. The change takes effect only after you restart Windows.
If your computer is speedy, leave it checked and enjoy avast! eye-candy.

avast! updates - enabling automatic program updates

Click Updates tab on the left to open Update settings page.
Click Automatic update under Program section to automatically update avast! Free Antivirus program.
If you have a dial-up Internet connection, also check I only connect to the internet using a dial up modem box under Update parameters section. If you have other connection type, do not select any boxes here.
Next, click Details tab under Update Parameters section and deselect the Show notification box after automatic update check box. This disables automatic pop up messages after each virus definition update. Auto-update interval is set to 240 minutes (4 hours) by default and there is no real need to make it shorter or longer. Version 7 of avast! Free Antivirus also uses streaming updates to keep virus database up-to-date. avast! Free Antivirus also checks for updated engine and virus definitions every time you start your computer.

avast! popups - disabling or enabling the monthly security report

Later versions of avast! 6 Free Antivirus and avast! 7 Free Antivirus introduced monthly security reports that are offered via a pop-up message.
If you do not need the reports, open Popups tab and clear the Show monthly security reports box.

avast! password settings - locking down configuration

In case other users or kids tend to fool around with avast! settings or you want to enable the Site Blocking feature of avast!, you can password-protect all important configuration items as well as prevent the disabling of avast! Real-time Shields. The latter helps against malware that tries to silently disable or kill anti-virus programs.

To lock down avast! settings, click Password tab on the left. Then click the Protect avast! with a password check box and type a password into Password text box. Retype the same password into the Re-enter password text box.

Do not use your Windows password here! I strongly recommend creating a brand new password for avast! settings and storing it safely in a Password Safe password database. You can also read about creating and remembering strong passwords in my Creating strong passwords article.

By default, only Updates and General program access are available without password. This should normally be left this way, because updating virus definitions should be password-free. Those who have a very limited data plan, can actually password-protect the updates - avast! performs an automatic database update every time you start Windows - to minimize the data downloaded.
If you want other users to be able to cancel scheduled scans, clear the Scan control check box.

The next time someone tries to change settings or disable avast! services or Real-time Shields, an avast! Authorization prompt appears. The prompt will be displayed for 60 seconds and if no input appears during the time, the action will be cancelled.
Type the password into Password field and click OK to allow the action, or click Cancel to deny the action.

In case you start seeing such prompts frequently for no apparent reason, you should perform a Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware full scan to make sure there is no malware in your computer!

avast! sounds settings - turning selected or all voice notifications off

Click Sounds tab on the left. To disable avast! Free Antivirus sounds altogether, clear the Enable avast! sounds box.
Alternatively, you can clear only the Automatic Update check box in the Events section. But as long as you like avast! sound notifications, always keep the Threat detected, Suspicious item detected and Potentially unwanted program (PUP) detected boxes checked.

avast! Maintenance Settings - backing up or restoring settings

avast! Free Antivirus 7 introduced settings backups. This is good for enforcing same settings across several computers or restoring custom settings after re-installation.

To create a backup, click Maintenance tab on the left and then click Back up settings.

In the avast! Back Up Settings window, leave all items checked and click Continue.

The backup will be saved to your Documents folder by default. Click Save.

A success dialog opens. Click OK.

To import or restore settings later, click the Restore settings button in Settings Backup section.

Locate and click the settings backup file. Then click Open.

Ensure all items are checked and click Continue.

A success dialog appears. Click OK and be aware that some settings take effect only after you restart your computer.

Close avast! Settings window by clicking OK button in the lower right corner.

Automating and customizing avast! Free Antivirus scans

There are several predefined scans available in avast! Free Antivirus, but it is best to create and schedule your own ones - daily and monthly scans. Leave the default scans alone and use these as on-demand checks.

To create your own custom scan, open Scan Computer tab and then click Scan Now tab. Click Create Custom Scan on the bottom of the list.

Adding and scheduling a quick daily scan

avast! Scan Settings window opens. Let's create a quick daily scan first. Under Scan Parameters, type Scan Name. You can add your own Comment, but this is not mandatory.
By default, a custom scan is configured to scan all hard disks. Under Scan areas section, click the All harddisks item and select Memory from the list. Now click (select additional areas) below and select Rootkits (quick scan) from the list. This adds one row to Scan Areas section and creates the next (select additional areas) item under it. Finally, select Auto-start programs (all users) from this newly added third row.
If you accidentally add more rows, click Delete button on the right to delete the selected row.

Open Actions tab from the left. Enable the Automatically apply actions during scan option and select Repair, Move to Chest and Delete for actions to be performed if a virus has been detected.
Then select the Try to remove only the packed file; if it fails, remove the whole containing archive option from the Processing of infected archives section.

Open Scheduling tab from the left. Check the Schedule this scan box and select Daily from Schedule Type. Finally, set a start time for the scan in Launch time boxes. Please note that this has to be in 24-hour format, not AM/PM format - so 11 PM is really 23.
Click OK to schedule the scan.

Creating and scheduling a monthly full scan

Back in Scan now tab click Create Custom Scan button again. We will create a monthly full scan now.
Type Scan Name and select All harddisks and Rootkits (full scan) under Scan Areas. Under File Types, click Scan all files.

Open Sensitivity tab and enable the Scan for potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) option.

Move to Packers tab and check All packers.

Click Actions tab and check the Automatically apply actions during scan box.
In Virus tab, select three actions from Select action to be performed when a virus is found section - Repair, Move to Chest and Delete. In PUP tab, set the action to Move to Chest. Leave Suspicious tab setting as it is.
Then activate the Try to remove only the packed file; if it fails, remove the containing archive option under Processing of infected archives.

Move to Scheduling tab and enable the Schedule this scan box. Select Monthly from Schedule Type box. Set the start time in 24-hour format in Launch time fields and type day of the month the scan should be performed in Launch day field.
Finally, click OK to add the scan to custom scans.

Checking scan logs in avast! Free Antivirus

If you want to see logs for virus scans already performed, open Scan Computer tab and click Scan Logs tab.
Find a log that has "virus found" in Results column (the others are not interesting, right?), click on it once and then click the View results button. This will open the log in Notepad and you can see which files were infected and which actions were taken.
Do not worry about log files consuming too much disk space - avast! Free Antivirus deletes logs older than 30 days automatically. Or if you are worried, select the logs you do not need and click Delete log button.

Configuring avast! Real-time Shields to remove archives containing malicious items automatically

While most default settings for avast! Free Antivirus Real-time Shields are fine, there is one very specific setting that should be changed - avast! is sometimes unable to remove malicious files in some archive types (aka compressed files, compressed folders) and therefore you might get unnecessary warnings about this. Let's be straightforward - if an archive contains some malware that can't be removed, you should not unpack/uncompress it anyway, so let avast! remove the file in the first place.

In avast! user interface (main window), click Real-Time Shields on the left. File System Shield tab will open automatically.
This will display the shield's current status and statistics graph. Click Expert Settings on the right.

Next, click Actions tab on the left. In Options section, under Processing of infected archives, click to activate the Try to remove only the packed file; if it fails, remove the containing archive item.
Click OK to close File System Shield expert settings. Please do not fiddle with other settings!

Then repeat the same process with the following avast! Real-Time Shields:

• Mail Shield
• P2P Shield
• IM Shield

Troubleshooting mail issues after installing avast! Free Antivirus

If after installing avast! Free Antivirus your e-mail program (Windows Live Mail, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) is suddenly unable to connect to your mail server, open Real-time Shields tab in the left part of avast! main window. Click Mail Shield. Look right and click Expert Settings button.

By default, avast! Free Antivirus checks mail account settings from your e-mail program and turns on virus and malware protection for the specified services. It also warns about any e-mail accounts that use encryption - as all mail traffic between your computer and e-mail server is protected, avast! cannot scan e-mails. In such case, avast! ask to turn off encryption in your e-mail program and tries to do the encryption part itself. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes not - kind of rough ride.

To turn SSL off for the account that does not support it, open SSL Accounts tab, find the mail account that is not working anymore and set Encryption to None.
If you want to turn off avast! warnings about encrypted e-mail accounts, uncheck the Automatically detect and warn about unprotected SSL connections box. Please remember that avast! is now unable to scan encrypted e-mails and you have to rely on other avast! protection methods. But yes, sometimes it's the only way connections work...

Click OK to close avast! Mail Shield Settings window. Your mail account should now work again.

And here's an example of avast! finding an SSL e-mail account. Click OK if you see this dialog.

Managing avast! Virus Chest

As avast! typically moves infected files to a special folder called Virus Chest, this folder might start using considerable amount of disk space in the longer run. It is best to open Virus Chest once a month and remove items from there. You can also restore items from Virus Chest to their original locations in rare occasions when avast! sounds false alarm.

Open Maintenance tab and then open Virus Chest tab. You will now see all items in Virus Chest.
Select the files you want to remove from Virus Chest by holding down CTRL key on your keyboard and clicking each item with mouse. After you've done selecting, release CTRL key.
If you want to select all items, click the first one in the list, hold down SHIFT key and then click the last item. Release SHIFT key.
To delete the selected items, right-click one of them and select Delete.

avast! will confirm the deletion. Click Yes.

Using avast! Free Antivirus silent/gaming mode

Silent/gaming mode is mainly meant for gamers, frequent movie viewers and people giving a presentation. If you are playing a full-screen game, an avast! Free Antivirus pop-up message would interrupt the game and display the pop up message. This might hide the game window or even crash the game. You do not want that, do you?

By default, silent mode is activated for every full-screen application, but to be really sure that nothing disturbs you during gaming or watching a movie, right-click the avast! Free Antivirus icon in Taskbar Notification area and click Silent/gaming mode. If there is a check mark before the item, the mode is already activated.

Always remember to turn the silent/gaming mode off after you finish playing a game or watching a movie!

avast! Desktop Gadget in Windows Vista and Windows 7

For Windows Vista and 7 users, avast! Free Antivirus adds a Desktop Gadget with status report and buttons for opening avast! main window, updating databases and following avast! at Twitter, Facebook and blog.
The gadget is especially useful for Windows 7 users, because avast! icon in Taskbar Notification Area tends to be hidden and users might not notice if avast! status changes from secured to something else.
In Windows Vista, the Gadget is always fixed to one size, Windows 7 users can rotate it vertically and horizontally.

The button on the left opens avast! user interface, or main window with current status. The second button from the left allows manual updating of avast! engine and virus definitions. Do not get this wrong - avast! Free Antivirus updates both its engine and virus definitions automatically every four hours, this button is just for those who like to check for updates more frequently or need to make sure the virus definitions are up-to-date before performing a manual scan.

As with any Desktop Gadget in Windows Vista and 7, you can easily hide or show avast! gadget.

avast! Free Antivirus messages

On some slower machines avast! services start slowly and a yellow exclamation mark is displayed on avast! Free Antivirus Notification area icon. This usually means that one of the avast!'s services (aka Real-Time Shields) is not running. The status is then "avast! Antivirus: Attention, your system is not fully protected". Also, the avast! Desktop Gadget in Windows Vista or Windows 7 will change its status to yellow exclamation mark.
Wait for a minute or two and the status will usually change to "Your system is secured" automatically.
If the status will not change back to normal after a few minutes, either click the avast! icon and then click Fix Now button in avast! main window, or click the exclamation mark in Desktop Gadget. This will force all avast! Antivirus services/shields to start.

If avast! Free Antivirus is completely turned off or it is unable to remove a threat automatically, a red X mark will be displayed in the lower left corner of Notification area icon and system status reads "avast! Antivirus: WARNING, your system is UNSECURED". The Desktop Gadget in Windows Vista and 7 will also change its status to red X mark.
In such case, either click the icon immediately to open avast! Free Antivirus window and see what's causing the problem, or click the red X mark in Desktop Gadget.

In avast! main window, click the red Fix Now button in the Unsecured message. This should help at most times. As you can see from the picture, avast! Real-time shields have been turned off and that was the cause of the problem.

If clicking the Fix now button does not help or you are unable to use it at all, I recommend reading Install Spybot Search and Destroy and Install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware articles.
Please start your computer in Safe Mode for malware removal!

If some malicious program tries to turn off avast! Free Antivirus, a warning window will appear with text "A program is attempting to shut down avast! system service, disabling the real-time shields". Always click No here. Then perform an on-demand virus scan immediately.
To prevent such problems, use password-protection of avast! settings.

If a virus has been detected in the operating memory, avast! Free Antivirus needs to schedule a boot-time scan and restart your computer to get rid of the nasty virus.
Always click Yes here! Although such boot-time scan might take several hours, it is absolutely necessary to delete viruses and malware.
And do not forget to use antimalware programs after the scanning and cleaning is complete! Read the Antimalware programs section for instructions.

During boot-time scanning you will be asked for an action if some virus or malware has been detected. Press 4 on your keyboard to move all detected items to Virus Chest.
The in-depth article about boot-time scanning and possible errors is here.

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