Avast Antivirus Review 2022: Does it Protect Your Computer?

UPDATE – Avast’s browser extension was removed from Google and Mozilla’s stores by a scandal. Avast, which also owns AVG (and Google), was allegedly selling user browsing data to corporations for millions. These unethical practices are why we cannot recommend them on this site. Learn more about the controversy, and our decision here. Here’s a list with the 10 best antiviruses in 2022 that we recommend.

Original review: How secure are you? Avast appears to think that you want all the security bells & whistles possible, but the paid tiers offer far too much for the price. Avast’s free tier has a great antivirus engine. You’ll love Avast and its speed in detecting and removing dangerous programs. But don’t let its constant pleas for upgrades get you dqown.

Security

Avast went beyond the call of duty when creating the free version for their antivirus product. Even the basic antivirus scan is more functional than most. It goes beyond just scanning for malware and viruses. It also looks for malicious browser addons, outdated software, network issues and unprotected documents.

Although my first scan did not detect malware, network issues or bad extensions, it did discover vulnerable software, documents that were not protected and weak passwords. It’s not surprising that my computer has vulnerable software. I have many software programs and it can be difficult to keep them all updated. But these two items gave me some pause. How do they identify unprotected sensitive files that Avast considers? How do they verify the strength of my passwords, too?

It turns out that sensitive documents scanning is very effective. It discovered tax records, employment documents and financial statements. I don’t even know where it stored them. only found two false positives. Avast divided these documents into different categories, such as payroll, taxes, employment, and travel (documents like driver’s licenses or passports). Avast also provides an easy button at the right of every entry that displays the exact location of any document it finds.

Avast appears to be using a technology called Data loss Prevention (DLP) according to the marketing copy. This tool is normally used by large companies that store customer information such as credit cards and social security numbers. Companies can scan text documents to perform optical character recognition (OCR), on PDFs, in order detect strings of numbers similar to sensitive data. This allows the company to identify where sensitive data is located and can take steps to make sure that it doesn’t get deleted or moved.

Knowing the exact location of sensitive data is extremely useful. It is also interesting to see DLP technology change from a corporate context to one that is consumer-oriented. However, there isn’t much you can do with this information unless you subscribe. After you subscribe, you have the option to encrypt and store your data in a digital locker. The program will notify the user if an attacker attempts to delete or move these files.

Avast’s weak password scanner is a bit disappointing. I expected the service to inform me that one of my passwords was “123cat”, or some other simple password using some futuristic hash-scanning algorithm. It just said that my passwords were stored in my browser, which is normal, and that it was potentially insecure. I should upgrade to Avast Passwords to get Avast Passwords’ password management service. Although this may be helpful, it is not worth paying for a yearly subscription to Avast Passwords when there are better password managers available elsewhere. (Learn more about this later.)

Does the Antivirus Engine Make the Grade?

These extras can be distracting from the main scan, which is the malware detector. Independent lab tests have shown that Avast is a highly-rated antivirus software, with advanced features and zero false positives. Few other antivirus engines have scored as high. Avast also scored higher in real-world testing. An automatic scan will typically detect any malware and eliminate it within one day.

Avast is activated when malware attempts to execute on a system. Avast will immediately detect all known malware samples and quarantine or delete them. Avast will kill any suspicious files and send the malware samples to its corporate headquarters. You can click on any file in Windows Explorer to select it for individual scanning.

Avast is also very adept at preventing malware from getting onto your computer. It can detect most websites that try to distribute malware and stop them from downloading onto your computer. Avast will stop the malware sites from downloading during the download stage. It will only miss a few files and will then be detected by Avast’s active protection.

Phishing websites, which attempt to replicate banking login screens or social media accounts, are more common than malware sites and easier to create. These sites are more dangerous than sites that contain malware. It is therefore far more important to protect users against them. Avast’s phishing protection is a paid service, but it works with remarkable efficiency. They can not only block sites that have been blacklisted, but they can also identify phishing websites that are too recent to be identified by security researchers.

Avast’s free version is among the most secure I have ever seen. It would be easy to assume that the designers would have made it more important by turning off some features. The paid features it offers, such as a password locker and encryption for sensitive files, don’t add anything to the package.

Features

Avast provides a variety of features, both in its paid and free versions. These features are intended to protect your data. These features are diverse, from the common to the unusual to the more exotic. Many of the paid features may be more useful for power users. Here’s the scoop:

Free Features are Critical to Online Security and Quality of Life

Avast provides advanced security scans. This is different from the “Smart Scan”, which you can see on the main menu. You’ll find a range of options when you click on “protection”, including “Full Virus Scan and “Boot-Time Scan.”

The full virus scan is slower than the primary smart scan and it’s more thorough. It takes longer, up to two hours for a slower computer, but it is more likely to detect and resolve threats. To eliminate any remaining threats, you will likely need to run a Full Virus Scans if you suspect your computer has been infected with malware before installing Avast.

A Boot Time Scan is also recommended. Advanced malware can persist on your computer even after they are deleted. These viruses are not part of the primary OS. They can be deleted and reinstalled from files outside of the OS. The Boot Time Scan will restart your computer to look for suspicious programs and stop them from running.

Avast also offers a fully-featured WiFi scanner that protects you both at home and on the move. It found every device that was connected to my WiFi network in less than a minute . This included my desktop, laptop console, cellphone, console, and kitchen speaker. It would have detected vulnerabilities, such as default passwords and ports that were exposed to the internet on my devices if they were unsecure.

Paid Features Don’t Add Enough Value

Avast offers very little beyond these advanced virus scanning capabilities. However, it is not clear that you would need more. A utility, which is supposed to clean your hard drive, is available but costs money. CCleaner, however, is completely free. You can get rid of sensitive files. Avast has a secure erase feature that allows you to delete files by writing it over many times and removing any trace of them from your computer. Although the system works as advertised it is difficult to identify who uses it except security researchers. You can purchase a VPN add-on, but there are other standalone VPNs that offer similar features for less.

Avast’s free version has won me over, but its premium and paid pricing has done a disservice to me. These features won’t make your life easier than the free version, but you can duplicate most of them with third-party software that is free or less expensive.

Ease of use

This is where Avast disappointed me. I know that as an antivirus company, you have to make money from your paid users. Avast has every opportunity to make me upsell. I should really not mind this. It is the use of dark-pattern user interfaces to persuade me to pay more that bothers me.

Here’s a brief example of dark-pattern UI.

Avast starts up with a splash screen that has a big “scannow” button at the center and a white box containing a welcome gift.

This “gift” is actually a substantial discount on a subscription. What happens if you don’t want to subscribe? The screenshot below shows that there is no “back” button. Only a “buy now”. To exit the upsell screen, you must click the red X at the top right corner. This is counterintuitive for most users who believe that clicking that button closes the program.

You will receive a pop-up offering a free trial when you hit the X.

This isn’t a major disappointment. Again, the service must make money. If that were the only example, I wouldn’t mind. Avast does a lot to bury its goodwill with confusing and intrusive upsells hidden in its software.

Another example. Avast’s privacy menu shows you which options are locked with an orange lock and which are not. It would make sense to expect that unlocking locked features would cost you money and unlocked features would be available for free. Unfortunately, this is not true. SecureLine VPN is an example of this. A separate program will install on your computer and ask you for money. The same thing happens if you click on Performance and select “Driver Updater”. Avast will take you through the process of installing a program on your computer and then asks for money.

The password manager is the most problematic example. It’s free, but it’s not very good. The password manager is a Chrome extension or Firefox extension that stores and secures your password. It does not suggest strong passwords or warn you about duplicate or weak passwords, which are both essential features in other products. You can’t even implement two-factor authentication.

Anyway, as I scrolled through the menus leading to the password management function I decided to decline to import passwords into Avast’s password manager. Imagine my surprise when Avast began to import my passwords! Despite being able to cancel the transfer Avast installed their proprietary secure browser on me again without my consent.

This is quite worrying. Although the antivirus engine’s functionality is fine, it can be a bit worrying for long-term users. The constant reminders to upgrade – and the confusing menu options – could become irritating.