Avira's AnitVir Personal Edition anti-virus program is one of the most popular anti-virus programs that you can get for free. It's comprehensive, easy to use, and is available for UNIX and Windows. Although free anti-virus programs are generally less reliable and effective compared with paid ones, they are still good solutions to help keep your PCs and laptops virus- and infection-free.
If you're low on budget and are looking for a free anti-virus program to keep your computer safe, Avira's AntiVir Personal Edition is one of the programs worth checking out.
Features
The AntiVir Personal Edition software scans your computer for harmful programs, applications, and files like worms, viruses, hoaxes, spyware, bots, trojans, and dialers. The software does this by monitoring all the actions executed by the user, and checking if the user has stumbled upon any malicious programs and infected files.
The AntiVir Personal Edition has a Control Center that users can easily access to monitor, administer, and control the program's functions. This central configuration makes it easier for users to choose standard and advanced options in conducting system scans, while providing context-sensitive help such as term and function definitions.
The program's On-Demand Scan feature is profile-controlled and conducts customizable searches for all types of malware, viruses, and infections. Unlike other anti-virus programs, AntiVir Personal Edition is integrated into the Windows Vista User Account Control, so you are not restricted from carrying out tasks that require administrator rights.
This also means that if you place restrictions and controls on web browsing, you don't have to create another username and password to access the Internet. Avira AntiVir has an On-Access Scan feature enables continuous monitoring of all user attempts to access files. It also has an integrated quarantine management method that isolates suspicious files before they're processed and checked.
The program also has the ability to scan 30 different compressed and archived file types to detect and check for trojans and viruses. If the program finds any malware, you will be prompted and asked if the program should repair or delete the infected files found.
Installation and Setup
It's recommended that you first close all running applications before you start installing Avira AntiVir Personal Edition. Also, make sure that you don't have other anti-virus programs installed in your machine because some of AntiVir Personal's components may interfere with those of other anti-virus programs.
An Internet connection is also needed when installing Avira AntiVir Personal Edition if you want to register online as part of the installation process.
The Avira AntiVir Personal Edition also offers a customizable, user-defined installation process wherein you can choose the components you want to install or exclude. This user-defined installation allows users to choose whether or not they want to install the following components: AntiVir Personal Module, AntiVir Guard, Rootkit Detection, and Shell Extension.
Should you decide to uninstall Avira AntiVir Personal Edition, you can either go to the "Add or Remove Programs" or "Change/Remove" menus in Windows Control Panel. Avira assures users that once you've successfully uninstalled the AntiVir Personal, all files, directories, and registry entries will be deleted from your machine once you restart your computer.
User Interface
Avira's AntiVir Personal Edition program interface is easy to navigate. On the main window, you'll see the current status of the mailguard and anti-virus engines as well the details of your last virus definition update. You can easily go to the program's different sections such as mailguard, scheduler, scanner, reports, and quarantine, because they have separate tabs wherein you can alter each feature's settings.
For example, if you want to start a scan, all you have to do is click on the corresponding tab and then choose the specific location or area you want to scan.
Many user-generated reviews say that if you want to rid yourself of the hassle of manual scanning, you have to set up a scheduled scan on the main window's Scheduler tab. Avira AntiVir Personal doesn't automatically set a scanning schedule, so you'll have to set the desired time and frequency for system scans.
What it does, though, is automatically connect to the Internet once a day to download software updates that will help keep your computer protected from all types of malware.