Avast antivirus Home Edition 4.8 manual

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Table of contents for the manual

  • Page 1

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 1 avast! a ntivi rus Home Edition 4 .8 User Guid e[...]

  • Page 2

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 2 CONTENTS Introductio n ...................................................................................................................... 4 About ALW IL Softw are a.s. .............................................................................................. 4 Further help ................[...]

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    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 3 Common settings .................................................................................................... 65 Explorer extensio n .............................................................................................. 65 Appearance .................................................[...]

  • Page 4

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 4 Introduction Welcome to avast ! antivirus Home Edition version 4.8. avast! antivirus is a col lection of award winni ng, high - end technolog ies that work in perfec t syner gy , having one common goal: to protect yo ur system and valuable data against computer viruses. It represents a best - in -[...]

  • Page 5

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 5 Threats to your computer Viruses, sp yware, roo tkits and all fo rms of malicio us soft ware are colle ctivel y known as malware (short fo r malicio us softwa re); malw are is al so someti mes refe rred to as “badware” . What is a virus? A computer vir us is a pie ce of software, usually mali [...]

  • Page 6

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 6 Key features of av ast! antivirus avast! is the mult i - award winning antivi ru s product line fro m ALWIL S oftware a.s., which is ICSA Labs certif ied, and Checkmar k certified (for both antiv irus and anti - malware). avast! an tivirus regularl y receives the Virus Bull etin 100% award, for de[...]

  • Page 7

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 7 Resident protection (or “on - access” protection) Resident pr otection (the real - time protectio n of the computer system), is one of the most impo rtant fe atures of an antiv irus prog ram today . Avast! resident protection is a combinati on of several par ts or “residen t modules” that [...]

  • Page 8

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 8 Virus Ches t The Virus Chest can be though t of as a fold er on your dis k drive, havi ng special properti es that make it a safe , isolated pl ace suitable for storing pot entially har mful files. You can wo rk with the f iles in the Ch est, though w ith some secur ity rest rictions . The main pr[...]

  • Page 9

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 9 Command - line scanner (Professional Edition only) For experienced users , the Professional Edi tion feature s a comman d - line s canner. The ashCmd program uses exactly the same scanning kernel as avast! so the results are exactly the same. Scanning is carried o ut in the co mmand line us ing a [...]

  • Page 10

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 10 System requirements The hard ware co nfigu ratio ns des cribed below r epres ent the min imum recommended system specific ation f or that op erating syst em. For a computer running Windows® 9 5/98/Me: 486 Proce ssor, 32 MB RAM and 100MB of free hard disk spa ce. For a co mputer runn ing Window s[...]

  • Page 11

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 11 How to in stall avast! antivirus Hom e Edition This section d escribes how to download a nd install av ast! antiviru s Home Edi tion on your computer and how to ins tall your license key into the softw are on ce the download and installation process has been completed. The screens shown in the fo[...]

  • Page 12

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 12 If yo u want avast! a ntivirus to be installed o n your co mputer immedia tely after t he installation fil e has been downloaded , click “Run” . Once the in stallation f ile has been download ed, the fo llowing s creen wi ll then b e display ed: In other web browsers, you m ay only ha ve the [...]

  • Page 13

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 13 First you wil l b e asked to read a bout th e mini mum syst em requi remen ts and then to confir m you agr ee to th e end - user license conditions – see the next two screens below. To continu e, it is n ecessary to click on “I agr ee” then “ Next”.[...]

  • Page 14

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 14 You will th en be ask ed to c onfirm the destin ation dir ectory, i.e. whe re the pr ogram files sho uld be saved. The program will select this automat ically or wi ll create a ne w directory if it do es not alr eady ex ist. It is recomme nded to a ccept the d efault destinat ion direct ory and s[...]

  • Page 15

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 15 The prog ram will then confirm what is to be install ed and where and the amoun t of requi red and ava ilable disk space . Click “N ext” to continue . You will then b e asked whe ther you wis h to schedul e a boot - time scan – see p age 38 . The fi nal screen should confirm t hat the insta[...]

  • Page 16

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 16 Getting started When your co mputer restar ts, the follow ing screen wil l be displayed and you sh ould see a bl ue “a - ball” icon in th e bottom r ight cor ner of you r compu ter scr een: While avast! antivir us Home Edition is free for non - commercial home use, i f you wish to use it af t[...]

  • Page 17

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 17 Once you have s elected to run t he Demo version, this box wil l not appear the next ti me you run t he program. However, you can apply fo r a license k ey at any t ime – see the next pag e “How to regis ter for a License Key” After 60 days, if a license key has not been inserted, the fo ll[...]

  • Page 18

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 18 How to register f o r a License Key Within 60 days, avast! Hom e Edition users will need to register an d insert a va lid license key into the progra m. To obtain a license key, go to www.avast.com and click on “S upport” at t he top of the s creen. Then click o n “FREE avast ! Home Registr[...]

  • Page 19

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 19 Inserting the License Key Once yo u re ceive yo ur license key (s ent vi a emai l to th e addr ess s pecif ied du ring t he purchase/regist ration process ), it must then be insert ed into the progra m. This will enable the p rogram to be au tomatic ally updated and will prevent any further licen[...]

  • Page 20

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 20 Basics of usin g avast ! antiv irus avast! antiv irus provide s protection ag ainst all t ypes of malwa re and cont ains powerful “resi dent protection ”, also co mmonly referr ed to as “on - acces s” protection as it c hecks files at th e mom ent th ey ar e acce ssed. Normal ly the re si[...]

  • Page 21

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 21 The following s creen will t hen be displaye d: On this screen you can tempor arily suspend the resid ent protection by clic king “Paus e”, or “T ermin ate”. H ere, bo th optio ns hav e the sa me effe ct. How ever, t he resident pr otection will be automati cally rea ctivated next ti me y[...]

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    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 22 The resident pro tection is made up of the fol lowing mod ules or “provi ders”: Instant Messa ging checks the files download ed by instant messaging or “chat” programs such as ICQ and MSN Messenger a nd many ot hers. While instant messag es thems elves do not pose any se rious security ri[...]

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    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 23 It is poss ible to adjus t the sensit ivity of eac h module sepa rately. To set the sensitivity ind ividually for each modul e, or to pause or terminate a specif ic module, click on “Detail s…” The sc reen will th en be exp anded a s follows: In the expanded box, the i ndividual m odules ar[...]

  • Page 24

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 24 How to run a manual virus scan – the Simple Us er Interf ace When you first run the progr am, you wi ll be present ed with the image of a silver/gre y radio/CD play er which contains all of th e controls for d efining, running and pro cessing the results o f a virus scan - see below. This is th[...]

  • Page 25

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 25 Either sid e of the d isplay s creen can b e seen th ree contr ol butto ns: • Top left - this button will op en the Virus Chest . For inform ation about working with fi les in the v irus chest, se e page 48 . • Center l eft – Clicking on this bu tton will resu lt in a bar be ing display ed [...]

  • Page 26

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 26 Selecting the areas to be manually scann ed Before you start scanni ng, you have to choose which files you want to scan. • Scan local drives If you simpl y want to scan everything on your computer (all files on all hard disks), click t he butto n top right. The screen wit h the status informati[...]

  • Page 27

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 27 • Scan remov able m edia I f you want to s can the co ntent of some removable m edia, e .g. flopp y disks or CD /DVD s, click the centr e right bu tton . Clicki ng this b utton wil l change the stat us of “Scan removab le media ” from “O ff” to “On”. Two boxes will also appear to th[...]

  • Page 28

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 28 Settin g the sca n sensi tivit y and r unning t he sca n When defining t he area(s) to be scanned, yo u can also s et the sensitivi ty of the scan and whether or not the progra m will scan th e contents o f archive f iles i.e. files with filenames e nding in .zip , .rar, ace, .acj etc. To i nclud[...]

  • Page 29

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 29 Runnin g a scan a nd proc essin g the re sult After cli cking the P lay butto n, or s electing “S tart Scan Enter” in the options menu , the progr am starts to scan th e selecte d areas. T his proc ess can ta ke quite a long time, depending on th e number and size of te sted files and the spe[...]

  • Page 30

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 30 Changing the appearance of t he Simple User Interface It is possibl e to change the app earance of th e progr am by select ing a diffe rent program skin. T hree distinc t skins (app earances) ar e offered as s tandard and ot hers can be downloade d from the Internet if requi red – right cli ck [...]

  • Page 31

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 31 You can adjust the scan s ensitivity by moving the sl ider to the req uired positio n and if you want archive files to be included in t he scan, clic k “Test archiv es”. After you hav e started to r un the scan, you can conti nue to use you r computer f or other tasks by clicking on “Go to [...]

  • Page 32

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 32 What to do if a virus is found If the pro gram dete cts a sus picious file, th e scan will be interr upted at that poi nt and the follow ing scr een will b e displayed asking h ow you wa nt to deal with i t: Clicking on con tinue will m ean that no a ction is taken no w in relatio n to the ide nt[...]

  • Page 33

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 33 Option 1 : M ove the affected file to another fold er on your co mputer. At th e same time, you will h ave the oppo rtunity to rena me it. Clicking o n “Move/Rename” w ill result in th e following screen being dis played with the “Move file(s )” check box already checked. In the whi te pa[...]

  • Page 34

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 34 Option 2 : D elete th e file – clicking “Delete” wi ll result i n the following screen: Depending on w hich version o f Windows yo u are using, there are two ways in which the fi le may be del eted. • Delete f ile(s) t o recycl e bin this will move the fil e(s) to the recycle bin but will[...]

  • Page 35

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 35 Option 3 : R epa ir the file. Clicking on “Re pair” will r esult in the fol lowing screen b eing pres ented: If you click on “Repair” again , the program wi ll attemp t to restore th e affected fil e to its original state. In orde r to repa ir a file, t he program will re fer to the Virus[...]

  • Page 36

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 36 Results of last scan Once you ha ve speci f ied ho w you wan t to deal w ith th e selected file, t he scan automatically r esumes. If an y further susp icious file ar e identified, the scan sto ps again (unless the op tion “Delet e All” was sele cted during an “on - demand ” scan) and the[...]

  • Page 37

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 37 Advan ced fea tures Setting automa tic updates Any anti - virus program is on ly as good as its d atabase o f known virus defin itions, which is wh y it is importan t to regularl y upda te bot h the program and the virus database . You can se lect whethe r the progr am and the vir us database are[...]

  • Page 38

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 38 How to schedule a Boot - time s can ( 32 bit versions of W indows NT /2000/XP/ Vista only ) It is poss ible to s chedule a s can to be carri ed out auto matically when th e com puter restarts, i.e. wh en it “bo ots - up” before the actual operati ng system is active. This is useful if yo u su[...]

  • Page 39

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 39 Selecting “Mo ve infected f ile” will result in any suspi cious files being moved to the folder C:/Program Fil es Alwil Software Av ast4 DATA moved. The exte nsion “.vir” w ill also be added to th e end of the filen ame to identif y it as a suspicio us file so that you don’t run[...]

  • Page 40

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 40 Excluding files from scanning It is possible to exclude some locations, or even single files, from testing, which means they will no t be test ed for viruses during any s can. This may b e useful in severa l cas es: • To a void false ala rms . If the program repor ts a virus infection in a file[...]

  • Page 41

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 41 How to create a report of the scan results You can c reate a perman ent reco rd of th e result of each scan by cr eati ng a repo rt which you can then view lat er. To create a repo rt, first a ccess the options menu as descri bed o n page 25 and select “S ettings”. N ext click on “ Reports?[...]

  • Page 42

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 42 • Soft errors are less serious th an hard errors and usuall y relate to files th at could not be scan ned as the y were op en and bein g used by a nother applicat ion. • Skipped files are files t hat are not scanned ba sed on the scan settings. For exampl e, in a quic k scan , files are scann[...]

  • Page 43

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 43 Report i n XML form at The reports f or previous s c ans are stored in the standa rd program folder or in the custom program folder sp ecifie d when creat ing the re port – see p revious page. If you specifie d Text form at and did not check the “Ov erwrite exi sting” box, you will also be [...]

  • Page 44

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 44 Alerts avast! is able to send a w arning messag e about a v irus occurren ce. From the o ptions menu , select “Setti ngs” and then “Al erts”. Th is featu re is us eful for network administrators who will be no tified about th e presence of a virus on any comp uter in their ne twork, so th[...]

  • Page 45

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 45 address of the person to send th e alert to . It is also necessary to specify certain other setting s – see th e next section “SMTP”. • Printers . The alert wi ll be sent to th e specified pr inter. Click o n “Add” and th en “Printer”, then click “Browse” and select the p rint[...]

  • Page 46

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 46 Searching the Virus Database The virus databas e contains d etailed infor mation about all known virus es and is us ed by the progra m to identify any potenti al infections. To access the vir us databas e, open the options menu ( see p age 25 ) and click on “Virus database”. The following scr[...]

  • Page 47

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 47 Searchable virus features: • Viru s is on the “In the wild” list (IT W) The virus is on the list of viruses wide spread among users all ov er the worl d. • Worm only (W orm ) This is a spe cial type of vir us which do es not infec t files direc tly, but per forms other undesirable actions[...]

  • Page 48

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 48 Worki ng with files in the Virus Chest The Virus Chest can be access ed directly fro m the opt ions menu . As a r esult of its unique properti es, the virus chest is effe ctively a “quarantine” area, which can therefore be used for t he following purposes: • Storing v iruses. If avast! fin [...]

  • Page 49

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 49 Right clickin g on any fil e will produ ce the follow ing options . Alternatively left click a file to highligh t it, the n either click on the corr esponding i con at the top of the screen or click “File ” and select the require d option (N ote: If you dou ble - cli ck a file , you will not [...]

  • Page 50

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 50 The Log Viewer After any scan, avast! antivi rus creates s everal log fil es where in formation ab out any errors or suspicious fil es is stored. Informat ion about in stallations and updates of the program a nd the vi rus datab ase can also be fo und there . To view these lo gs, just selec t “[...]

  • Page 51

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 51 Then click “Find Nex t”. The first record will be disp layed. Any other records that match the entered name can be fo und by pressing cli cking “Find Next”, until no more records can be found. . Filter the lis t of records. This is used to narrow down a long list of records to a shorter l[...]

  • Page 52

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 52 Resident P rotection settin gs 1. Instant Messa ging Programs Here you can sp ecify for whi ch IM progr ams the files sho uld be sca nned. If you are using Wind ows 95/98/ME and you wish to protect t he Trillian program, you need to enter th e path to i ts configura tion file, talk.i ni (you can [...]

  • Page 53

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 53 those you reall y use for e - mail tra ffic. Otherwise, unexpected pr oblems might occur. Advanced • Show detailed info on performed action. If this box is checked, information about the fil es curre ntly being tes ted will be d isplay ed in the b ottom r ight co rner of the scr een. • Silent[...]

  • Page 54

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 54 attachme nt extensi on correspo nds to the actu al file type e .g. whethe r the file "Pamela.jp g" is a picture , as you might e xpect, or a re named COM file • Check whitespace s sequence. Some viruses add a number of spaces (or other no n - displ ayable , "white " charac t[...]

  • Page 55

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 55 By clicking “ Customize” you can select whi ch of the abo ve component s of the heuristic analysis yo u want to be us ed. You can additiona lly select a “Subject struc ture check”. If this is s elected, e - mail subj ect headers w ill be checked fo r large nu mbers of nonsensi cal charact[...]

  • Page 56

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 56 • Absolute count. This is the total maximu m number of me ssage reci pients, i.e. t he addresses in the fields To, Carbon Copy (CC) and Blind Carbon Copy ( BCC ), set to 10 by d efault, whi ch if exceeded , will result in a warning being displayed. 3. Network Shield The Network Shield protects [...]

  • Page 57

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 57 Outbound mail Here you can sp ecify wheth er a note sho uld be inser ted into clean messages, and th e for mat of the note, as above. Inf ected mess ages wil l not be sent at all. You can also spec ify that attac hments sh ould be scanne d at the time the y are attac hed rather th an when they ar[...]

  • Page 58

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 58 Viru s storing On this s creen, you can specify that a copy of an infec ted attac hment is s aved to a specifi c folder on yo ur computer’s h ard disk. You c an us e the Brows e button to l ocate and select the required folder. If yo u check th e box “overwri te existin g files”, an y file [...]

  • Page 59

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 59 • Relative count This is the permitted numbe r of recipients of a singl e message expressed as a percentage of the total number of addresses in the email address book. If this percentage is excee de d, a warning messag e will be displayed. • Minimal cou nt This is the minimum numbe r of actua[...]

  • Page 60

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 60 • Always scan WSH - sc ript file s. This option ensures that a ll script f iles (Windo ws Scripting Ho st) will be tested. • Do not scan sys tem librari es. Trusted system li braries wil l not be sca nned on openi ng, only a quick check will be performed to validate the au thentici ty. This o[...]

  • Page 61

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 61 • Silent M ode If the box “Silent mod e” is checked any infec ted files will be dealt with automatic ally accordin g to the following rules: > If “with gene ral ans wer Yes (OK) ” is selec ted, no ac tion wil l be taken in relation to the infected file. > If th e second option “[...]

  • Page 62

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 62 7. The Web Sh ield The We b Shie ld works as a local proxy s erver. On NT - based operating systems (Windows N T/2000/XP /2003/Vis ta/2008) th e protectio n is comple tely transp ar ent and it is not usually neces sary to adjust any of the normal s ettings . If you are using Windows 9 5/98 /ME ho[...]

  • Page 63

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 63 free. If this fe ature i s disable d , the whole files will be downloaded to a temporary fo lde r first, and then sca nned. The other optio ns on this p age are not av ailable on W indows 95, 98, a nd Millennium: • Redirected HTTP port(s). This setting is i mportant if yo u use some ki nd of pr[...]

  • Page 64

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 64 however, no pag es starting w ith http://www .yahoo.com will be s canned. Similarly, if you want a parti cular file type to be excluded fro m scanning, e.g. files with a “ .txt” extensi on, simply enter *.txt. • MIME T ypes to e xclude Here you can sp ecify MIME t ypes/subtypes to be exclud[...]

  • Page 65

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 65 Other ava st! settings Many other parts o f the avas t! progra m are capa ble of being m odified in acc ordance with your own p ersonal requir ements or p references. So me of these hav e already been described in the previous sections. If you ope n the options me nu (see page 2 5 ) and click on [...]

  • Page 66

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 66 Appearance By clicking on “Appea rance” you can specify w he ther th e avast! i con – the bl ue “a - ball” – is shown in the bottom right corner of the screen and also w hether it is animated (rotates) while a scan is being carrie d out. You can ad d a translu cent eff ect to the appe[...]

  • Page 67

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 67 This confirms th at an y action th at you selected in relation to any files r eported by the pro gra m e.g. del ete, mo ve the f ile to vi rus ch est etc has been completed • Message when erro r occurred d uring re sults proce ssing This tells you that the actio n you selected in relatio n to a[...]

  • Page 68

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 68 Changing the program language Clicking on “L anguage” wil l result in the following s creen being displayed: If the re quired l anguage is then show n as “ava i lable” in the box on the right , click on it to select it, and then click “OK ”. You will the n need to close the pro gram a[...]

  • Page 69

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 69 Sounds In this screen, you can adjust the audio s ettings of the pro gram or you can switch o ff the audio sounds comp letely. If you click o n “Settings” a gain, this w ill take you to a screen wh ere you can adju st the sound settings for all Windows progra ms. In the bot tom hal f of the s[...]

  • Page 70

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 70 Update (Connections) On the screen, yo u can spec ify the type o f internet con nection by che cking the appro priate bo x i.e. • I only conne ct to the Interne t using a dial - up mode m, or • My computer is permane ntly connected to the In ternet This wi ll optim ize the way avast! checks f[...]

  • Page 71

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 71 • Address . Ent er the address of your proxy se rver. • P ort . Enter t he port your proxy serve r uses. • Authe nticatio n type . Spec ify here whether access t o the Int ernet th rough your proxy server requires u ser authentication , and i f approp riate the type of authent ication. • [...]

  • Page 72

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 72 it displays any mess age; if an ac tive full - screen appli cation is fou nd, avast! wi ll not display the message. Delay load ing of avast! se rvices afte r other system se rvices . The avast! antivirus s ervice is usually started quite early in the boot proc ess. Occasi onally , this ma y cause[...]

  • Page 73

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 73 How to activ ate the avast ! antiv irus s creen saver Avast! antivirus is able to s can your co mputer for pot ential virus infections dur ing periods when the comput er is not in use and the screen saver is act ivated. During this time, a small box is displa yed within the scre en saver which in[...]

  • Page 74

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 74 If you want your computer to be scanned for viruses whe never the scre en saver is activated, check th e box “Scan for viruses”. If this box is not checked, the scree n saver will fun ction only as a normal screen saver. Chec king the box “ Loop scanning” will ensur e that the sc an is st[...]

  • Page 75

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 75 which do not us ually co ntain viruses, such as image files, will also be scanned. If yo u leave this b ox unch ecked , thes e fil es wil l not be scan ned and wil l be r eport ed as “skipped files”. If you select a n extension b ased scan, yo u then need to specify whi ch extension s should [...]

  • Page 76

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 76 Checking this b ox will result in a more tho rough scan bu t will also s low the scan down . Checking the box “Igno re virus targeting” w ill result in the files being tested a gainst all viruses in the virus database. If this i s not ch ecked , the file s will be tested only against tho se v[...]

  • Page 77

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 77 Clicking on “C hoose action” w ill reveal the options t hat will be p resented whe never a suspicious fil e is detected, i .e. Delete , R epair, M ove to Ch est, Move/ Rename, o r Stop. Only the options that are che cked will be p resented as a vailable opt ions. If an y option is unche cked,[...]

  • Page 78

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 78 Genera l alerts are create d by click ing on “Se ttings” and “Aler ts” as desc ribed on page 44 , however , alerts that have been c reated in th is way cannot be linked to the scree nsaver. If the alert you wis h to add is shown her e, click on it to highlight it, then cli ck on the “ ?[...]

  • Page 79

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 79 How to uninstall avast! anti virus Some vi ruses are designed to switch off a com puter’s antivir us software . Theref ore avast! antivirus is no w p rotected by a s trong self - defense (SD) module that prevents it from bein g changed or d eleted by suc h viruses. How ever, a conse quence of t[...]

  • Page 80

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 80 2. Remo ve the program • Click on “Start” in the b ottom left co rner of the comp uter screen and open your compu ter’s con trol panel. If yo u cannot see it i n the Start Menu, click o n Settings and it should b e listed as on e of the optio ns. • In the cont rol panel click on “Add [...]

  • Page 81

    avast! antivirus Home Edition 4 .8 – User Guide 81 Click on “Unins tall” so t hat it is hig hlighted an d then on “Nex t ” The program w ill now be uni nstalled, fo llowing whi ch the follow ing screen w ill be displayed: To complete th e uninstall pro cess, it is nec essary to resta rt the comput er. With “Restart” sele cted, click o[...]