Avast’s resident shield provides real-time operating system protection and claims to be able to detect a virus before it infects a computer. Updates are performed automatically every 24 hours. Advanced settings and other miscellaneous items can be accessed here. It bests Avira’s 45 minutes but doesn’t quite catch AVG at 23 minutes. We break it down in this review. It is extremely pro-active, provides many layers of protection, is easy to use after learning the icon-driven interface, and has virtually no impact on system performance. Download & Installation Avast’s install begins with downloading a download manager which pulls the install files from a server. Unlike some free antivirus suites, particularly Avira, it does not have any advertisements built in. To test the  effectiveness of Avast I used several virus files from , an IT security website. Registering grants users a 14-month license key, after which users must register the software again to keep using it. Product Overview Avast vgp-bps8 promises pro-active protection from online threats including viruses, spyware, and rootkits while guarding traditional (Internet, disk media) and nontraditional (network and P2P/IM traffic) infection vectors. Either way, not a big deal. best antivirus Registration is required to use the software beyond the 60-day trial period. We highly recommend it to home users searching for an antivirus solution with the above-described features.