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1. The Registration box will then appear click on program registration On the next screen choose the option that applies to you and complete the on line registration Then click Register A license key will be sent to your email address within 24 hours 18 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Inserting the License Key Once you receive your license key sent via email to the address specified during the purchase registration process it must then be inserted into the program This will enable the program to be automatically updated and will prevent any further license key warnings Note the avast program must be downloaded and installed before the license key can be inserted To see a video tutorial showing how to insert the license key without starting the program click here or go to Wwww avast com and click on Support at the top of the screen From the menu below click on Technical Support Then find the heading Instructions video in the bottom left corner of the screen and click on How to insert activation key Alternatively follow the steps described below 1 Highlight the registration key in the e mail that you received from Avast To do this move the on screen cursor so that it is immediately to the left of the first letter of the registration key Click the left mouse button and with the left button still depressed move the mouse to the right until the whole key is hi
2. Troubleshooting avast settings P Common Troubleshooting Appearance Chest A Confirmations Check for full screen applications e g games before displaying popups Language Delay loading of avast services after other system services Sounds z Logging _ Disable rootkit scan on system startup Q9 Exclusions Update Basic amp Update Connections __ Disable avast self defense module Disable raw disk access in avast boot time scan Alerts Skip checking of digital signatures of infected files Report file mi SMTP Troubleshooting C Cx Changing the settings on this page may help to resolve certain specific problems However these settings should not be changed without good reason If in doubt please contact avast first Check for full screen applications before displaying pop ups According to your avast configuration various messages may be displayed when your computer is running e g when the virus database has been updated when an incoming e mail is being scanned for viruses etc Normally the messages are shown whenever the corresponding event occurs This however may result in full screen applications e g games being interrupted Windows switches from the full screen mode into ordinary window mode when the message appears If you check this option avast will try to detect whether any full screen application is running before 71 avast ant
3. e MAPI The alert will be sent as an e mail using the MAPI protocol Enter the address to send the email to as before then click on the MAPI button at the bottom of the screen and enter the MAPI profile name and the corresponding password e SMTP The alert will be sent as an e mail using the SMTP protocol To create a new alert click Add and then click SMTP In the box that appears enter the email 44 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide address of the person to send the alert to It is also necessary to specify certain other settings see the next section SMTP e Printers The alert will be sent to the specified printer Click on Add and then Printer then click Browse and select the printer from the available options e ICQ The alert will be sent as an ICQ message Enter the ICQ number of the person to send the warning to e Windows Messenger Enter the e mail address that the alert recipient uses to login to the Windows Messenger service To create a new alert click on Add and select the type of alert required then enter the required details as described above Once an alert has been created a message will be sent to the defined recipient whenever a suspicious file is detected To edit or delete an alert that has been created click on it to highlight it then click Edit or Remove Clicking on Test will result in a test message being sent to the
4. protection Resident protection the real time protection of the computer system is one of the most important features of an antivirus program today Avast resident protection is a combination of several parts or resident modules that are able to detect a virus before it has any chance to infect your computer Built in anti spyware technology Avast antivirus now has built in anti spyware technology which is certified by the West Coast Labs Checkmark certification process and offers even greater protection of your valuable data and programs Built in anti rootkit technology Anti rootkit technology based on the class leading GMER technology is also built into the program as standard If a rootkit is discovered it is initially disabled and then if it can be safely removed without affecting the performance of the computer it is removed avast antivirus includes a virus database which can be automatically updated to provide continuous protection against rootkits Strong self protection Some viruses may attempt to switch off a computer s antivirus software To protect your computer even against the latest threats that may try to disable your security protection avast has best in class strong self protection built in This is based on the multi award winning avast antivirus technology and provides an extra layer of security to ensure your data and programs are always protected Automatic updates Automatic updates are anoth
5. and your computer will automatically be restarted avast Antivirus Setup Setup finished antivirus 4 O Restart later Installation is successfully completed Thank you for your patience during the installation We hope the product will serve you well If you do not restart your computer some components will not Tun correctly or may cause system failure Installation is now complete 15 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Getting started When your computer restarts the following screen will be displayed and you should see a blue a ball icon in the bottom right corner of your computer screen Welcome to avast Home Edition avast 4 Home Edition is free for home non commercial use However before using the product you are kindly asked to register it on our web site You have 60 days to do the registration The registration process will only take a few minutes and when you are done you will get your own license key valid for 14 months Of course after that period you can register again and get a new key Commercial users or those who are looking for ultimate security can use avast Professional Edition More information about this product can be found on our website Thanks for choosing avast We wish you good luck and few viruses avast Home Registration page avast Professional Edition info While avast antivirus Home Edition is free for non commercial
6. ivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide CONTENTS ich OCCT omenen E T tase sa cvsnae earanadsuacaune cae anaes aananseneneansesuseaneseausenatuet 4 About ALWIL Software OS ii acc cassia ughedededeancycusannauty danncdinudeinetaduewdscawadensbisaenddbewtdnastanacdeianaas 4 Further AGID 2rcd seecsabercudaacentudvageteudadcesecowsdareuaan caphaeadeseucadivane EENE NEER E EE i 4 Threats to VO Lite Computer mrena arane e ea E a EE e EEO a O T AEA 5 Whati OVRUS Zriniani e EE E S E cise des tea E A a Aa 5 What iS SPY WOlE srspiiisiiriineiirii dariana iaia EE NEEE REAA ANEETA 5 WAGE GE LO OEKIES 2 morani sin aE I EN E AE N E ENENG 5 Key features Of avast ANCIVITUS sessssscsseserisisrrriieerrinri nr ten EEEN EEEE EEEE EEEE 6 Antivirus Kernel issirinko ane a E Oa E a E i 6 Resident protection or on access protection s s ssssseeeeeeereerirrrsssererrrrrrerseee 7 Built in anti spyware technology 2 cceeecccecneeeececeeeeeeeecaeeeeeecaeeeeeeeaaeeseeeaaeeeeeesaeeeeeeeaa 7 Built in anti rootkit technology sessssseesssensesssnesssssressssressrsreesrsrersrsrrresssrresssreesssne 7 Strong SOIF PFOCOCEION ius sistas cecsexensdvancaacivuaeaysiesineipade vient aian na a iaoe 7 AUCOMGEC UDOGECS sencera E E EE O a Ea e 7 Viras CHES i ronnen anna nee aka iE a E E SEE E E E 8 System INEOGLOTION sics cians toudodiaageians raga oddeaia a Eaa a a a a aaa 8 In
7. all future scans except for the resident protection To exclude certain files or folders from scanning simply click on Settings in the options menu see page 25 then on Exclusions and the following screen will then be displayed avast settings Common Exclusions lt Appearance i Chest Type path masks to be excluded from scanning Note These settings affect we Confirmations all parts of avast except for the resident protection Language Sounds 2 Logging Exclusions D Update Basic amp Update Connections Alerts y Report file mag SMTP a Troubleshooting To exclude a folder or a file click browse and then check the folder or file to be excluded Alternatively click Add and manually type the location of the relevant folder or file into the Exclusions box If you want to exclude a folder including all of its subfolders it is necessary to add to the end of the folder name e g C Windows To remove a folder or a file from the exclusions list click on it once to highlight it and then click Remove 40 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to create a report of the scan results You can create a permanent record of the result of each scan by creating a report which you can then view later To create a report first access the options menu as described on page 25 and select Settings Next click on Reports and in the next sc
8. are described in detail later in this user guide The current status information is presented in the lower half of the screen and this is described in the previous section 31 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide What to do if a virus is found If the program detects a suspicious file the scan will be interrupted at that point and the following screen will be displayed asking how you want to deal with it avast Warning A Virus Was Found There is no reason to panic though Try to follow the given advice and links IF your computer is part of a network unplug the network cable to avoid further spreading of the infection File name C Documents and Settings T ester Desktop EICAR COM Malware name EICAR Test NOT virusll More info Malware type Virus Worm YPS version 080506 0 05 06 2008 Available actions Recommended action Move to chest Processing C Don t show this dialog next time Schedule boot time scan http iw avast com Fill in our virus report to help us improve avast Clicking on continue will mean that no action is taken now in relation to the identified file and this will be reported at the end of the scan in the list of scan results with no action taken see page 36 Clicking on stop will terminate the scan at that point If a virus is detected by one of the resident protection modules e g when attempting to open an infected file or by the screensaver the screen will be sli
9. areas This process can take quite a long time depending on the number and size of tested files and the speed of your computer Remember that although the Thorough Scan option takes the most time this is the most effective Once the program has started you can work with other files or programs on your computer even though the scan is in progress To do this it is recommended to minimize the avast program so that it is running in the background Otherwise you may find that your computer becomes very slow scanning for viruses is quite a demanding task To send the scan to the background just click on the minimize button _ in the top right corner of the player while the scan is running and it will disappear from the screen To bring it back simply click on the avast box which you will find in the horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen When the scan has finished and if no viruses were detected during the scan the player window displays the basic scan information such as the number of scanned folders and files the run time etc 00 18 36 0 2 2 GB If any viruses are found the program will ask you what to do with the infected file s There are a number of options e g to move the file to the Virus Chest to delete it to rename or move it or if it s possible even to repair it You can also simply keep the file intact however this option may result in the virus spreading further and causing damage These options a
10. can be applied to the Default extension set click Show to see the list of default extensions but you can also specify additional extensions for which the operations should be blocked You can then further specify the operations that should be blocked for the given file types i e opening renaming deleting or reformatting Finally you can specify what should be done if an operation is one that should be blocked but avast is unable to obtain confirmation i e whether the operation should be allowed or denied Advanced e Show detailed info on performed action If this box is checked information about the files currently being tested will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen 60 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Silent Mode If the box Silent mode is checked any infected files will be dealt with automatically according to the following rules gt If with general answer Yes OK is selected no action will be taken in relation to the infected file gt If the second option with general answer No Cancel is selected any infected file will be automatically moved to the virus chest If this box is left unchecked the normal virus alert screen will be displayed asking how you want to deal with the infected file Finally you can specify specific locations that should not be scanned by this particular module Note that locations that have been excluded from scan
11. damage If it is not possible to move the file at this moment e g because it is being used by another program checking the box Force moving locked or used file s on system startup will result in the file being moved automatically to the selected destination next time the computer is restarted Note in the event that a system file becomes infected i e a file which is used to run a key program moving the file might result in an error next time your computer tries to run the program However if the file is moved to the Virus Chest it will be in a protected quarantine area where it cannot cause damage to your other files and where it can possibly be repaired before moving it back to its original location see page 8 33 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Option 2 Delete the file clicking Delete will result in the following screen Delete file s File name C Documents and Settings Tester My Documents EICAR COM Options Delete file s permanently 7 If necessary delete file s at the next system start Delete Cancel Depending on which version of Windows you are using there are two ways in which the file may be deleted e Delete file s to recycle bin this will move the file s to the recycle bin but will not permanently delete them They may therefore be restored later This option may not be available in some versions of Windows e Delete file s permanently this will remove th
12. existing box you will also be able to see the previous reports whenever you view the report after running a new scan If you do not want any further reports to be created just go to Report file in the options menu see page 25 and uncheck the Create report file box 43 Alerts avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide avast is able to send a warning message about a virus occurrence From the options menu select Settings and then Alerts This feature is useful for network administrators who will be notified about the presence of a virus on any computer in their network so that they can react quickly P Common Appearance i Chest A Confirmations Language Sounds z Logging Q9 Exclusions Update Basic Update Connections a Troubleshooting avast settings Alerts Please specify whom to send respective virus warnings to They can be sent either via the local network or via the Internet Other users can thus be informed that a virus was found on this computer BA WinPopup BA MAPI bA SMTP Remove BA Printers M ICQ A Windows Messenger Test Test all MAPI The alert can be sent in the following forms e WinPopup Click on Add and select WinPopup Then enter the IP address or the network name of the computer to send the warning to or click Browse and select the address from the list of available options
13. highlight it then click on the gt button This will move the alert into the Used alerts box which means it is now linked to the screensaver If the alert you want to add is not shown click on New to create a new alert You can assign a name to the alert for example a name that connects it with the screensaver and you can add other information in the Comment box The alert is then created in exactly the same way as described on page 44 Once you have created the new alert click OK and it will be automatically placed in the Used alerts box To remove an alert from the Used alerts box click on it to highlight it then click on the button which will move it back to the available alerts box To change or delete an alert highlight it and click Modify or Delete If you need to create an SMTP alert don t forget to also enter the SMTP details by clicking on Settings and SMTP Note that alerts linked to the screensaver will only be sent if a virus is detected by the screensaver They will not be sent if the virus is detected by a different module If you want an alert to be sent whenever a virus is detected by any module you should create a general alert as described on page 44 To confirm all of the settings click OK then click on Apply and then OK again Now the next time the screen saver is activated it will also be carrying out virus
14. home use if you wish to use it after the 60 day trial period it will be necessary to register with Avast and to obtain a license key free of charge which must be inserted into the program Therefore the first time you run the program the following screen will be displayed Registration Enter your license key Program registration A C CO It is not necessary to insert a license key straight away If you wish to run the program for up to 60 days without applying for a license key simply click on Demo However you can apply for a license key now by clicking on program registration and following the procedure described in the next section 16 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Once you have selected to run the Demo version this box will not appear the next time you run the program However you can apply for a license key at any time see the next page How to register for a License Key After 60 days if a license key has not been inserted the following warning may appear in the bottom right corner of your computer screen avast Information ere for more information The following message will also be displayed whenever you start the program avast Key expired Use a new license number Read more about this problem in FAQ Clicking OK will result in the Registration box being presented The procedure for obtaining and inserting a license key
15. missed however it is usually sufficient e Normal Scan In this type of scan the files are analyzed based on their content not on their names as in the Quick Scan However only the dangerous parts of the files are tested not the entire files This type of scan can also lead to a virus not being detected however it is much more effective than the Quick Scan e Thorough Scan In this type of scan all files are scanned in their entirety and checked for all infections listed in the database This type of scan has the highest reliability but takes much longer to run than a Quick or Normal scan After selecting the scanning options all you have to do is start the test To do this click the Play button right looking arrow on the left side of the player Alternative Method You can also define the area s to be scanned by opening the options menu and clicking on Start scan and then Select scan area Once you have selected the area to be scanned you can also specify whether archive files should be included by selecting Scan archive files By clicking on Select scan level you can also specify whether the scan should be a Quick Scan a Normal Scan or a Thorough Scan as described above 28 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Running a scan and processing the result After clicking the Play button or selecting Start Scan Enter in the options menu the program starts to scan the selected
16. protection capabilities to ensure that your valuable data and programs are always protected About ALWIL Software a s Since 1988 ALWIL Software has produced antivirus products that have been developed into the multi award winning avast antivirus product line making avast one of the most mature and tested products on the antivirus market Headquartered in Prague in the Czech Republic ALWIL Software develops and markets avast antivirus products that protect every major operating system and every major type of vulnerable device Further details about the company and its products can be found on our website www avast com avast is a registered trademark in the United States of America and other countries and is used under exclusive license to ALWIL Software a s Further help If you experience any difficulties with your avast antivirus program which you are unable to resolve after reading this manual you may find the answer in the Support Center of our website at http support avast com e Inthe Knowledgebase section you can quickly find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions e Alternatively you can take advantage of the avast Support Forums Here you can interact with other users of avast who may have experienced the same problem and may already have discovered the solution You will need to register to use the forum but this is a very quick and simple process To register to use the forum go to http foru
17. selected address while clicking on Test all will send a test message to all the alert recipients in the list SMTP By clicking on SMTP in the list on the left side of the screen you can specify your SMTP server parameters avast uses these settings to send e mail messages especially when e Sending warning messages Alerts when a virus has been found e Sending files from the Chest to ALWIL Software e Sending avast crash reports to ALWIL Software You should enter the following information e Server address the address of the outgoing e mail server e g smtp server com or 192 168 1 25 e Port the port number the default is 25 e From address address of the sender From If the SMTP server requires authentication when logging on you should also check the box and enter the username and password 45 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Searching the Virus Database The virus database contains detailed information about all known viruses and is used by the program to identify any potential infections To access the virus database open the options menu see page 25 and click on Virus database The following screen will be displayed Information about known viruses Filter for virus search Define pattern for text search You may _ Virus is on the In the wild list ITW Boot sector infector Boot use wildcards and Worm only Worm MBR sector infector MBA Ma
18. Access Scanner Resident Protection Status Active F Pause Scanner Sensitivity T Internet Mail a Scan outbound mail SMTP 3 F Scan inbound mail POP3 Normal ear Era AMEE Scan inbound news NNTP F Scan outbound news NNTP Heuristic sensitivity medium antivirus oso 4 Last scanned C Program Files VMware hook dll Last infected Scanned count 437 Infected count 0 Task name Resident protection Run time 4 51 03 avast on access scanner is used to protect your computer at real time It can cover many parts of your system such as the mail and the filesystem Ca a On this screen you can temporarily suspend the resident protection by clicking Pause or Terminate Here both options have the same effect However the resident protection will be automatically reactivated next time your computer is restarted This is simply a safeguard to make sure that your computer is not left accidentally unprotected You can also adjust the sensitivity of the resident protection by clicking on the line either side of the cursor to change the sensitivity to Normal or High However the resident protection actually comprises several different modules or providers each of which is designed to protect a different part of your computer see the next page Any changes that you make on this screen will apply to all of the resident protection modules together 21 avast antivir
19. Antivirus Setup Proxy server settings tection Please select your proxy server settings used for program updating Direct connection no proxy O Auto detect use Internet Explorer settings Specify proxy server Type HTTP Address antivirus P 4 Authentication Type Basic authentication plaintext Username Password Test connection If you connect directly to the internet i e not through a proxy which usually applies to dial up users select the option Direct connection no proxy If you are not sure whether you use a proxy server or which one you use select Autodetect use Internet Explorer settings or ask your Internet provider or network administrator If you know the address and port of your proxy server select Specify proxy server and enter the required proxy details as follows e Type Either HTTP or SOCKS4 70 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Address Enter the address of your proxy server e Port Enter the port your proxy server uses e Authentication type Specify here whether access to the Internet through your proxy server requires user authentication and if appropriate the type of authentication e Username and password These should be entered if required for authentication Finally click on Test connection to test whether the Internet connection based on the settings above works
20. DB 4 2 2008 6 22 Automatic Updates Database only Scan The area s t be scanned and the type of scan are then set by checking the appropriate boxes If you want to scan only specific folders checking the Folders box will open a new window listing all of the folders on your computer To select a folder just check the appropriate box and it will appear in the Selected paths box above 30 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide You can adjust the scan sensitivity by moving the slider to the required position and if you want archive files to be included in the scan click Test archives After you have started to run the scan you can continue to use your computer for other tasks by clicking on Go to Background You can also adjust the sensitivity of the resident protection by clicking on Settings and then on Resident Protection You can use the slider to change the sensitivity to Standard or High or you can turn the resident protection off completely by clicking on the line under Disabled However as described previously any changes you make here will apply equally to all of the resident protection modules To adjust the sensitivity of the modules individually see page 23 You can access other features such as the Virus Chest and the Virus Database by clicking on Tools and selecting the required option from the options available These and all the other features
21. Every signature contains the date and time of the scan The signatures of the MS Outlook Exchange provider are fully compatible with those of e g avast Exchange Server Edition Therefore messages tested by the Exchange Server provider will not be tested again by the Outlook Exchange provider resulting in a faster transfer time Insert signatures into clean messages This should be checked if you want signatures to be added to clean messages Always trust signed messages If this box is checked correctly signed messages will always be trusted and will not be scanned no matter how old the signature is unless the box Always ignore signatures older than current virus database is checked Trust signatures only up to Here you can set the maximum age of signatures to trust The value set here could be masked by the option Always ignore signatures older than current virus database see below Ignore all signatures no trust If this box is checked all messages will be scanned irrespective of whether or not they contain a valid signature Always ignore signatures older than current virus database If this box is checked messages that have a valid signature will be checked if the signature is older than the current virus database This might be useful as a message might contain a new virus which was added to the virus database after the original scan If the message was trusted it would not be scanned and the virus wou
22. arts of the avast program are capable of being modified in accordance with your own personal requirements or preferences Some of these have already been described in the previous sections If you open the options menu see page 25 and click on Settings the following screen will be displayed The different settings can be changed by clicking on the relevant heading on the left hand side of the screen avast settings P common Common Appearance W Chest A Confirmations iJ Test memory during application start up Language Sounds bad Logging Check floppy disks in drive when logging off Eechisions Check CDs in drive when logging off Update Basic Check other removable media when logging off w Update Connections 3 Alerts Enable skins for Simple User Interface Report file m SMTP 4 Troubleshooting _ Enable skins for Explorer Extension Exit Explorer Extension when first virus is found Show results of Explorer Extension ff Show Explorer Extension icon Common settings In this screen you can specify what checks are carried when starting up or switching off your computer Here you can also change the appearance of the program by checking or unchecking the Enable skins box Explorer extension The last four checkboxes on this screen relate to the Explorer extension This is the facility to scan any individual file by right clicking on it and selecti
23. atabase right click on the i ball in the bottom right corner of your computer screen and select one of the options to Generate VRDB The Database will then be updated with details of any new programs installed on your computer since the last update Option 4 The RECOMMENDED OPTION is to move the file to the Virus Chest Note in the event that a system file becomes infected i e a file which is used to run a key program moving the file might result in an error next time your computer tries to run the program However if the file is moved to the Virus Chest it will be in a protected quarantine area where it cannot cause damage to your other files and where it can possibly be repaired before moving it back to its original location see page 8 35 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Results of last scan Once you have specified how you want to deal with the selected file the scan automatically resumes If any further suspicious file are identified the scan stops again unless the option Delete All was selected during an on demand scan and the process is repeated When the scan is complete the scan results are shown together with details of the action taken in respect of each identified suspect file see below Results of last scan Name of file Operation C Documents and Settings T ester EICAR COM Infection EICAR T File was successfully moved to chest i Listed
24. can is in progress the scan will be automatically terminated at that point e Ask whether to persist changing resident provider status This message will appear if you decide to Terminate any of the separate resident protection modules see page 23 If you answer Yes the particular module will remain disabled until you manually reactivate it If you answer No it will be reactivated the next time you restart your computer e Ask before stopping the on access protection This message will appear if you decide to Terminate the resident or on access protection as a whole see page 20 If you answer Yes the resident protection will be disabled but it will be automatically reactivated the next time you restart your computer e Ask before deleting files from Chest If this box is checked the program will always ask for confirmation before deleting any files This is to prevent any files from being deleted accidentally e Message when results were successfully processed 66 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide This confirms that any action that you selected in relation to any files reported by the program e g delete move the file to virus chest etc has been completed Message when error occurred during results processing This tells you that the action you selected in relation to a file reported by the program could not be carried out Message when old VPS file is used This is to warn you that th
25. cking OK Note If you use multiple connections it is necessary to set the address and port of the local proxy for each connection separately Basic e Enable web scanning By unchecking this box you can turn off the web scanning feature without affecting the URL blocking which will remain active e Use intelligent stream scanning If this box is checked files that are downloaded are scanned almost in real time The pieces of data are scanned as soon as they arrive and the next parts are downloaded only when the previous parts are verified to be virus 62 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide free If this feature is disabled the whole files will be downloaded to a temporary folder first and then scanned The other options on this page are not available on Windows 95 98 and Millennium e Redirected HTTP port s This setting is important if you use some kind of proxy server to access the Internet and you want to scan the communication between the server and your computer If you connect to a proxy server using e g port 3128 enter this number into the box Otherwise avast will expect the communication to take place on port 80 default and everything else will be ignored Note Do not enter any other ports than HTTP such as the ports for ICQ DC etc Multiple port numbers should be separated with commas e Ignored addresses Here you should enter server names or IP addresses that will not be
26. cro virus Macro COM infector COM _ Can be repaired Rep EXE infector EXE Take special care when removing Care Stays memory resident RES List of selected viruses Name Detailed information Me Ee Mee Number of listed viruses 0 The viruses in the list can be searched for by many parameters If you know the name of the virus just type the name in the box and click the Search button If you know only part of the name you can type in place of an unknown character letter or number or in place of several unknown characters Example Suppose you are searching for the Klez virus Its actual name in the database is Win32 Klez H Wrm You should therefore type klez All viruses containing the word klez will then be found To narrow the search you can also use the check boxes next to each virus feature To search on a particular feature check the box by clicking it twice Clicking on any check box once so that it changes to a grey box means it must not have that feature If any box is left unchecked but blue green in color it means it doesn t matter whether the virus has that feature or not 46 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Searchable virus features e Virus is on the In the wild list ITW The virus is on the list of viruses widespread among users all over the world e Worm only Worm This is a special type of virus which
27. ction settings 23 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to run a manual virus scan the Simple User Interface When you first run the program you will be presented with the image of a silver grey radio CD player which contains all of the controls for defining running and processing the results of a virus scan see below This is the default appearance or skin of the program this can be changed by selecting other skins see page 30 Initially the player appears behind a box containing the 5 key points to get you started Click More information to read more then Home page to return to the main screen The relevant information is summarized in the next pages You can return to these key points again at any time by accessing the options menu see next page and selecting Introductory Help Stan 1 3 21 2008 7 43 3421 2008 2 45 Database only d In the centre of the player slightly offset to the right is a screen which shows the current status information e Current version of the virus database the virus database contains details of all currently known viruses and is used by the program to identify any suspicious files e Resident protection here you can see the current sensitivity level e Date of last scan the date on which a manual scan was last run e Virus recovery database this contains details of the files installed on your computer and is used to repair them
28. d conditions of this Agreement do not continue in install process and return this software to reseller where you obtained it antivirus 4 This package contains software Software and related explanatory written materials Documentation The term Software shall also include any upgrades notified versions updates additions and copies of the Software licensed to you by ALWIL Software ALWIL Software grants to you a non exclusive license to use the Software and Documentation provided that you agree the following 1 Use of the Software You may Ol agree I disagree To continue it is necessary to click on I agree then Next avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide You will then be asked to confirm the destination directory i e where the program files should be saved The program will select this automatically or will create a new directory if it does not already exist It is recommended to accept the default destination directory and simply click Next to continue avast Antivirus Setup Destination Enter the destination directory C Program Files Alwil Software Avast4 antivirus If the directory does not exist it will be created 4 In the next screen you will be asked to confirm the configuration The options suitable for most users are automatically selected Unless you wish to change any of the default settings e g the language selection you
29. date the virus database select iAVS Update e To update the avast program select Program Update 37 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to schedule a Boot time scan 32 bit versions of Windows NT 2000 XP Vista only It is possible to schedule a scan to be carried out automatically when the computer restarts i e when it boots up before the actual operating system is active This is useful if you suspect that a virus may have installed on your computer as it will enable the virus to be detected before it is activated and therefore before it has had a chance to do any damage To schedule a boot time scan access the options menu see page 25 and click on Schedule Boot Time Scan The following screen will then be displayed Schedule boot time scan 86 Area to scan Scan all local disks O Scan selected path Select path to scan 0 Scan archive files _ Advanced options Here you can select whether you want to scan all disks or just selected areas To scan just selected areas click Scan selected path and either type the path name in the box provided or click the square box to the right to search for the area you want to scan When you find the area you want to scan click on it and the path name will be copied automatically into the provided box If you want archive files to be included just check the Scan archive files box By checking the Advanced options box
30. does not infect files directly but performs other undesirable actions such as spreading itself via e mail stealing passwords etc e Macro virus Macro This type of virus uses the macro language especially of Microsoft products e g Word Excel e Can be repaired Rep Files infected by these viruses can be repaired by the avast program and restored to their original state before infection e Take special care when removing Care For these viruses it is necessary to follow special steps when removing them otherwise even greater damage can be done than would be caused by the virus itself e Boot sector infector Boot This type of virus infects the boot sector of a hard disk or diskette e MBR sector infector MBR This type of virus infects the master boot sector of a hard disk e COM infector COM This type of virus infects executable files with a com extension e EXE infector EXE This type of virus infects executable files with a exe extension e Stays memory resident RES These viruses stay in the computer s RAM memory and infect files when they are started 47 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Working with files in the Virus Chest The Virus Chest can be accessed directly from the options menu As a result of its unique properties the virus chest is effectively a quarantine area which can therefore be used for the following purposes Storing viruses If avast finds a
31. dvanced The settings on this page are the same as for Internet Mail but with two additional settings 58 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Relative count This is the permitted number of recipients of a single message expressed as a percentage of the total number of addresses in the email address book If this percentage is exceeded a warning message will be displayed e Minimal count This is the minimum number of actual recipients corresponding to the relative count below which the warning will not be displayed In other words if the relative count is exceeded the warning will not be displayed if the actual number of recipients is less than the minimal count Example Relative count 20 Minimal count 10 If the number of address is 40 and a message is sent to 9 recipients the relative count will be exceeded but the warning will not be displayed as the actual number is less than the minimal count 5 P2P Shield Programs On this page you can specify the programs for which received files should be scanned Some programs can only be protected in Windows NT 2000 XP 2003 Vista or 2008 6 The Standard Shield Scanner Basic On this page you can define what should be scanned by this module It is recommended that all the boxes on this page should be checked which will enable detection of the most common types of virus Scanner Advanced On this page you can specify other files to be scanned acco
32. e file s from your computer permanently without any possibility to restore them later However this will only delete the infected file Some viruses install new files on your computer and if these files do not themselves contain a virus they will not be detected as suspicious While these files will take up space on your computer they should not present any security risk If a virus is detected which can be completely removed by the built in virus cleaner including removing new files created by the virus an additional button Completely remove the virus from the system will appear in the virus warning box If this option is available it is recommended to use it If it is not possible to delete the file at this moment e g because it is being used by another program checking the box If necessary delete file s at the next system startup will result in the file being automatically deleted next time the computer is restarted Then click on Delete again to confirm the deletion Note in the event that a system file becomes infected i e a file which is used to run a key program deleting the file might result in an error next time your computer tries to run the program Before deleting the file you should therefore be quite sure that the infected file is not a system file or that you are able to replace it with a clean file e g from a backup If you are not sure it is recommended to move the file to the Virus Chest Here
33. e virus database is not up to date To ensure your system is fully protected the virus database should be regularly updated see page 37 Program BETA version warning This message is to warn you that the version of the program you are using is still in its testing stage Show message when error report successfully sent Show status window in virus chest even if action completed ok If this box is checked you will receive a message to confirm the action you selected was successfully processed Message when ok results are enabled during task configuration This applies to the creation of tasks which is only available in avast 4 Professional Edition If this box is checked and OK results are selected it means that even uninfected files will be reported Deletion of file s with dangerous extension This is a warning that it may not be safe to delete the specified file as the file type is one that normally contains important data 67 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Changing the program language Clicking on Language will result in the following screen being displayed avast settings P Common Language Appearance Chest Select the language you want to use to communicate with the program wx Confirmations Changes will take effect after program restart amp Language Sounds Language Help Er Logging Y English available Q9 Exclusions Update Basic Update Connections Alerts Re
34. ed on your computer immediately after the installation file has been downloaded click Run Once the installation file has been downloaded the following screen will then be displayed Internet Explorer Security Warning Do you want to run this software Name avast antivirus Publisher ALWIL Software B More options i Don t Run While files From the Internet can be useful this file type can potentially harm your computer Only run software from publishers you trust What s the risk In other web browsers you may only have the option to Save the file Clicking Save will download the software to your computer but it will not be installed at this time To complete the installation process it will be necessary to run the Setupeng exe installation file so remember where it has been saved Double click on the file to run it Clicking Run again will take you to the avast Setup screen avast Antivirus Setup avast Setup ot Welcome to the avast Setup program This program will install avast on your computer It is strongly recommended that you exit all Windows programs before running this setup program antivirus Click Cancel to quit Setup and then close any programs you have running Click Next to continue with the Setup program 4 WARNING This program is protected by copyright law and international treaties Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program or a
35. ees 29 Changing the appearance of the Simple User Interface ccccecccceecceeeeseeeeeene ees 30 What 0 00 46 a Virus IS TOUNO oreeson nienn di rinata daa kaidak a En raii 32 Results OF LOSES COM aseiie tained taasesiedarteusncebe e a a E E E EE AE EEEN 36 Advanced FEATURES siiani ikerin oaia ea EE a A E EEEE EEEE 37 S tting Q tomatIC UPOQTES sss ccs locec sxncaa ne seas aa petsenetann antenna a AE AAN ia ATRAEN 37 How to schedule a Boot time SCN cccccceeeeececcneeeeeecaeeeeeecaaeeeeeeaaeeeeeesaaeeeeessaneees 38 EXClUCING fil s from SCONMING eccccceeeeececceeeeceeceeeeeeecaaeeececcaeeeeeecaeeeeeeeaueeeeetaaeetees 40 How to create a report of the Scan resSultS esssnsssnessnnssnesseessersstesstnrsrersrere 41 PCTS aie cee E te E EE E E E E oaecesennde eee eaees see 44 SMTP siscsitanavisnactobsnaaenaetanacdeatanteagussed one ssadasoaiaedsrausaacenGuswe dere a a E E E E E 45 Searching the Virus DOCAD OSC oa icne ccccccneseestanacunscanecuneia nn conenasacenesana dents deneiiana danauaaes 46 Working with files in the Virus Chest ccccccccccseeeececcneeeeeecaeeeeeeaeeeeeeeaaeseeeaaeeeeeenea 48 The Log VIQW ON srice aE T RA iE AEE EEEE TEE EE EEE 50 Resident Protection settings seserssssrssresersreeerertrerrriessrsresersrenensrtnersttrerasreseneresennrt 52 Other avast Setting Sesioa ae a a a 65 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide COMMON Setting S iaaa aaa ase beiatmagmacae sce beaakSaanganees
36. en will be displayed asking how you want to deal with the infected file e Timeout for Internet communication This is the time in seconds to wait for a reply from the mail server You can further specify whether the connection should be closed if a reply is not received in this time or whether you should be asked for confirmation first e Show tray icon when scanning mail If this box is checked a small icon will be displayed in the system tray in the bottom right corner of your computer screen to indicate a scan is in progress Heuristics avast can not only scan inbound mail for known viruses but it can also check messages using heuristic analysis and possibly reveal a virus that is not yet present in the virus database You can modify the settings of the heuristic analysis on this page e Sensitivity Low e Basic attachments check Attachments are verified according to their name and if an attachment s name contains two extensions e g Patch jpg exe it will be treated as potentially dangerous avast also checks whether the 53 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide attachment extension corresponds to the actual file type e g whether the file Pamela jpg is a picture as you might expect or a renamed COM file Check whitespaces sequence Some viruses add a number of spaces or other non displayable white characters to the end of a file extension followed by a second real extension that is dangerou
37. en will then be displayed avast Antivirus Setup avast Antivirus otect Please make a selection More Info a fa a Change installed components Change ui 2 3 q Uninstall Update Update components Proxy settings 80 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Click on Uninstall so that it is highlighted and then on Next avast Antivirus Setup avast Antivirus Please make a selection More Info fs Uninstall current version antivirus 4 Uninstall Update Update components Proxy settings The program will now be uninstalled following which the following screen will be displayed avast Antivirus Setup Uninstall finished The product was successfully uninstalled Some files may stay in their current locations until the next reboot though antivirus 4 O Restart later To complete the uninstall process it is necessary to restart the computer With Restart selected click on Finish and your computer will be automatically restarted 81
38. er key need in virus protection Both the virus database and the program itself can be updated automatically The updates are incremental with only new or missing data downloaded reducing the transfer time significantly The typical size of a virus database update is tens of KB while program updates are typically not more than hundreds of KB If your Internet connection is continuous such as an always on broadband connection then updates are performed completely automatically at fixed time intervals If you connect to the Internet only occasionally avast monitors your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online This feature is described further on page 37 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Virus Chest The Virus Chest can be thought of as a folder on your disk drive having special properties that make it a safe isolated place suitable for storing potentially harmful files You can work with the files in the Chest though with some security restrictions The main properties of the Virus Chest are complete isolation from the rest of the operating system No outside process such as a virus may access the files inside and the fact that the files inside the Chest may not be run means there is no danger in storing viruses there For more information see page 48 System integration Avast antivirus is fully integrated into your system The Explorer Extension enables a scan to be started directly by click
39. f the Chest and thus the maximum amount of space it takes up on your computer You can also specify the maximum size of any individual file that should be sent to the Chest 49 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide The Log Viewer After any scan avast antivirus creates several log files where information about any errors or suspicious files is stored Information about installations and updates of the program and the virus database can also be found there To view these logs just select Log Viewer from the options menu see page 25 The information stored in the log files is divided into the following categories Info Just information everything is OK Notice Important information everything is OK Includes information about program and database updates Warning An error has occurred or a virus has been identified but the program can work or fix the problem Error An error has occurred the program cannot work Critical error A critical program error the program will be terminated Alert There is a possible risk to the whole computer Emergency Dangerous for the whole computer security deleting system files By clicking on Settings and then Logging you can adjust the maximum size of each file in the log Within the Log Viewer it is possible to search for specific records to filter the records according to specific criteria or to export the records to an
40. face Notepad File Edit Format View Help avast Repo This file S5 Generated automatically simple user interface ed Started on wednesday April o2 2008 7 34 39 AM 080401 0 04 01 2008 Total size w Task stopped wednesday April o2 z098 7 54 59 AM Run time was 20 minutecs 20 second 42 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Report in XML format Report Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edit View Favorites Tools Help GQ ex ix a A Pp Search Je Favorites B ee E Ss Address C Program Files Alwil Software Avast4 DATAlreport Simple user interface xml To help protect your security Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer Click here for options Simple user interface Task Statistics Start of testing Thursday April 03 2008 1 21 55 AM End of testing Thursday April 03 2008 1 50 50 AM Number of opened files Virus Database 37898 RT ened lees Date Time File Object 37872 Number of tested folders 1204 Number of infected files 0 Number of files not tested avast Copyright c 1988 2008 ALWIL Software All rights reserved My Computer The reports for previous scans are stored in the standard program folder or in the custom program folder specified when creating the report see previous page If you specified Text format and did not check the Overwrite
41. form a retrospective manual scan otherwise known as an on demand scan of all the files on your computer avast antivirus also includes a special screen saver that constantly scans your computer for viruses when it is switched on but not currently in use Resident on access Protection This part of the program continuously monitors the entire computer and all running programs to detect any suspicious activities e g a virus thus preventing any damage to the files on your computer It runs completely independently it activates automatically when you start your computer and if everything is OK you won t even notice it is running The blue a ball icon in the bottom right corner of the computer screen next to the clock shows the current status of the resident protection Normally the presence of the blue a ball indicates that the resident protection is installed and is actively protecting your computer If the a ball has a red line through it the protection is currently inactive and your computer is not protected If it has a grey appearance it means the protection has been paused see next page The resident protection settings are accessed by left clicking the blue a ball in the bottom right corner of the screen or right clicking and selecting On access protection control 20 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide The following screen will then be displayed avast On
42. ghlighted Release the left mouse button then move the mouse to position the cursor over the highlighted license key Click the right mouse button and from the menu select Copy 2 Right click the blue a ball icon in the bottom right corner of your screen and then left click About avast 3 Left click the License button in the lower right corner 4 Position the cursor in the license key box click the right mouse button and from the list of menu options select Paste The license key is now entered 5 Click OK The program can now continue to be used for 12 months from the end of the 60 day Demo period At the end of that time it will be necessary simply to apply for and insert a new license key 19 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Basics of using avast antivirus avast antivirus provides protection against all types of malware and contains powerful resident protection also commonly referred to as on access protection as it checks files at the moment they are accessed Normally the resident protection provides all the protection you need to prevent your computer from being infected by a virus Once the program has been downloaded the resident protection runs continuously in the background and monitors all parts of your computer s activity However if the resident protection is turned off for any reason or if it has been inactive for any period of time it is possible to per
43. ghtly different the Continue and Stop buttons will be replaced by a single No action button If you click this button so that no action is taken at this time the infected file will remain where it is but the virus will not be activated Alternatively if you want to take action now there are four possible options 32 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Option 1 Move the affected file to another folder on your computer At the same time you will have the opportunity to rename it Clicking on Move Rename will result in the following screen being displayed with the Move file s check box already checked Rename Move files File name C Documents and Settings Tester My Documents EIC4R COM Parameters Rename file s adds the vir extension Move file s C Force moving locked or used file s on system startup Folder to move the file s to C Program Files Alwil Software Avast4 DATA moved Move Rename Cancel In the white part of the screen it is possible to specify where you want the suspicious file moved to The program automatically selects an appropriate destination folder or you can specify a different one If you also check the Rename file s checkbox this will add the extension vir onto the end of the file name to identify it as a potentially dangerous file so that you don t run it accidentally thereby infecting your computer and causing
44. he Heuristics Advanced page Outbound messages Mass messages Viruses can also spread by sending themselves in just one message to many recipients avast therefore monitors the total number of message recipients The permissible number of total recipients can be set on the Heuristics Advanced page e Sensitivity Custom 54 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide By clicking Customize you can select which of the above components of the heuristic analysis you want to be used You can additionally select a Subject structure check If this is selected e mail subject headers will be checked for large numbers of nonsensical characters e g if the subject contains the sequence lt amp MH _ a warning will be displayed e Permitted URLs By clicking on Permitted URLs you can define any URLs that are considered safe which will then be ignored by the heuristic analysis To add a URL click on Add then manually type the name of the URL To remove a URL click on it once to highlight it then click Remove e Silent Mode On this page you can also specify what action should be taken if an infected message is detected Heuristics Advanced This page allows you to modify the heuristic analysis settings for outgoing mail The settings are used only when the Heuristic sensitivity is set to high or custom and they can be changed only with custom sensitivity set e Checked t
45. heft or theft of valuable information such as bank or credit card details or proprietary business data These days much of the current spyware is developed by organized crime rings rather than opportunistic lone individuals and is installed by a virus or another form of malware What are rootkits Rootkits are programs that install on your system while keeping themselves their processes services and registry keys hidden to stay invisible from the user They represent a substantial security risk on home and company networks and are notoriously difficult to find and remove Rootkits themselves are normally deployed via another malware infection such as a Trojan for instance and it is therefore highly recommended that computer users have an up to date antivirus anti spyware system installed and running on their PC One such system is avast antivirus 4 8 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Key features of avast antivirus avast is the multi award winning antivirus product line from ALWIL Software a s which is ICSA Labs certified and Checkmark certified for both antivirus and anti malware avast antivirus regularly receives the Virus Bulletin 100 award for detection of 100 of in the wild viruses and is a repeated winner of the Secure Computing Award avast antivirus is in use in over 50 million homes and offices worldwide it is specifically engineered to have low system requirements and to update both
46. housand lines It is therefore recommended to check this box only if you intend to carry out a limited scan and only if you actually want all clean files to be reported as well as any problematic files e Hard errors arise when the program detects something that would not normally be expected These are errors that generally require further investigation 41 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Soft errors are less serious than hard errors and usually relate to files that could not be scanned as they were open and being used by another application e Skipped files are files that are not scanned based on the scan settings For example in a quick scan files are scanned based on their file extension Files with extensions that are not considered dangerous are not scanned Any files specifically excluded from the scan would also be reported as skipped files e Infected files these are files that potentially contain a virus Finally you can specify whether the report should be in the form of a text file or an XML file After running the scan there will be a new line in the status information window View report file for the last scan as shown below 00 28 12 0 2 8 GB Clicking View report file for last scan will result in the report being displayed in the format specified Alternatively open the options menu see page 25 and click on View scan reports Report in text format Simple user inter
47. if they are damaged by a virus The date shown is the date on which the virus recovery database was last updated e Automatic updates this shows the update status relating to both the virus database and the program itself to change the update status click on the current status on the right side of the window see page 37 24 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Either side of the display screen can be seen three control buttons e Top left this button will open the Virus Chest For information about working with files in the virus chest see page 48 e Center left Clicking on this button will result in a bar being displayed with a slider that can be used to change the sensitivity of the Resident Protection Click on the slider and move it to the left or right to decrease or increase the sensitivity Note changing the sensitivity level here will affect all of the resident protection modules To adjust the modules individually see page 23 e Bottom left clicking this button or clicking on the current status in the display window will update the Virus Database The Virus Database can also be updated by right clicking on the blue i ball icon in the bottom right corner of your computer screen and selecting one of the options to Generate VRDB e The three buttons to the right are used to define the areas to be scanned any combination of local hard drives removable media floppy disks CDs etc and se
48. ime avast will count the outgoing messages during the given time The default settings are 5 messages in 30 seconds It means that if more than 5 messages are sent within half a minute having the same subject and or containing the same attachment a warning will be displayed e Warning count This is the number of messages allowed without any warning where the messages have the same subject and or contain the same attachment When this number is exceeded a warning is displayed e Check subject If this is set mass messages will be identified according to the email subject e Check attachments If this is set mass messages will be identified according to the attachment 55 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Absolute count This is the total maximum number of message recipients i e the addresses in the fields To Carbon Copy CC and Blind Carbon Copy BCC set to 10 by default which if exceeded will result in a warning being displayed 3 Network Shield The Network Shield protects your computer from Internet worm attacks It works similarly to a firewall although it is not a substitute for one Settings e Show warning messages If this box is checked a message will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen whenever an internet worm attack is detected e Logging If this box is checked the history of worm attacks will be recorded and displayed on the next page Last attacks On
49. in the bottom right corner of your computer screen and from the menu options select Program settings e Click on Troubleshooting on the left side and the screen will change as shown below P Common Appearance W Chest wf Confirmations Language Sounds z Logging Q9 Exclusions Update Basic amp Update Connections Alerts Report file fag SMTP Troubleshooting avast settings Troubleshooting Check for full screen applications e g games before displaying popups C Delay loading of avast services after other system services Disable rootkit scan on system startup C Disable raw disk access in avast boot time scan Disable avast self defense module Skip checking of digital signatures of infected files e Now check the box Disable avast self defense module and click OK e The self defense is now switched off 79 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide 2 Remove the program e Click on Start in the bottom left corner of the computer screen and open your computer s control panel If you cannot see it in the Start Menu click on Settings and it should be listed as one of the options e Inthe control panel click on Add or Remove Programs e A list of all the currently installed programs will then appear e Highlight avast antivirus by clicking on it and then click Change Remove e The following scre
50. indows 2000 XP Workstation Not Server Pentium class Processor 64MB RAM 128MB recommended and 100 MB of free hard disk space For a computer running Windows XP 64 bit Edition An AMD Athlon64 Opteron or Intel EM64T enabled Pentium 4 Xeon processor 128MB RAM 256MB recommended and 100 MB of free hard disk space For a computer running Windows Vista Pentium 4 processor 512MB RAM and 100 MB of free hard disk space The program itself requires about 60 MB of hard disk space the remainder of the recommended space is reserved for the virus recovery database file and its index and the installation files A functional MS Internet Explorer 4 or higher is required for the program to work This product cannot be installed on a server operating system Windows NT 2000 2003 Server families Note various problems can arise as a result of installing more than one security product on the same computer If you have installed other security software it is recommended that this is uninstalled before you try to install avast 10 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to install avast antivirus Home Edition This section describes how to download and install avast antivirus Home Edition on your computer and how to install your license key into the software once the download and installation process has been completed The screens shown in the following pages are as they appear in Windows XP and may differ slightly in
51. ing a folder or a file with your right mouse button and selecting the corresponding choice from the drop down menu A special screen saver is also provided which when active also performs virus scanning Avast antivirus works together with your favorite screen saver SO you don t have to change your personal settings to use it To set up the avast antivirus screen saver see page 73 In 32 bit versions of Windows NT 2000 XP Vista it is also possible to run a boot time scan which allows you to carry out a scan while the system is starting up and before a virus can be activated This is useful if you suspect your computer may already have been infected by a virus Integrated avast Virus Cleaner avast antivirus is essentially designed to protect your computer against infection by a virus or other form of malware Its primary function is prevention rather than cure However it now incorporates a special Virus Cleaner which is capable of removing some of the more common viruses from infected computers Unfortunately the number of viruses in circulation is growing constantly and in the event that your computer becomes infected by a virus which cannot be removed by the Virus Cleaner it may be necessary to seek expert assistance More information about the Virus Cleaner can be found on our web site www avast com avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Command line scanner Professional Edition only For experienced use
52. is described in the following pages Password protection By right clicking on the blue a ball in the bottom right corner of the screen and selecting Set change password you can create a password to protect your antivirus program against unauthorized changes 17 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to register for a License Key Within 60 days avast Home Edition users will need to register and insert a valid license key into the program To obtain a license key go to www avast com and click on Support at the top of the screen Then click on FREE avast Home Registration Alternatively if you have already downloaded and installed the program find the blue a ball in the bottom right corner of your screen and right click on it From the menu that appears select About avast In the box that appears on your screen click on License Key About avast Q avast version 4 8 Home Edition Re YPS file virus database a Registration Key 9999999T 994141106 Q Technical support support avast com Q Copyright 1988 2008 ALWIL Software Notice Warming this computer program is protected by copyright law and international treaties Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program or any portion of it may result in severe civil and criminal penalties and will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law http iiwww avast com
53. it will be in a protected quarantine area where it cannot cause further damage to your other files and where it can possibly be repaired before moving it back to its original location see page 8 34 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Option 3 Repair the file Clicking on Repair will result in the following screen being presented Repair file s File name C Documents and Settings Tester My Documents EICAR CI Executable file viruses avast will try to repair the file according to the Virus Recovery Database Files with no database records usually cannot be repaired 4 number of common viruses can be repaired even without a VADB record In that case however the exact recovery is not guaranteed If you click on Repair again the program will attempt to restore the affected file to its original state In order to repair a file the program will refer to the Virus Recovery Database f there is sufficient information about the program in the Database there is a good chance that it can be repaired Note only files that have been physically changed by a virus can be repaired If new files have been created these will remain unless they can be removed by the virus cleaner see Option 2 If there is no information in the Database repair may still be possible but full recovery is less certain It is therefore very important that the Database is continuously updated to update the Virus Recovery D
54. itself and the virus definitions automatically avast antivirus represents a collection of high end technologies created to give you unrivaled protection against all forms of malware The key features of avast antivirus Home Edition and Professional Edition are compared and described below Key features Home Professional Edition Edition Antivirus kernel based on high performance antivirus Yes Yes engine Strong resident protection Yes Yes Built in anti spyware Yes Yes Built in rootkit detection Yes Yes Strong self protection Yes Yes Automatic incremental updates Yes Yes Virus chest for storage of suspicious files Yes Yes System integration Yes Yes Integrated virus cleaner Yes Yes Command line scanner No Yes Script blocker No Yes PUSH updates No Yes Enhanced user interface and ability to create and No Yes schedule defined tasks Antivirus kernel The antivirus kernel is the basic core of the program The latest version of the avast antivirus kernel combines outstanding detection abilities with high performance You can expect 100 detection of in the wild viruses viruses already spreading between users and excellent detection of Trojan horses The kernel is certified by ICSA Labs it frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine often yielding the VB100 award avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Resident protection or on access
55. ivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide it displays any message if an active full screen application is found avast will not display the message Delay loading of avast services after other system services The avast antivirus service is usually started quite early in the boot process Occasionally this may cause problems when starting other system services which could be manifested e g as temporary freezing for a few seconds or minutes of the system shortly after it is started This option makes it possible to delay starting of the avast antivirus service until after the usual system services are fully loaded Disable rootkit scan on system startup avast scans for rootkits whenever you start the operating system Check this box if you want to disable this kind of scan Disable raw disk access in avast boot time scan During the boot time scan avast uses a special disk access method that allows the antivirus to detect even viruses that hide their files Here you can turn this feature off avast will use the usual disk access method Disable avast self defense module Some viruses are able to switch off antivirus software by terminating its processes deleting its critical files or modifying them avast contains self defense features that prevent these attacks by blocking the dangerous operations To disable this self defense module check this box Skip checking of digital signatures of infected files To prevent false
56. l drives and the status has changed from Off to On You will also see another box has appeared above the player This can be used to set the sensitivity of the scan By left clicking on the slider and holding your mouse button down you can move the slider to the left to reduce the sensitivity or to the right which will increase the sensitivity In this box you can also select whether you want archive files to be scanned These options are described further in the next section avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Scan removable media If you want to scan the content of some removable media e g floppy disks or CD DVDs click the centre right button Clicking this button will change the status of Scan removable media from Off to On Two boxes will also appear to the right of the player which can be checked or unchecked to indicate which type of removable media should be scanned some other magnetic and magneto optical media such as ZIP disks also count as floppies The box above the player will also be displayed where you can specify the scan sensitivity and whether archive files should also be scanned _ Standard Scan e Scan selected folders The last option is the button bottom right You should click this button if you want to define that only certain folders should be scanned After clicking this button a list of all the folders on your computer will be displayed from which y
57. ld not be detected 57 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Virus storing On this screen you can specify that a copy of an infected attachment is saved to a specific folder on your computer s hard disk You can use the Browse button to locate and select the required folder If you check the box overwrite existing files any file with the same name will be replaced by the new file Advanced e Silent mode Checking this box will result in any infected files being moved automatically to the virus chest If this box is not checked the normal virus alert screen will be displayed asking how you want to deal with the infected file e Show detailed information on performed action If this box is checked information about the files currently being tested will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen e Show tray icon when scanning mail If this box is checked a small icon will be displayed in the system tray in the bottom right corner of your computer screen to indicate a scan is in progress e Show splash screen when the provider is loading If this box is checked the avast splash screen will be displayed whenever the email provider is launched Finally if you enter your MAPI profile and password these will be used to display your email folder structure when you click the Browse button on the Inbound Mail page Heuristics The settings on this page are the same as for Internet Mail Heuristics A
58. le values should be separated by commas Ignored addresses Here you can enter the addresses of mail servers or specific ports that you want to exclude from scanning This feature may be useful when you want avast to scan only messages to or from a particular account and ignore the rest For example if you enter smtp server com avast will not scan the outgoing SMTP messages for the corresponding account Ignore local communication This option should normally be checked If it is unchecked avast will scan even local communication which is usually safe which may slow down your computer slightly Note Do not enter any port numbers other than 52 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide those you really use for e mail traffic Otherwise unexpected problems might occur Advanced e Show detailed info on performed action If this box is checked information about the files currently being tested will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen e Silent mode If the box Silent mode is checked any infected files will be dealt with automatically according to the following rules e If with general answer Yes OK is selected any infected file attached to an email will be automatically deleted e If the second option with general answer No Cancel is selected any infected file will be automatically moved to the virus chest If this box is left unchecked the normal virus alert scre
59. lected folders see the next page e START button click this button to begin or resume scanning the selected area s This button then changes to a PAUSE button e PAUSE button clicking this button will temporarily stop the scanning e STOP button Click this button to terminate the scan e EJECT Clicking the arrow up button in the top left corner of the player will reveal the OPTIONS MENU The options menu can also be accessed by right clicking your mouse with the cursor positioned anywhere over the player When using the program without a skin see page 30 the menu options are accessed by clicking on Tools or Settings at the top of the screen Some menu options can be accessed without starting the program by right clicking on the blue a ball in the bottom right corner of the computer screen All of the menu options are described further in this user guide 25 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Selecting the areas to be manually scanned Before you start scanning you have to choose which files you want to scan e Scan local drives If you simply want to scan everything on your computer all files on all hard disks click the button top right The screen with the status information is now replaced with a new screen see below To return to the status information right click on the player and select Status information On the screen you will now see the line Scan loca
60. lines 1 Selected lines 1 If you chose not to take any action during the scan process in respect of any particular file this file will be listed in the scan results however the column Operation will be empty To deal with the file now first click on the name of the file in the table then click on Action in the top left corner and you will see the list of options as described in the preceding pages The action taken will then be shown in the Operation column Once you are satisfied that all suspicious files have been dealt with click on Close to terminate the scan process To view the scan results again simply open the options menu and select the option Last scan results Note If you close the avast program the Last scan results option will not be available and you will not be able to view the last scan results next time you start the program This option will only be available again if you run a new scan However details of any viruses or errors detected are saved and can be seen by opening the Log Viewer see page 50 36 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Advanced features Setting automatic updates Any anti virus program is only as good as its database of known virus definitions which is why it is important to regularly update both the program and the virus database You can select whether the program and the virus database are updated automatically or manually or only f
61. m avast com If you are still unable to resolve your query you can Submit a ticket to our support team Again you will need to register to do this and when writing to us please make sure to include as much information as possible avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Threats to your computer Viruses spyware rootkits and all forms of malicious software are collectively known as malware short for malicious software malware is also sometimes referred to as badware What is a virus A computer virus is a piece of software usually malicious in nature which is used to spread itself or other such software from computer to computer Viruses themselves may cause system damage loss of valuable data or can be used to install spyware rootkits or other malware onto a vulnerable system A key way to prevent infection is to have an up to date antivirus solution installed on all computers in a network and to make sure that all of the latest security patches for the computer operating system are installed Users should also make sure that they can trust the source of software they are downloading from the internet as many malware types are installed along with other legitimate looking software What is spyware Spyware is software installed on a computer system that is designed to collect information about the computer user often without their consent or knowledge This information may result in so called identity t
62. ng the option Scan lt filename gt If the last box is checked this option will have the blue a ball icon next to it 65 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Appearance By clicking on Appearance you can specify whether the avast icon the blue a ball is shown in the bottom right corner of the screen and also whether it is animated rotates while a scan is being carried out You can add a translucent effect to the appearance of the avast player These changes will become effective after you restart your computer Confirmations This screen enables you to determine whether or not you are asked for confirmation when you select certain actions and also whether or not you receive confirmation messages after certain actions have been carried out The confirmation queries are a safety feature of avast antivirus to enable you to cancel an action that is selected by mistake If you do not wish to receive any particular confirmation message or query simply de select it by unchecking the appropriate checkbox However if a confirmation query is unchecked the relevant action will be carried out as soon as the corresponding action is selected without the opportunity to cancel it The following confirmations queries are enabled as standard but can be turned off by unchecking the relevant checkbox e Ask before closing Simple User Interface when a scan is running If the program is closed while a s
63. ning by all modules are not shown in this list 61 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide 7 The Web Shield The Web Shield works as a local proxy server On NT based operating systems Windows NT 2000 XP 2003 Vista 2008 the protection is completely transparent and it is not usually necessary to adjust any of the normal settings If you are using Windows 95 98 ME however it is necessary to change the settings in Internet Options in particular the address and port of the local proxy as follows If using a local area network LAN If using a dial up connection modem Start Internet Explorer Start Internet Explorer Select Tools then Internet Options from the main menu Select Tools then Internet Options from the main menu Switch to the Connections page Switch to the Connections page Click on the LAN Settings Select your dial up connection from the list and click on Settings Check the option Use a proxy server for your LAN Check the option Use a proxy server for this connection Write localhost in the Address field alternatively you can enter IP address 127 0 0 1 which is the same as localhost Enter 12080 in the Port field Write localhost in the Address field alternatively you can enter IP address 127 0 0 1 which is the same as localhost Enter 12080 in the Port field Confirm by clicking OK Confirm by cli
64. ntal infection from within the Chest e Refresh all files Select this option if you want to make sure you are looking at the complete list of files The program refreshes the list automatically but you can use this option if you do not want to wait e Add file You can add files to the User files category only e Delete file If you select this option the file will be deleted irreversibly i e files are not simply moved to the recycle bin Before deleting any file you sure be sure that it is not a system file Deleting a system file could have quite serious consequences e Restore file The file will be restored to its original location and at the same time removed from the Chest e Extract file The file will be copied to the selected folder e Scan file The file will be scanned for viruses e Show file properties The file properties are displayed it is possible to add a comment to the file e Send Email to ALWIL Software The selected file will be sent by e mail to ALWIL Software You should use this option in special cases only e g if you suspect the program has incorrectly identified a file as a virus Do not forget to include as much information as possible e g the reason you are sending the file the version of your virus database etc Doing this will improve the service that we provide to you By clicking on Program and Settings and then on Chest you can adjust the maximum permitted size o
65. ny portion of it may result in severe civil and criminal penalties and will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under law j Cancel Click Next and the installation wizard will then guide you through the rest of the installation process 12 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide First you will be asked to read about the minimum system requirements and then to confirm you agree to the end user license conditions see the next two screens below avast Antivirus Setup Read me avast 4 8 Home Professional Edition Welcome to the brand new version of the popular antivirus program avast for 32 bit Windows operating systems Windows 95 98 Me NT 4 2000 XP Vista and 64 bit version of Windows XP Vista antivirus System requirements 4 For a computer with Windows 95 98 Me PC 486 32 MB RAM 50 MB of free hard disk space For a computer with Windows NT 4 0 PC 486 32 MB RAM 50 MB of free hard disk space Service Pack 3 or higher installed For a computer with Windows 2000 lt P PC Pentium 64 MB RAM 128 MB recommended 50 MB of free hard disk space For a computer with Windows Vista v avast Antivirus Setup License agreement END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT THIS IS A CONTRACT BETWEEN YOU AND ALWIL SOFTWARE A PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC CORPORATION BY USING THIS SOFTWARE YOU ACCEPT ALL THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT If you do not agree with the terms an
66. o be scanned by clicking on Browse and selecting the required area s by checking the appropriate boxes By clicking Add you can select from a number of pre defined areas Once you have selected the area s to be scanned click on Types to specify which files should be scanned Files can be recognized as suspicious depending on their content which is more thorough and therefore slower or based on their name extension If you select a content based scan you can specify that all files should be scanned by checking the box Scan all files If you check this box it means that even those files 74 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide which do not usually contain viruses such as image files will also be scanned If you leave this box unchecked these files will not be scanned and will be reported as skipped files If you select an extension based scan you then need to specify which extensions should be recognized as suspicious To scan files based on one or more specific extensions click Browse and a list of file extensions will be displayed If you can find the extension you want to add click on it and then click OK to add it to the list If the extension you want to add is not in the list you can add it manually Click Add then type the file extension you want to add To add another extension click Add again If you want to remove a file extension from the list just click
67. ole list select Export current list or click on the right green arrow In the newly displayed window choose the destination folder for the exported file and type the new file name then click Save 51 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Resident Protection settings 1 Instant Messaging Programs Here you can specify for which IM programs the files should be scanned If you are using Windows 95 98 ME and you wish to protect the Trillian program you need to enter the path to its configuration file talk ini you can use the Browse button for this Some programs can be protected only if you are using Windows NT 2000 XP 2003 Vista or 2008 2 Internet Mail On the pages POP SMTP IMAP and NNTP you can specify whether inbound and or outbound email and news is scanned If a virus is detected a warning will be inserted into the relevant message You can also specify that a note is inserted into clean messages confirming they are free of any virus infection Redirect This page makes it possible to set up transparent e mail scanning Any emails that pass through the specified ports will be scanned for viruses This feature is available only on NT based operating systems Windows NT 2000 XP 2003 Vista 2008 Redirected ports The default ports are the standard port numbers for the four basic e mail protocols If you use a different port or ports they should be entered here Multip
68. ollowing notification that an update is available from avast To change the status you can either click on the current status e g Database only in the avast player screen or simply open the options menu see page 25 select Program settings then Update basic Then just click on the desired status for each of the virus database and the program see below avast settings P Common Appearance Chest wf Confirmations Language Sounds 2 Logging Update Basic Select the way you want avast to carry out updating Normally program update includes virus database update as well Virus database Automatic O Ask when update is available QO Exclusions Update Basic Manual Update Connections Update now Alerts Program Report file lt O Automatic Ask when update is available Manual Update now mi SMTP Troubleshooting Click OK and the status in the player window will be updated as follows ON if Automatic is selected for both the virus database and the program PROGRAM ONLY if Automatic is selected only for the program DATABASE ONLY if Automatic is selected only for the virus database OFF if Automatic is not selected for either the program or the virus database To manually update either the program or the virus database access the options menu see page 25 and select the option Updating e To up
69. on it to highlight it and then click Remove If the box Scan default extensions is checked it means all known dangerous extensions will be automatically scanned Any files with extensions other than those specified will not be scanned If you check the box Advanced configuration a number of additional options will be displayed see below Task properties Screen saver Screen saver Screen saver Areas AW Types go Sensitivity 3D Flying Objects v amp Exclusions 68 Virus Packers T Alerts Scan for viruses C Loop scanning Window movement speed PAA Max Min 1 second 60 seconds e Sensitivity Checking the box Test whole files may be very slow for big files will result in files being tested in their entirety rather than just the parts most frequently affected by viruses Most viruses are found either at the beginning of a file or at the end 75 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Checking this box will result in a more thorough scan but will also slow the scan down Checking the box Ignore virus targeting will result in the files being tested against all viruses in the virus database If this is not checked the files will be tested only against those viruses that affect the given type of file For example the program will not look for viruses that infect files with a exe extension in files with a com extension e Excl
70. only need to click Next to continue avast Antivirus Setup Configuration a amp v Instant Messaging v P2P Shield Typical 41 884 KB v Internet Mail v Outlook Exchange v Network Shield y v Web Shield Mini The Bat inimal 39 717 KB v Standard Shield User interface v Skins H B English language Custom v English language extension 41 884 KB v English help Arabic language Arabic language extension English help lt i a antivirus 4 14 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide The program will then confirm what is to be installed and where and the amount of required and available disk space Click Next to continue avast Antivirus Setup Installation information Instant Messaging P2P Shield Internet Mail Outlook Exchange Network Shield Web Shield Standard Shield Skins English language extension English help antivirus 4 Required disk space 41 884 KB Free space 5 554 724 KB Setup will install the following components Installed in C Program Files Alwil Software Avast4 lt Back Next gt Cancel You will then be asked whether you wish to schedule a boot time scan see page 38 The final screen should confirm that the installation has been successfully completed however to complete the process fully it will be necessary to re start your computer With Restart selected click Finish
71. other versions of Windows avast antivirus Home Edition can be downloaded free of charge from www avast com It is strongly recommended that all other Windows programs are closed before beginning the download Click on Download then Download programs and then select the version to be downloaded Note avast Home Edition is available only for non commercial home use From the list of available languages select the language version you require see below and click the grey Download box Download avast 4 Home Edition Download avast 4 Home English version length 18 25 MB Download avast 4 Home Arabic version length 18 05 MB Download avast 4 Home Bulgarian version length 18 09 MB Download avast 4 Home Catalan version length 18 34 MB If you are using Internet Explorer as your web browser the box shown below will then be presented File Download Security Warning Do you want to run or save this file Name setupeng exe Type Application 18 9 MB From download606 avast com While files from the Internet can be useful this file type can potentially harm your computer If you do not trust the source do not tun or save this software What s the risk Clicking either Run or Save will start the download of the installation file Setupeng exe to your computer 11 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide If you want avast antivirus to be install
72. other location Find a record press down the CTRL and F keys together or click on Edit in the top left corner of the screen and then on Find or click on the magnifying glass in the top left corner of the screen or right click on the list of records and then click Find in the presented menu AUNT A box will appear where you can type all or part of the name of the record that you want to find If you know the exact name checking the box Match whole word only will ensure only exact matches are listed Similarly if you only want to search for records using upper case or lower case letters check the box Match case Clicking Up or Down will determine whether the records are listed in ascending or descending order 50 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Then click Find Next The first record will be displayed Any other records that match the entered name can be found by pressing clicking Find Next until no more records can be found Filter the list of records This is used to narrow down a long list of records to a shorter list of records that fulfil certain criteria e g a specific keyword or part of a word DUNT press down the CTRL and R keys together or click on Edit in the top left corner of the screen and then on Filter or click on the yellow funnel in the top left corner of the screen or right click on the list of reco
73. ou can select the folders you want to be scanned This setting therefore offers most flexibility but requires the user to set exactly what is to be scanned You can adjust the scan sensitivity and specify whether archive files should also be scanned in the same way as for the other areas It is possible to combine more than one type of scan for example it is perfectly fine to initiate scanning of all of your hard and removable disks by clicking both the local hard drives button and the removable media button 27 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Setting the scan sensitivity and running the scan When defining the area s to be scanned you can also set the sensitivity of the scan and whether or not the program will scan the contents of archive files i e files with filenames ending in zip rar ace acj etc To include these files first select which areas you want to scan see above then click the checkbox in the scan archive files box that appears above the player The sensitivity of the scan determines how thorough the scan will be The sensitivity is set by moving the slider to the left or right You can choose between three predefined levels e Quick Scan This scan as its name suggests is quite fast as the files are examined according to their filenames and only those which are considered potentially dangerous are actually scanned This type of scan can sometimes lead to some files that contain viruses being
74. ove to Chest you can ensure that any files that cannot be repaired are moved to the virus chest see page 48 Note if you select Delete you will further be able to specify whether the file should be deleted permanently default action or simply moved to the recycle bin If you select Delete file s permanently you will also be able to specify whether the file s should be deleted the next time the computer is restarted if they cannot be deleted now by checking the box If necessary delete file s at the next system start e Packers On this page you can specify which archive files are tested during the scan The default setting is self extracting executables only You can specify that additional archives should be processed although this will slow the scan down Check the All packers option if you want all archive files that can be scanned to be tested e Alerts Alerts can be either general alerts which will be sent whenever a virus is detected or they can be generated only when a virus is detected by the screensaver The alerts that can be linked to the screensaver are shown in the available alerts box 77 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide General alerts are created by clicking on Settings and Alerts as described on page 44 however alerts that have been created in this way cannot be linked to the screensaver If the alert you wish to add is shown here click on it to
75. port file a Troubleshooting To install additional lanquages click here If the required language is then shown as available in the box on the right click on it to select it and then click OK You will then need to close the program and the next time you start it the language will be changed If the required language is not shown as available click on To install additional languages below the box then check the box next to the language you require Click Next and the additional program files will be installed When complete click Finish You can now select the required language as described above 68 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Sounds In this screen you can adjust the audio settings of the program or you can switch off the audio sounds completely If you click on Settings again this will take you to a screen where you can adjust the sound settings for all Windows programs In the bottom half of the screen there is a box called Program events see below Sounds and Audio Devices Properties Volume Sounds Audio Voice Hardware sound scheme is a set of sounds applied to events in Windows and programs You can select an existing scheme or save one you have modified Sound scheme Loo To change sounds click a program event in the following list and then select a sound to apply You can save the changes as a ne
76. positive alerts avast checks infected files for digital signatures If a file is detected as infected but it also contains a valid digital signature of a trusted authority e g Microsoft it is most likely a false positive and avast will ignore this false detection Checking this box will disable the additional check avast will report all infections it finds 72 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to activate the avast antivirus screen saver Avast antivirus is able to scan your computer for potential virus infections during periods when the computer is not in use and the screen saver is activated During this time a small box is displayed within the screen saver which informs you about the scan s progress To turn on the avast antivirus screen saver click the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen and select Settings Next click on Control panel and then double click Display In the box that appears click on Screen saver and then on the first blue down arrow to reveal the available options Click on avast antivirus In the box below you can also change the number of minutes after which the screen saver is activated using the blue up down arrows and whether it is necessary to enter your password to continue Display Properties Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings Screen saver 7 Settings Wait 5 minutes _ On resume passwo
77. rd protect Monitor power To adjust monitor power settings and save energy Lex click Power By clicking on Settings in this screen you can select the normal screen saver within which the avast message box advising the scan status will appear see the next page 73 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Task properties Screen saver E Screen saver Screen saver Areas Aj Types 3D Flying Objects l Settings Scan for viruses C Loop scanning Window movement speed __ Max Min 1 second 60 seconds If you want your computer to be scanned for viruses whenever the screen saver is activated check the box Scan for viruses If this box is not checked the screen saver will function only as a normal screen saver Checking the box Loop scanning will ensure that the scan is started over again once all of the defined areas have been scanned Changing the window movement speed will affect how frequently position of the scan progress box changes on the screen Clicking on Settings again will enable you to adjust the normal screen saver settings By clicking on Areas you can specify which areas of your computer should be scanned The areas to be scanned automatically include All hard disks If you don t want all hard disks to be scanned delete this by clicking on it and then clicking Remove You can then specify the areas t
78. rding to their extension either when they are opened or when they are created or modified e Scan files on open The extensions of the additional files to be scanned should be separated by a comma You can use the wildcard e g if you want all Atm and html opened files to be scanned enter either htm html or use the wildcard ht in the latter case however all files with extensions Starting with ht such as htt will be scanned 59 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide e Always scan WSH script files This option ensures that all script files Windows Scripting Host will be tested e Do not scan system libraries Trusted system libraries will not be scanned on opening only a quick check will be performed to validate the authenticity This option may speed up the system start a little e Scan created modified files If this box is checked files will be scanned at the moment they are created or modified You can further specify whether this should be applied to e Allfiles or e Only files with selected extensions If the Default extension set box is checked only those files with extensions that are generally considered dangerous will be scanned click Show to see the list of default extensions You can also specify additional extensions to be scanned Blocker On this page you can specify that particular operations are blocked for files with specific extensions This
79. rds and then click Filter in the presented menu A box will then appear in which you can specify the filter criteria Include Enter a keyword or part of a word that should be included in the records to be displayed You can use wildcards i e you can type in place of any letters that you don t know Multiple keywords must be separated by a semicolon Exclude Enter a keyword or part of a word that must not be included in the records to be displayed Time range Here you can define the start and end of the period for which you would like the records to be displayed Select defined lines If this option is selected the records that match the defined criteria will simply be highlighted in the list Show only defined lines hide the rest If this option is selected only the records that match the defined criteria will be displayed The other records will not be visible This is useful if the original list is very long Sort records Clicking any of the column headings will sort the records into ascending or descending order according to the information in that column Clicking the column heading again will return the list to the original order Export records Found or filtered records or the whole list of records can be exported and saved as a new file To export found or filtered records select the option Export selected lines or click on the left green arrow in the top right corner of the screen To export the wh
80. re described further in the section What to do if a virus is found 29 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Changing the appearance of the Simple User Interface It is possible to change the appearance of the program by selecting a different program skin Three distinct skins appearances are offered as standard and others can be downloaded from the Internet if required right click on the avast player and from the options menu click on Select skins and then on the Get more skins link Alternatively if you wish to use the program without any skin select Settings from the menu options then uncheck the Enable skins for Simple User Interface checkbox Next time you start the program the options will be displayed in their basic format To restore the skin click on Settings then click on Settings again and finally re check the Enable skins for simple user interface checkbox The skin will be restored next time you start the program Appearance of the simple user interface without any skin S avast Simple User Interface Tools Settings Help http www avast com Area to scan Local Hard Disks C Floppies C Folders C cb DVD Selected paths cn Type of scan Standard Thorough Test archives Information Current version of virus database Resident Protection Date of last scan 080402 0 04 02 08 Standard 4 3 2008 6 05 Virus recovery database VA
81. redirected to the Web Shield Multiple addresses should be separated by commas e Ignore local communication If this box is checked all local communication i e communication between the programs running on your computer will be ignored Web scanning On this page you can specify which files should be scanned when they are downloaded from the internet You can specify that all files should be scanned or just those with particular extensions If you choose the latter you should enter the extensions of files to be scanned separated by commas You can also enter the MIME types of files that should be scanned In both cases wildcards can be used Exceptions Here you can specify objects that will not be scanned by Web Shield This may be useful when downloading a large number of files from a single trusted location e URLs to exclude Use the Add button to enter the URL addresses that should be ignored If you want to block a single page only it is necessary to enter the full path e g if you add http www yahoo com index html only the page index html will be excluded from scanning If you enter http www yahoo com avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide however no pages Starting with http www yahoo com will be scanned Similarly if you want a particular file type to be excluded from scanning e g files with a txt extension simply enter txt e MIME Types to exclude Here you can specify MIME type
82. reen check the box Create report file as shown below avast settings Common Report file Appearance Chest Create report file ff Ovenwrite existing wf Confirmations Report File Folder L Aage Standard program folder D Custom program folder Q Sounds 2 Logging QO Exclusions Update Basic Update Connections Alerts Task start C Hard errors Text file aij SMTP Task stop Soft errors a Troubleshooting C Skipped files OK files Vf Infected files O XML file Log Record For Type Of File If you want to create a new report after each scan and you don t want to keep a record of all the previous scan results check the box Overwrite existing If this box is not checked the results of each scan will be added onto the end of the previous report You can also choose where you want the report to be saved in the standard program folder which the program assigns automatically or in a new location which you can specify by clicking on Custom program folder and entering the folder location Next you can specify what information will be included in the report e Task start the date and time the scan was started e Task stop the date and time the scan was completed e OK files files that were scanned without detecting anything suspicious If all local drives are scanned checking this box would produce a very long report possibly of several t
83. rs the Professional Edition features a command line scanner The ashCmd program uses exactly the same scanning kernel as avast so the results are exactly the same Scanning is carried out in the command line using a range of parameters and switches and a special STDIN STDOUT mode is available This module is intended to be used in BATCH programs and its output is the same as the output from the Enhanced User Interface tasks including the report files Script blocker Professional Edition only The built in script blocker is a module that protects your computer against script viruses hidden inside web pages Such scripts are normally harmless as the programs that run them prevent them from accessing any files However there may be a security gap in a browser that could be exploited by a virus which could result in your computer being infected avast therefore checks the web pages that you visit for any scripts that could potentially be dangerous PUSH updates Professional Edition only A special feature of the Professional Edition is PUSH updates It is a dramatic change in the philosophy of updates Usually every installed program checks occasionally for new version availability PUSH updates however are initialized by our server they result in your computer quickly responding and performing the necessary update The system is based on the SMTP protocol as used for e mail messages The update itself is controlled by the avast residen
84. s Due to the length of the file name the user may not see the second extension however heuristic analysis can uncover this trick The default permitted number of consecutive whitespaces is five If there are more than five a warning message will be displayed e Sensitivity Medium in addition to the above Thorough check of attachments As well as the basic attachments check a warning will also be displayed if the attachment has a simple executable extension EXE COM BAT etc Not all such files are dangerous and this level of sensitivity will therefore generate more false positive alerts than the basic attachments check e Sensitivity High in addition to the above HTML part check Some viruses can exploit bugs in some mail programs especially unsecured MS Outlook and Outlook Express that make it possible to start the virus merely by viewing the message in the preview pane avast checks whether the HTML code of the message contains a tag enabling such a trick If it does a warning message is displayed Outbound messages Time period check Most viruses are spread by e mail and send themselves to addresses stored in the Windows address book Within a very short period of time messages are sent to a large number of addresses with the same subject and or attachment avast monitors the number of messages in a given period of time and can also check the subject and or the attachments These parameters can all be set on t
85. s subtypes to be excluded from scanning URL Blocking The Web Shield can also be used to block access to certain web pages It is turned off by default however it can be used to prevent access to unsuitable web pages e g containing pornography illegal software etc If such a blocked page is requested from the web browser a message will appear announcing that access to the page has been blocked by avast antivirus The box Enable URL blocking must first be checked and you can then enter the addresses to be blocked by clicking the Add button and then entering the relevant URL Wildcards i e and can be used for example if you enter http www penthouse com no pages starting with http www penthouse com will be displayed Entered URL addresses will be completed according to the following rules If the address does not begin with http or wildcards or avast adds the prefix http to the beginning of the address and adds an asterisk to the end So if you enter www yahoo com it will be modified to http www yahoo com Advanced e Show detailed info on performed action If this box is checked information about the files currently being tested will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen e Silent mode If this box is checked the connection will be terminated whenever a virus is found 64 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Other avast settings Many other p
86. scanning How to upgrade to Professional Edition Upgrading from Home Edition to Professional Edition is very simple You don t need to uninstall the current version of the program and no additional download is required You just need to purchase the Professional Edition obtain the license key and insert it into your current program The additional components will then be downloaded automatically and your program will be upgraded to Professional Edition immediately A license key can be purchased for 12 24 or 36 months just go to Www avast com and click on Purchase 78 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide How to uninstall avast antivirus Some viruses are designed to switch off a computer s antivirus software Therefore avast antivirus is now protected by a strong self defense SD module that prevents it from being changed or deleted by such viruses However a consequence of this is that other valid programs may also find it more difficult to change or delete avast antivirus compared to previous versions In order to properly remove the avast antivirus program it is essential to follow the correct procedure Before attempting to uninstall avast antivirus it is recommended to close any other applications that you might have running on your computer To uninstall the avast antivirus program the recommended procedure is as follows 1 Turn off the Self Defense e Right click on the blue a ball icon
87. sented as an available option when a suspicious file is detected These options are all described on page 32 in the section What to do if a virus is found Selecting this action will result in the scan being suspended if a virus is detected until you have specified what action to take Therefore it is recommended to select one or more of the other actions such as moving the file to the virus chest To select a different action click on Remove last word The default action will then be deleted and the six possible actions will now be highlighted in the centre of the screen Clicking on any one of them will insert that action into the box above This action will then be applied to all suspicious files that are detected To remove it simply click again on Remove last word The first four actions are described in detail on page 32 Clicking Interactive will re insert choose action Clicking stop will simply stop the scan as soon as a suspicious file is detected It is possible to specify more than one action using the And button For example you can specify that any infected files are repaired and moved to another location by clicking Repair then And and then Move Rename You can also specify any alternative actions that should be taken if the first selected action fails For example you could select Repair as the preferred action but by then clicking on If failed and M
88. t e mail clients WS Outlook and Internet Mail The whole system is protected by asymmetric ciphers and is resistant to unauthorized misuse Enhanced user interface Professional Edition only avast antivirus Professional Edition includes an enhanced user interface where it is possible to create special tasks which can be scheduled to run at a specified time in the future or on a regular basis e g daily weekly or monthly Whenever a task is run a new Session is created in which the scan results are stored and can later be viewed Unlike the default simple interface when working in the enhanced user interface it is possible to specify in advance what action should be taken if a virus is detected For example you can arrange that the program immediately tries to repair any infected files It is also possible to specify an alternative action if the first action is unsuccessful For example if a file cannot be repaired it can be automatically moved to the virus chest avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide System requirements The hardware configurations described below represent the minimum recommended system specification for that operating system For a computer running Windows 95 98 Me 486 Processor 32MB RAM and 100MB of free hard disk space For a computer running Windows NT 4 0 486 Processor 24MB RAM and 100MB of free hard disk space and Service Pack 3 or higher installed For a computer running W
89. tbeavecsans 65 Explorer OXECASION isin snctasumuiadanne yiewaperesuxundeasadiganas aligaxdsuvaseeqanlageaneataserniainermenneds 65 AP DOGO GO airinn iade a ana kaka Ka araa Ead aAa EA detagaded nedsns da a Ra Eaei BEATA EAF 66 CONTIIMOUON Siscxceinctagoei ie dana dianeadoneandene a EE E Ea E E NE 66 Changing the program lGNQUAGE ccccseeeeeeecneeeececeeeeteeecaeeeeeecaaeeeceeaaeeeeeesaeeeeneaaees 68 SOUNO Sieranden ea AA EA IAEE Eaa aaas a a ASA AA aaa a AEEA EAEAN ENS 69 Update Connections issseimivesssnrasprniandinreonstsmonimmal EE E EE 70 TRO ODIOSNOOTIIG isc miosaerennan aeaiia a in aA EEE Laa 71 How to activate the avast antivirus SCreen SaVeT sss ssssssessssreresssreresereressreressrnt 73 How to upgrade to Professional Edition cc ecccccccceseececeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeaeseesaeeeeaeeeeseeeeea 78 How to uninstall avast ANtCIVITUS occ eccececceceecesaecesueeesaeeeseeeaseeeaeeeeaseneaeeeaeenees 79 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Introduction Welcome to avast antivirus Home Edition version 4 8 avast antivirus is a collection of award winning high end technologies that work in perfect synergy having one common goal to protect your system and valuable data against computer viruses It represents a best in class solution for any Windows based workstation avast antivirus incorporates anti spyware technology certified by West Coast Lab s Checkmark process as well as anti rootkit and strong self
90. tegrated avast Virus Cleaner sessesesssesersressrrsresereresereresersrererarerersnrreersreeennne 8 Command line scanner Professional Edition only 9 Script blocker Professional Edition only 9 PUSH updates Professional Edition only 9 Enhanced user interface Professional Edition only c cccccceeee teeta 9 System reguiremerntS sssoniserini reond one o e EN EO EE EEO EE ECNE EO SEEE N E 10 How to install avast antivirus Home Edition sss sssssssssssssssssrrssssrrresssrersssrerssrreressret 11 Getting starte Oranen e e aE E a TEE ote tanestoes 16 Pass wWordiprotecti on rae raa e E E E 17 How to register for a License Key scccccccccnesesecsasectenaneceneceascebecaneveneceaacensdanacenecsaecanedneae 18 Inserting the License Key ce cceeeeeeeceeceeeeeeceeeeeeeeesaeaeeeneaeaeseeaeeaeeeeeseeeeeaseneeeeeeenes 19 Basics Of USING avast ANTIVIFUS eee eee eee neeeeeeeeecaeeeeeeeeecaeeeeaeeeecaeeeeaereeeeeeeeaeseeaeeeeea 20 Resident on access PROC EIO I icciccies wleicda tinal cau bidet Peach det aueildes eadidasimee sda Seectedaais 20 How to run a manual virus scan the Simple User Interface cceccceeeeeeneeeees 24 Selecting the areas to be manually SCANNEO cceeeeceeneeeeeeeceeeeeeecaeeeseeeeaetees 26 Setting the scan sensitivity and running THE SCN cccceeeeeeeeeneeeeeeceeeeeeeeeaeetees 28 Running a scan and processing the FOSUIC ccccccccseeeececceeeeeecaeeeeecaeeeeeeeaaee
91. then deal with the affected files as described on page 42 e g they can be deleted if you are sure it is safe to do so they can be moved back to their original location or they can simply be stored there until you decide what to do Once you have confirmed how any infected files should be dealt with click Schedule and the following message will appear Operating system restart needed avast needs to restart your operating system Do you want to do it now No Click Yes to restart your computer and run the boot time scan now or click No and the scan will be carried out automatically next time you restart your computer 39 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Excluding files from scanning It is possible to exclude some locations or even single files from testing which means they will not be tested for viruses during any scan This may be useful in several cases e To avoid false alarms If the program reports a virus infection in a file and you are sure that it is a false alarm you can exclude the file from testing and avoid further false alarms Please inform Alwil Software of any such files in order that the problem can be fixed e To speed up processing If you have a folder on your hard disk that contains images only for example you can exclude it from testing by adding it to the exclusions list which will reduce the time spent on scanning Keep in mind that these exclusions affect
92. thereby preventing a virus from being activated and causing any damage Web Shield protects your computer from viruses while using the internet browsing downloading files etc and can also block access to specific web pages If you download an infected file the Standard Shield will prevent it from being started and causing any damage However the Web Shield will detect the virus even earlier during the download of the file providing even stronger protection The Web Shield is compatible with all major web browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer FireFox Mozilla and Opera Due to a unique feature called Intelligent Stream Scanning which enables downloaded files to be scanned almost in real time its impact on browsing speed is almost negligible 22 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide It is possible to adjust the sensitivity of each module separately To set the sensitivity individually for each module or to pause or terminate a specific module click on Details The screen will then be expanded as follows avast On Access Scanner Installed providers In stant M essa g in g The provider is currently running AN te Instant Messaging Provider Configuration Version 4 8 1169 Sensitivity y Normal High Custom Internet Mail Provider Actions Version 4 8 1169 antivirus 4 Network Shield Last scanned Version 4 8 1169 Last infected Scanned count 0 Infected count 0 O
93. this page the last 10 network worm attacks will be displayed if the Logging box was checked on the previous page This will include the date and time of the attack the type of attack and the IP address and port from where it originated 4 Outlook Exchange Scanner Here you can specify what type of messages should be scanned and whether the message bodies should be scanned as well as the attachments Inbound mail Here you can specify what should be done if an infected inbound message is detected for example it can be delivered discarded deleted or redirected to a different email folder You can also specify whether a note should be inserted into clean and or infected messages and the format of the note i e TXT or HTML Any infected files attached to or contained in a message are dealt with according to the settings on the Virus storing and Advanced pages 56 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Outbound mail Here you can specify whether a note should be inserted into clean messages and the format of the note as above Infected messages will not be sent at all You can also specify that attachments should be scanned at the time they are attached rather than when they are sent Signatures By using signatures it is possible to heavily reduce the number of messages that need to be scanned The signatures are small stamps that are attached to uninfected messages to confirm they are virus free
94. us Home Edition 4 8 User Guide The resident protection is made up of the following modules or providers Instant Messaging checks the files downloaded by instant messaging or chat programs such as ICQ and MSN Messenger and many others While instant messages themselves do not pose any serious security risks in terms of viruses today s IM applications are far from being just chatting tools most of them also allow the sharing of files which can quite easily lead to virus infections if not properly monitored Internet Mail checks incoming and outgoing email messages processed by clients other than MS Outlook and MS Exchange such as Outlook Express Eudora etc Network Shield provides protection from internet worms such as Blaster Sasser etc This is only available on NT based systems Windows NT 2000 XP Vista Outlook Exchange checks incoming and outgoing e mail messages processed by MS Outlook or MS Exchange and will stop any messages containing a potential virus from being accepted or sent P2P Shield checks files downloaded by common P2P file sharing programs such as Kazaa etc Script Blocking Professional Edition only checks the scripts in any web pages that you look at to prevent any infection due to vulnerabilities in your web browser The Standard Shield checks the programs being run and documents that are opened It will prevent an infected program from being started or an infected document from being opened
95. usions Here it is possible to exclude certain files or folders from the scan This works in exactly the same way as described on page 40 with the exception that exclusions set here apply only to this specific task Files or folders that are excluded in the Settings menu will be automatically excluded from all scans e Virus Clicking on Virus will result in the following screen being displayed New task Unnamed Task Virus Areas 2 Types Select actions to be performed when a virus is found E Results choose action D Sensitivity amp Exclusions amp GD Packers Virus actions Report file Q Alerts M f M Scheduling Processing operators In this screen you can specify what action should be taken when a virus is detected The default is choose action This is the Interactive option If this is left as the selected action it means whenever a suspicious file is detected you will be presented with a list of possible options from which you will need to select one This means you can specify what action to take individually for each suspicious file 76 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Clicking on Choose action will reveal the options that will be presented whenever a suspicious file is detected i e Delete Repair Move to Chest Move Rename or Stop Only the options that are checked will be presented as available options If any option is unchecked it will not be pre
96. utlook Exchange Task name Resident protection Version 4 8 1169 z Run time 26 16 avast on access protection is based on so called resident providers The resident providers are special modules that are used to protect specific subsystems of your computer such as the filesystem and the mail In the expanded box the individual modules are shown in the panel down the left hand side The sensitivity of each module can be set by clicking on the relevant module on the left hand side then clicking on the line to the left or right of the slider In this box it is also possible to suspend the individual parts of the resident protection either temporarily or permanently by clicking on Pause or Terminate If you click Pause the relevant module will be automatically reactivated next time you restart your computer If you select Terminate the program will ask you whether you want that particular module to remain turned off indefinitely or whether it should resume after the next computer restart see page 66 If you click Yes that particular module will remain deactivated even after restarting your computer until you manually activate it again There are a range of additional options that can be selected for each module for example it is possible to specify the types of files that should be scanned These additional options are accessed by clicking Customize and are described on page 52 Resident Prote
97. virus and you decide not to delete it for some reason you will be offered the option of moving it to the Chest With the virus in the Chest you can be sure that it will not be run by accident Storing suspicious files The Chest is useful for storing any suspicious files for later analysis Backup of system files During the installation copies of some critical system files are stored in the Chest under the System files category see below If the main system files become infected by a virus the copies can be restored from the Chest to their original location avast Virus Chest Program File view Help HEGOA OkO All chest files Name Original location Last changed Transfer time virus Infected files Fe kerels2 dl C WINDOWS system32 4 16 2007 8 52 53 4 1 2008 8 42 27 AM fed winsock dll CAWINDOWS system32 2 28 2006 5 00 00 4 1 2008 8 42 28 AM fee wsock32 dll C AWINDOWS system32 2 28 2006 5 00 00 4 1 2008 8 42 28 AM ALWIL Software 48 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Right clicking on any file will produce the following options Alternatively left click a file to highlight it then either click on the corresponding icon at the top of the screen or click File and select the required option Note f you double click a file you will not run it its properties will be displayed instead This is a safety measure to further protect you from an accide
98. w sound scheme Program events E avast antivirus Automatic VPS update Detection of suspicious message Mouse over the simple user interface button Other malware found Program end If you click on the blue arrow down on the right side about half way down the list you will find the avast antivirus events to which sounds can be assigned If you want to assign a new sound to an event click on the relevant event and then on Browse From the list of available options select the sound you want and click OK You will then return to the box shown above where you should click Apply then OK again This will take you back to the main Sounds screen where you should click OK again to finish 69 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Update Connections On the screen you can specify the type of internet connection by checking the appropriate box i e e only connect to the Internet using a dial up modem or e My computer is permanently connected to the Internet This will optimize the way avast checks for new updates and will make the automatic update process more reliable Once you have specified the type of connection click the Proxy button This will open a new window where you can enter the proxy server settings The proxy server settings are important when avast needs to access the Internet e g during updates avast
99. you can specify what should be done with any infected files You can choose from any of the following options e Delete infected file e Move infected file e Move infected file to Chest e Ignore infected file e Repair infected file 38 avast antivirus Home Edition 4 8 User Guide Selecting Move infected file will result in any suspicious files being moved to the folder C Program Files Alwil Software Avast4 DATA moved The extension vir will also be added to the end of the filename to identify it as a suspicious file so that you don t run it accidentally thereby infecting your computer and causing damage to your files If you choose any of the options to Delete or Move infected files you will be asked to confirm what you want to do with any infected system files System files are files that are used by your computer to run your programs and deleting or moving them could have serious consequences You are therefore asked to confirm whether you wish to e Allow delete or move or e Ignore delete or move for system files Selecting Ignore delete or move will prevent any potential operational problems however your computer will still be at risk from the potential infection The recommended action is therefore to move all suspicious files to the virus chest where they can subsequently be dealt with in a protected quarantine area Once moved to the virus chest they cannot cause damage to your other files You can

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