14 DAY TRIAL // There are plenty of anti-virus solutions out there on the market, but avast! Free Antivirus clearly remains one of the most popular choices for all Windows users.
Of course, updates are playing a very important role for everyone, especially because anti-virus products need to detect the latest virus definitions and threats that could compromise your data.
Avast Software today rolled out an important pack of improvements for its flagship security product, thus addressing some of the bugs found in older builds, but also enhancing performance on Windows.
Avast! Free Antivirus 9.0.2016 basically comes with the same features and updates as the RC build rolled out a few days ago. This means that it benefits from an improved firewall, which should be more stable and provide better compatibility with network applications, but also from a revamped software updater which comes with a new installation wizard.
At the same time, browser cleanup options have also been revised to provide improved detection and removal of browser protectors, while GrimeFighter supports 12 additional languages and includes an advanced console for better control of optimization tasks.
Avast! Free Antivirus is also one of the security products that will continue to work on Windows XP after the operating system is retired on April 8, with the parent company explaining that it’s critical for those sticking to this old platform to keep an up-to-date security application running on their PCs.
“We have already taken additional steps in our latest product release, avast! 2014, by making the product lighter, both in terms of speed and resource consumption, tailoring it for older machines still running Windows XP. In addition to the security value, avast! 2014 is offered for free, which is especially important for XP users,” the security vendor said in a blog post.
At the same time, AVAST Software has also recommended those sticking to Windows XP to abandon Internet Explorer and move to a browser that’s still supported, such as Google Chrome.
Microsoft, on the other hand, warns that whatever security measure you take, Windows XP computers will be fully vulnerable, so you'd better upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 as soon as possible. End of support will take place in less than 20 days, which means that users still on Windows XP are running out of time if they really decide to move their files to a new computer running one of the latest OS versions released by Microsoft.