The Czech company has been in business since 1991, steadily building up a broad product range around its core desktop anti-malware offering. The company’s first standalone review in these pages was in 1995, when the product included detection for a ‘massive’ 3,103 viruses (see VB, February 1995, p.21).

We will mainly be focusing on the suite edition in this review, but where applicable will note any differences observed between the two.Īlwil is one of the veteran brands in anti-malware, and its products have been regular entrants in our VB100 comparative reviews since official records began in January 1998 (see VB, January 1998, p.10). As both versions are still in beta, we’ll be skimming briefly over any minor bugs observed, on the assumption that these wrinkles will be ironed out by the time the full release is finalized. Late beta versions of the product have been made publicly available, so we’ll be taking a quick look at both the free edition and the main Internet Security suite version, which features a number of interesting extras. When rumours of a new edition first reached the VB lab in the summer, it went straight to the top of our must-review list, but delays in issuing the final release have dragged on, and with a new release deadline extended to sometime in the new year, we just couldn’t wait any longer. Version 4 has been with us for over six years now, and the prospect of a major new release has brought growing levels of excitement and anticipation among the product’s huge legions of fans.

Its renown and popularity are assisted no end by the free edition which seems to have taken up permanent residence in the top-ten lists of most freeware download sites. Alwil’s avast! product has a pretty enormous user base, as evidenced by the company’s recent 100 millionth user celebrations.

Avast blocking sites after xp3 added