A new version of avast aims to offer users of free anti-malware technology faster running protection against the latest hacking attacks, while offering alternatives to AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials.
avast Free 5.0 comes with the same engine under its bonnet as its premium sibling, avast Pro Antivirus 5.0. Both versions have been optimised to run faster on the multiple PC processor cores common with the latest desktop and netbook PCs. Tests run on notebooks running Intel Core i5 mobile showed a 40 per cent speed boost for avast 5.0, compared to the previous version (avast 4 Home Edition) as a result of this optimisation work.