Avast Premier 2015 Review - Outstanding AV on All Fronts

Everyone with a computer and an Internet connection has heard about Avast, the renowned security software application that specializes in malware prevention and removal. The 2015 version of Avast Premier was released a while back and we decided to take a closer look at it.

Avast Premier 2015 represents the top of the line of the Avast antivirus series, since it has the richest features out of Avast Free Antivirus, Avast Pro Antivirus and Avast Internet Security.

License type and installation

The trial edition can be tested for 30 days without any feature restrictions. Once this period expires, you can either uninstall the product, use the activation key if you're a giveaway winner, or otherwise purchase the full edition for $49.99 / €45.63 (1-year subscription for 1 PC), $79.99 / €73.01 (2-year subscription for 1 PC) or $99.99 / €91.27 (3-year subscription for 1 PC).

However, although these two components are listed in Avast Premier's interface, SecureLine VPN and Cleanup are not included in the package (either trial or purchased). You can run their trials to decide whether or not you want to purchase them separately.

The setup procedure may take a while to finish. Suffice it to say, you shouldn't have any other av with a real-time guard installed, since the two are likely to clash and cause OS stability problems.

The complete package includes shields for files, the web, email, antispam and DNS security, in addition to multilingual support and extra tools: firewall, sandbox, SafeZone, browser protection, software updater, remote assistance, SecureLine, cleanup, disk rescue, browser cleanup, desktop gadget, data shredder, home network security, and secure virtual machines. Any of these components may be excluded from installation.

Shell extension and autostart integration, and first run

After setup, Avast automatically adds entries to the Windows Explorer shell extension for quickly scanning and shredding selected files and folders, as well as for running programs inside the sandbox (once or always). It also integrates an entry into the OS autostart sequence, so its real-time protection module is tuned on immediately after firing up the PC.

Once launched, Avast runs a speedy scan to get an assessment of the current PC security status. Plus, the firewall replaces the Windows Firewall, detects networks, and asks you to select the appropriate firewall mode for any identified network (private, public, friendly). It shows your local and Internet name, ISP, network name, router MAC address and manufacturer, in addition to the adapter name.

Systray integration and main control panel

It creates an icon in the systray that facilitates access to the main control panel. You can turn on silent mode to hide all notifications while playing a game or working with any kind of fullscreen application, enter the SafeZone, temporarily disable the real-time av guard (for 10 minutes or 1 hour, until the computer is restarted, or permanently), stop all network communications by activating offline mode, view the last popup message if you were away from the workstation, as well as update the program along with the engine and virus definitions.

The main control panel of Avast Premier 2015

The main control panel has an attractive appearance and neatly arranged structure, organizing the scanner, tools, store, account details, statistics and settings into different areas.

Different scan modes with rich configuration options

Apart from the previously described shell extension scanner, Avast has other scan modules as well. For example, the smart scan mode checks your computer for viruses, browser add-ons, outdated software, network threats, and performance issues.

You can run a quick scan in critical Windows areas where malware agents are known to hide, a full system scan to take into account all files and folders from your hard drives, a boot-time scan to examine the Windows autostart processes and services when turning on the PC, a removable device scan for digital cameras, SD drives and other portable devices, along with a custom folder scan. It's also possible to create custom scan profiles with personalized settings.

When it comes to scan settings, you can edit profile names and comments, filter files by type or content, or set the app to scan all items, as well as choose the exact areas you want to scan: all hard disks, the system drive, CD-ROM and DVD drives, all removable media, modules loaded in the memory, autostart programs, or rootkits.

Configure heuristics and other scan settings

It's possible to adjust the heuristics sensitivity level, use code emulation, test whole files, scan for potentially unwanted programs (PUPs), follow links during scan, select the file types of packers to be extracted while scanning (e.g. 7ZIP, ACE, CHM, ISO, Installer archive), as well as tell Avast how to proceed when detecting infected archives: try to remove only the packed file from the archive or the whole containing archive and do nothing if it fails, or always remove the whole archive.

If necessary, the selected action can be executed at the next Windows restart and applied automatically during scan. As far as scanning performance options are concerned, you can adjust the scan priority, speed up the task by using the persistent cache and store data about scanned items in this cache, as well as improve file access speed.

Generate reports, exclude folders, and schedule tasks

Reports can be compiled with scan results about the infected items, hard and soft errors, along with the approved and skipped objects, and saved as XML files or TXT documents (ANSI or Unicode).

What's more, you can exclude any locations from the scanner to keep them safe by creating a list with full paths, as well as schedule any type of scan to run one time or regularly (daily, weekly, monthly), at a specified time, day and date. This action can be paused if the notebook is switching to battery mode, or halted if it's already running on batteries. Moreover, Avast can wake up the system to start the scan and power it off on task completion.

Scanning behavior and quarantine

During scan, it's possible to pause the task to temporarily allocate system resources to other applications, as well as to resume and stop it. On threat detection, you can check out the full path, severity level, status, and action for each item.

Avast gives you the possibility of selecting the course of action for each infected file, or for all items in the list. It can be asked to repair the files, move them to the quarantine directly, repair the files and move them to the quarantine if the first action fails, delete the items, or do nothing.

The quarantine shows the name, original location, last modified date and transfer time, along with the comment and submit time (if any) for each infected file. By opening the right-click menu of one or more selected objects, you can remove them from the computer, restore them to their original location (and optionally put them on the exclusions list), move them to another location, or rescan them. Plus, you can view file properties and add comments, submit a file to the virus lab for in-depth analysis, and refresh all files in the virus chest.

Scan history and reports

Avast records scanning activity to history, thus giving you the possibility of retracing its steps, especially if you've been away from the PC. For each scan session it displays a summary with the scan name, date, overall result, run time, total tested files and folders, amount of data transferred to the quarantine, and total infected files.

For additional information, you can inspect a detailed report to find out the threat name, taken action, and result for each file, as well as warnings. These reports may also be compiled into text documents if you want to search for specific files and organize data, provided that you have enabled report file generation from the Settings menu before running the scan in question.

SecureLine VPN and SafeZone

SecureLine VPN prevents third parties from viewing or recording your activity when surfing the Internet, and facilitates a virtual private network to spoof your IP address so that you can access online content that is otherwise unavailable due to geographical restrictions. You can connect to the nearest location available, or explore a list of countries and cities to select the preferred one.

However, this module is not free. Although it's available in the Avast Premier interface, it has to be purchased separately: $7.99 / €7.30 for 1 month, $59.99 / €54.81 for 1 year, or $89.99 / €82.22 for 2 years.

SafeZone is a special feature of Avast Premier dedicated to ensuring data security when entering bank and credit card information online when you want to shop. It transforms the desktop into a minimalistic and secured environment that's isolated from the rest of the computer (similar to sandboxing), automatically launches an instance of your default web browser, and prevents hidden spyware agents from gathering your private details.

Any currently running programs are not affected while you're using SafeZone, so you don't have to worry about losing unsaved work. It lets you create a favorites list with frequently accessed websites for online banking and shopping, in order to automatically turn on SafeZone for them.

Sandbox and Remote Assistance tools

As previously mentioned, the sandbox acts like SafeZone but for programs. It supplies you with a virtualized environment for running programs that you find suspicious, such as download attachment executables from unknown email senders, along with any other processes started by the program in question, like those that automatically open a web page with the developer's website.

By the way, in this case, if your browser is already running, it opens a new instance instead of a new tab, so it doesn't interfere with your current activity. In case your suspicion turns out to be true and the file is really infected, you can rest assured that it won't affect the rest of the computer. The sandbox feature acts like a task manager as well, enabling you to terminate programs currently running inside the secured environment.

Remote Assistance is a tool that can be used by two people who have Avast installed. For example, if a friend needs help with anything on their computer, they can launch Avast, obtain a code, and share it with you, so you can remotely connect to their PC. Evidently, this also works if you happen to be the friend who needs aid.

Firewall, application rules, and history

The Avast Firewall can be configured for private or public networks. It lets you tinker with rules for each active application, like allowing connections to all networks while specifying inbound and outbound ports, allowing outbound access to the Internet and inbound access from friends only, allowing outbound access to the Internet only, allowing outbound and inbound access to friends, or allowing outbound access to friends.

It's possible to edit existing packet rules and create new ones, organize running apps into different groups, check paths for malware, find out all network connections established by the active tools, run TraceRoute and obtain details (this requires Adobe Flash Player), terminate connections, and resolve names.

Avast keeps track of the firewall's activity in log files, so you can view history with set rules and blocked traffic. Furthermore, you can modify firewall policies (e.g. allow all connections with friends when you're in private mode), network profiles (e.g. disable automatic profile switching), customize the list of friends, or disable raw sockets and auto port scan detection, among others.

Rescue Disk, Data Shredder, and browser extension

Rescue Disk is a bootable CD or USB drive created by Avast with the latest av definitions, which can be used to repair a computer hijacked by malware. The removable media device must have at least 500MB free space.

Another tool powered by Avast is a data shredder, which can permanently remove files, folders and drives from the computer, in order to prevent other persons or parties from recovering it using specialized tools (like Piriform's Recuva). Moreover, it can secure free space where files existed and were removed via traditional deletion, in addition to cluster tips, MFT (on NTFS) and FAT directory entries. You can set a custom number of passes for erasing data, or opt for the DOD 5220.22-M or Gutmann algorithm.

The Avast Online Security browser extension keeps an eye on the websites you are attempting to access, and tells you whether or not they are safe, based on their reputation. It's capable of blocking all unwanted advertising and preventing analytics websites from secretly monitoring your online behavior, featuring support for social networks, ad tracking, web analytics, and others.

The browser extension can also detect and correct misspelled URLs, redirect you to legitimate websites (with or without prompt), switch to SafeZone for sensitive financial sites, and show color codes for search engine results, which indicate the safety level of each link. The extension is only available for Google Chrome.

Software Updater, Home Network Security, and Cleanup tools

The Software Updater handles the updates of all installed programs on your computer and informs you of any important events that require your attention. Avast can be asked to automatically download and run updates wherever possible.

Home Network Security performs a scan to figure out which devices are currently connected to your network, and whether or not your router is accessible from the computer. If so, it recommends that you disable router access from the Internet.

Avast Premier 2015: Update your software applications easily

The cleanup utility finds junk files (e.g. command history, file extensions, MUI cache) that can be removed to free up space, along with unnecessary applications (e.g. browser helper objects, scheduled tasks, system toolbars) which can be installed, in addition to adjustable system settings for boosting the PC speed (e.g. disable beeps on errors, foreground lock timeout, menu show delay).

However, just like in the case of the Avast SecureLine VPN, here is only a demonstration of the cleanup tool. The registered edition has to be purchased even if you have already paid for Avast Premier, and it costs $35.88 / €32.78 (1-year subscription), $64.56 / €58.98 (2-year subscription) or $89.64 / €81.89 (3-year subscription).

Statistics and general settings

As far as statistics are concerned, you can check out real-time and historical data with details and graphs about the file system, web and email shields, last scanned items, along with network traffic. The global stats reveal worldwide streaming updates (virus-database updates to user devices, monthly virus definitions added), infected domains discovered, top 10 new infected generic TLDs and country TLDs, prevented attacks, active devices (PCs, Macs, Androids protected that receive regular virus-definition updates, and protected by country), OS versions (all protected devices, PC, Mac and Android users), together with user demographics.

Regarding app preferences, it's possible to hide the Avast and SecureLine tray icons, automatically open the scan results on task completion, disable reputation services, include PUPs in all scan jobs, disable Avast sounds and popup offers for other Avast products, password-protect the application to prevent other PC users from tinkering with its configuration, limit the storage time of scan logs, or handpick the components you want to be monitored by Avast's status indicator while excluding the rest (e.g. file system, mail and web shields, virus definition and program version, firewall, antispam).

You can create exclusions not only for folders but also for files and URLs. Plus, the utility can be asked to send email notifications automatically when a new virus has been found. Settings can be backed up to file and later restored. This way, you can create multiple profiles with different Avast configurations.

The Good

The Bad

The Truth