An Avast Professional Edition is a set of modern antivirus software technologies, designed specifically to protect your personal computer, files and software from computer viruses. It includes one of the best solutions for your Microsoft Windows personal computer. In this article we will discuss the most essential features of Avast.

The Avast! antivirus is distributed by ALWIL Software (Prague, Czech Republic), firstly issued in 1988. The Avast! is used all over the world and is translated into twenty different languages. The latest version of Avast Professional is 4.6.

Among the newly-added features of this version are: an antivirus kernel, automatic updates, a simple user interface, a command-line scanner, an integrated virus cleaner, a network shield, a support for 64-bit Windows.

The Avast software engine provides a first-class unpacking support. It is able to scan such archives as: .zip, .tar, .arg, .mime (including all associated formats), mapi (Microsoft Outlook post files), .dbx, (Outlook Express archives), rar, gzip, zoo, ace, arc, rpm, iso, 7zip. In addition, Avast is able to reveal the viruses, hidden in data streams on NTFS drives.

The Avast Professional Edition is an ICSA-certified antivirus program for a home and business usage. It scans with two user interfaces (Simple User Interface and Enhanced User Interface). When you start your Windows session, the program also automatically starts scanning e-mail, screen savers and Windows Explorer. The Avast Professional and Avast enterprise editions are programmed to be update their databases two times a week.

The Enhanced User Interface is a key feature of the Avast Professional Edition, which gives you an access to all forms of file scanning. Unlike the Simple User Interface, the scanning process in the enhanced user interface is represented by "tasks". To start the program, you are to define a task to run, set scan options, what you need to scan, how you wish to scan, which files you would like to check, etc. Having the priorities set, the program can run repeatedly. Each task creates a list of results, which can be viewed or printed later on.

Another important option, which is also connected with the tasks, is called Scheduler. The Scheduler schedules the tasks you have set for the Enhanced User Interface.

A resident protection is probably the most essential feature of a modern antivirus program. In fact, it is protecting your personal computer from outer penetrations 24/7. The Avast antivirus has designed a personal resident module, which identifies viruses before they can start infecting your computer.

The E-mail client protection is supported by two independent modules. The first one is a generic scanner, which functions on the SMTP/POP3/IMAP4/NNTP protocol level and is protecting your personal e-mail client that uses these protocols. The second module is a special plug-in for Microsoft Outlook only, as this program is very often reported to contain a vulnerable code for hackers/viruses.