Avast wants you to play in its sandbox Video

Avast wants you to play in its sandbox Video Transcript

-Mega-popular free internet security suite maker, Avast!, wants you to come play in their Sandbox. Hi, I'm Seth Rosenblatt for CNET Download.com; and in this first-look video, I'll be showing you the new Avast! Free Antivirus 6 which comes with some exciting new features designed to make your current internet usage more secure. The interface has changed very little from the big changes that came in version 5 and so we're looking at full on features for reasons to upgrade. That's where the new AutoSandbox comes in. It walls off suspicious programs preventing them from potentially damaging your system or allowing them to run in a virtualized space. When the process terminates itself, any system changes it made evaporate. The Sandbox defaults to asking the user whether a program should be Sandboxed (although you can set it to automatically decide) and there's a whitelist option for programs that you always want to exclude from the Sandbox. You can also deactivate it permanently. WebRep is another new feature and that use Avast's new website reputation service. It uses a combination of data from Avast's virus labs and user voting to determine a site's safety score. The company expects user voting to make big waves seeing as how Avast! has more than a hundred million active users. Similar add-ons are a common tool available in most antivirus suites, although Avast! community voting feature is more rare. Like its competitors, the WebRep add-on is currently limited to Firefox and Internet Explorer, although Avast! promises a chrome add-on soon. Annoyingly, the program will automatically re-install the add-on if you remove it from the browser's add-on manager. It's best to go through Avast! interface directly if you wanna get rid of it. Other changes have been made to Avast! and this version too. The Script Shield and safe-locking features, previously only available in Avast's paid upgrades, now are available in Avast! Free. The Script Shield now works with Internet Explorer 8 and 9's protected mode. There's also a new desktop gadget for Windows 7 and Vista. You can set automatic actions in the boot-time scan and the troubleshooting section now comes with a Restore Factory Settings option. Meanwhile, the paid versions have gained some new features such as Safe Zone, a virtualization feature for secure online banking. The installer has shrunk by about 20% too. Avast! Free Antivirus 6 is definitely a solid upgrade over Avast! 5 and it's not hard to like the new security-specific features. There's no fluff here and that's part of what makes Avast! such a well-respected program. With your first look at Avast! Free Antivirus 6, I am Seth Rosenblatt for CNET.