avast: The best startup settings for the antivirus

It doesn't take much effort to find the optimal settings for the "avast" antivirus tool. Only the individual services have to be activated and the settings adjusted. We'll show you how it's done.

Find optimal security settings for "avast"

So that "avast" does not unnecessarily burden your system, you should adapt the tool to your personal needs. Open the program and select "Settings" at the top right of the window. Here you can click through the menu on the left side (see picture).

• Updates: For the protection of your system it is important that the virus definitions and the program are always updated. So "avast" stays up to date and can also protect you from the latest dangers. So set the "Automatic update" here.
• Cloud services: These two services also help to identify supposed security gaps at an early stage by calling up additional information about the threat to findings. "Avast" then checks on a find how other users have dealt with it and may classify the file as harmless. You should only deactivate cloud services if you do not want a permanent connection to "avast".
• Popups: If you want to see as little as possible of the program's activities, you cannot deactivate individual notifications, but you can shorten the display time. You can reduce the duration to one second for information and update messages. You should not do this for warning and alarm messages.
• Password: If other people, such as your children, use the computer, you should protect "avast" with a password. To do this, activate the tick at the top, enter a password and select the areas to be blocked.
• Community: You should leave the top item activated. The program then submits a small anonymous report to improve the virus detection. In return, you can benefit from the cloud services and thus from the experiences of other users. However, you can deactivate the community features, which will only show you additional offers for other services and software from "avast".

Switch individual services on and off in avast

The anti-virus program "avast" is not bad in terms of performance. However, you can improve it by deactivating some unnecessary services.

1. Select the "Security" item in the menu bar at the top and click on "Antivirus" on the left (see image).
2. Under "Check now" you will find all installed protective functions, but not all of them are required.
3. If you do not use peer-to-peer programs or chat programs such as ICQ or Skype, you can deactivate "P2P protection" and "IM protection". To do this, click on this in the menu and press the "Stop" button on the right. Peer-to-peer programs are used to establish a direct connection between two computers.
4. The other services also consume resources, but they should remain activated for comprehensive protection. You can also click the "Settings" button under each protection function and adjust it manually. However, this is usually only of interest to advanced users.

You can read how to correctly recognize Trojans in this practical tip.