avast! Antivirus Free, being one of the most popular free antiviruses in the world, I’ve decided to make a tweaked configuration file for it. The file is official avast! configuration file backup, so no obfuscated self-extracting packages or 3rd party installers.
Currently supported avast! version (older versions are archived):
avast! Antivirus 17 (version 17.x)
Updated: 2017-05-27
My configuration includes:
- All Active Protection Shields set to High heuristics
- All On-Demand scans tweaked to provide optimal system performance and scan speed
- Smart Scan settings tweaked for higher malware detection
- PUP detection enabled for Quick, Smart, Full and explorer right-click scan
- Sounds disabled
- Disabled data sharing with 3rd parties (CommunityIQ is still enabled though!)
- Disabled advertisements in paid versions
Settings that are now included in avast! out of the box:
- Automatic program updates enabled
- Tray icon animation disabled
- Disabled avast! notes inserted into clean e-mails
Main goal of my configuration:
Main goal of my customized avast! configuration is to provide the least intrusive experience with maximum protection, performance and privacy. It is as simple as that.
You’ll first need avast! installed:
https://www.avast.com
If you want to help me, use this referrer link:
http://www.avast.com/get/PylIx3WC
Latest configuration file download:
DOWNLOAD
Archive of older configuration files:
Downloads
How to apply:
Make sure avast! is installed properly (otherwise the configuration file won’t work!). Download the above ZIP file, unpack it and double click the contained file. System restart is recommended for all the changes to be applied properly. That’s it, no further user interaction is required.
Angry Sheep Blog 
And what? You recommend this to be default settings? Or what is the purpose of this config?
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It’s all explained. There are several key changes to make it less intrusive, quieter and with actually higher protection (PUP’s enabled for on-demand, higher heuristics, more aggressive caching etc).
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Excuse me. Does your config. setup also work with the latest Avast! Internet Security 2014 [9.0.2021]?
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Yes, though it only affects mentioned parts and not Sandbox or Firewall.
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Thnx. 🙂
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Could You make script that does everything that Avast Cleanup tool does for Windows optimisation? Disabling unuseful services ect.? Im interested in Windows 10 optimisation.
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Thank you for posting this, I appreciate it.
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It sounds from the described changes that you aren’t enabling the much hyped hardened-aggressive mode – why is that please. Sub-question, do you know if latest avast supports your nice thinking/suggestion of letting exclusions of hardened-aggressive be further checked by cybercapture?
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Hardened Mode is not for everyone. It requires a bit more user interaction and not all are willing to go with it. As for checks for CyberCapture, things have changes slightly with avast! 2017 release. CyberCapture is now a part of avast!’s cloud systems and not run on client systems anymore (it runs on avast! servers). Meaning when you “process” (even exclude) a program through Hardened Mode, it still undergoes all the security checks. Hardened Mode is now just an extra layer on top of the standard protection.
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Thanks RejZoR! I wasen’t sure if you where personally against hardened-aggressive mode now(for yourself), hence the question. Yeah, I know deepscreen is replaced by cybercapture i.e. local-virtualization vs cloud-checking, but I just wasen’t aware if cloud-checking would be done through cybercapture, when selecting “Exclude” on a file blocked by hardened-aggressive, which I know it used to not do, based on a couple of your previous postings i’ve seen about this 🙂 Thanks again!
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