Default Settings need to be enhanced.

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Avast! Free Antivirus, Avast! Pro Antivirus, Avast! Internet Security, and Avast! Premier Security are all really good products. Good protection, all major doors into the operating system are protected with numerous layers…

But here’s something that has always had me sitting here smashing my face into the desk and going “WHY?”

Avast! by default will not detect potentially unwanted programs. Believe it or not, many users want to be able to have avast! solve their problems right out of box… without having to go and tweak a bunch of settings.

Keyloggers… Adware Toolbars (I think you know what i’m talking about)… things that it misses by default. Things that it should detect out of box.

Now i’m not saying that I don’t like to dig through settings (I LOVE DIGGING THROUGH SETTINGS!!!) but many people just want to install it and have it do everything for them. This is a suggestion from a loyal user who wants to see more put their trust in an already great product.

Other suggestions:

  1. Detection/Removal Capabilities in regards to tracking cookies.
  2. Maybe have the Heuristics set to high by default, since avast! seems to pass the false alarms test even with it turned up.
  3. AVAST! Web Browser.
  4. System Hardening. Since detection will never be 100% all the time, avast! can help plug that possible gap by adding some kind of protection for critical system files. (Maybe make to where if a file with an uncommon/questionable reputation tries to modify them, have avast! block it temporarily and upload it for analysis.)
2

I think PUP should be at least enabled for On-Demand scans (Quick and Full Scan).

Keyloggers are always detected as malware except commercial ones that are meant to be used as home surveillance.

The reason why PUP’s like search toolbars aren’t detected is the fact that a lot of installers bundle them and detecting them could potentially fail the installation of those programs. You have to understand that majority of avast! userbase are “clueless” users who just won’t understand why the installation failed. And that would be a bad PR for avast!. It’s a problem to satisfy everyone in such huge userbase.

I recommend that you create your own configuration and export it as a config file from avast! settings. This way you can quickly restore your preferred settings to all your computers. Just make sure you don’t yet have avast! Account linked to them as that would also restore avast! accounts to all computers (which can be a problem if they aren’t yours).