Avast! Premier 2014 is the company’s premium security suite, that contains an antivirus engine, firewall, browsing protection, browser cleanup tool, a software updater tool, data shredder and much more.

Installation is fast, perhaps due to a great reduction in product size. Scans can apparently be much faster, for some file types at least; in terms of in-memory scan times, EXE files are now examined around twice as fast, text contents (web pages, scripts) are as much as 10 times faster. (The program still needs to load this content in the first place, though, so final scan times won’t change a lot.)

You’ll find several significant improvements to avast’s protection features. You get enhanced streaming updates for real-time detections; a new DeepScreen technology helps the program make more intelligent choices about unknown files; extended cloud scanning again assists in detection; and if something does show up, then improved cleaning will eliminate it more reliably.

New web technologies include an extended do-not-track feature, which avast! claims “uses a proprietary technology that cannot be overridden by the servers”. An easier-to-use SafeZone automatically opens banking sites to protect your transactions, and the web browser plugins have been rewritten to keep you safer online.

And all this is provided in a vastly simplified and more configurable interface (there are actually now only three shields to direct your attention to, for example).

Premier edition includes a software update tool, that’s going to scan your computer, compare against a remote database and notify you when a new update is available. It also has a data shredder, which will enable you to completely wipe important files, documents and other private data.

Check out the homepage for more info. Visit Avast.com.

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