A favorite of free anti-virus users avast! antivirus is all set to leap into next major version with beta versions of upcoming avast! antivirus 5 being made available for downloads in couple of weeks, the all new avast! version 5 will come in three flavors - Free, Professional and Security Center Edition, the free version will retain all the functionality as existing Home Edition with new extras, the paid professional version will now include a new virtualization module and the Security suite edition adds an Firewall coupled with an anti-spam module to offer complete security.

Apart from the completely redesigned easier to use interface the new version incorporates various performance optimizations which reduces boot-up and scanning time considerably with the new engine detecting more viruses consuming less resources.