User guide

Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July/August 2014 www.av-comparatives.org
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We feel this is a very effective way of making
the program suitable for both expert and non-
expert users.
Mac menu bar
Avira Free Antivirus installs a System Tray
icon from which the main program window,
preferences, scans and updates can be
accessed. There is also an item for disabling
the real-time protection. The Mac menu bar is
used to display an Avira menu and Help menu.
Finder context menu
There is no addition to the right-click menu.
Maintenance
Signatures can be updated from the Update
link in the left-hand panel of the window. If
the real-time protection is disabled, the
status display changes to show this, and
provides a big “Secure My Mac Now” button to
correct this:
If the details section is displayed, there is an
additional warning, and the user can see
exactly what the problem is. A link to turn on
the component is also provided:
As well as the alerts in the program window, a
pop-up message is displayed for a few
seconds:
Finally, Avira’s system tray icon changes from
an open umbrella to a closed one.
We feel that Avira Free Antivirus for Mac
warns very clearly in the event that protection
is disabled, and makes it very easy to rectify
the situation.
Non-administrator access
In order to disable protection, administrator
credentials must be entered, regardless of the
account with which the user is currently
logged on. Protection can be re-enabled from
any account without having to enter an admin
password.
This is as it should be, and we find the latter
point particularly sensible.
Scanning
Quick and full scans can be run directly from
the home page of the program. The “Scan for
Threats” link in the left-hand column
additionally provides a custom scan, while the
Scheduler link in the same place allows a
scheduled scan to be set.
Settings, quarantine and logs
Quarantine and logs share a link on the left-
hand side of the program window, while
settings can be accessed from the Avira
System Tray icon or Avira menu.
Malware and phishing alerts
The product does not include phishing
protection, so the AMTSO phishing test page
is not blocked. When the EICAR test file is
downloaded, the following alert is shown for
about 5 seconds:
An identical alert is shown when malware on a
flash drive is discovered by real-time
protection. When a flash drive scan is run, a
simple summary of results is shown in the
main pane of the window, with no user action
required: