Avast For More Than One Computer

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Avast Cleanup Premium is an optimization tool which scans for and resolves performance, storage, and security issues on your PC. Avast Cleanup Premium is a paid product and requires a separate, paid license to use.

  1. Avast For More Than One Computer Mac
  2. Another Word For More Than One
  3. Avast For More Than One Computer Screen
This article relates to the latest version of Avast Cleanup Premium. If some of the instructions or answers below do not match your version of Avast Cleanup Premium, ensure your Avast program version is up to date or download Avast Cleanup Premium from the Avast website. For instructions on how to update your Avast Antivirus program version, refer to the following article:

General

What is Avast Cleanup Premium?

Avast Cleanup Premium is a PC optimization tool. The program scans your PC to identify issues which may be taking up space or interfering with the performance of your PC and allows you to select which issues are removed or resolved.

How will Avast Cleanup Premium improve the performance of my PC?

Could it be that my computer is just too old? In the last 10 years, i’ve gone through 3 computers, i’ver never had a computer last more than 3 years before the BSOD ruined it. My current one is the longest i’ve ever managed to keep a computer running in all that time.

With frequent use, the reliability and performance of your PC begins to decline. You may notice the following issues:

  • Programs that run very slowly, crash, or freeze.
  • A lack of disk space.
  • Popups from 'bloatware' programs.

When you use Avast Cleanup Premium to scan for and resolve issues on your PC, you enhance your PC's performance, clear disk space, and eliminate unwanted programs and security risks.

Is there a free-trial version of Avast Cleanup Premium available?

Yes. The trial version offers free access to all features and functions of Avast Cleanup Premium for a limited time period. When the free-trial period ends, your subscription automatically renews and you are charged the price of a 1-year subscription for 1 PC. You can cancel your subscription at any time during the trial and you will not be charged.

To download a free-trial version of Avast Cleanup Premium, follow these steps:

  1. Download and run the Avast Cleanup Premium setup file.
  2. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the program.
  3. Click Scan Now to perform an inital scan and view issues on your PC, then click Fix & Clean.
  4. Enter your contact information and payment details to resolve found issues and gain access to all features within Avast Cleanup Premium. You are not charged until the end of the free-trial period.
You receive a notification email before you are charged, informing you that your subscription will automatically renew shortly and containing instructions for canceling your subscription.

Can I use my PC during a scan?

Yes, you can continue to use your PC while Avast Cleanup Premium performs the scan and clean. However, we recommend that you review the scan results to confirm any actions before Avast Cleanup Premium cleans your PC.

Can I schedule Avast Cleanup Premium to run automatically?

Yes, you can configure Avast Cleanup Premium to perform Maintenance scans automatically. Automatic Maintenance runs silently in the background with no actions required from you and frees up space on your PC by removing dispensible items, such as broken shortcuts and registry items. To enable Automatic Maintenance, go to ☰Menu ▸ Settings ▸ Automatic Maintenance and click the OFF slider so it changes to green ON. The Automatic Maintenance settings screen also allows you to manually select which items Avast Cleanup Premium deletes during Automatic Maintenance.

Avast Cleanup Premium scans your PC every 7 days. Automatic Maintenance is only run if the scan reveals one of the following:
  • 100 MB or more of cleanable space on your system
  • 100 or more broken registry items
  • 100 or more broken shortcuts
  • 100 or more tracking cookies

Features

How do I perform a scan?

If you use Avast Antivirus, go to Performance ▸ Cleanup Premium ▸ Scan Now. To perform additional scans or resolve found issues, you need to purchase an Avast Cleanup Premium subscription. If you already have an Avast Cleanup Premium subscription, double-click the Avast Cleanup Premium icon on your desktop or on your Windows taskbar, then select which scan you want to perform by clicking the relevant tile:

  • Maintenance: a comprehensive scan that detects broken or redundant items in the system, and cookies which can be used to track your behavior.
  • Speed Up: scans for unnecessary programs, and programs launched during system startup that are still running in the background.
  • Free Up Space: scans for leftover files created by the system, programs, or installers (such as temporary, log, and cached files, including browser data) that may be taking up large amounts of disk space on your PC.
  • Fix Problems: scans for unusual system settings that may be affecting the reliability of your PC's behavior, and outdated third-party software.

For detailed information about each scan, refer to the following article:

What does Avast Cleanup Premium do with my encrypted files?

Avast Cleanup Premium ignores encrypted partitions and files to ensure your privacy and security. If your entire hard drive is encrypted, Avast Cleanup Premium cannot scan and optimize your system.

Can I review details of what Avast Cleanup Premium will optimize before it cleans?

Yes. When Avast Cleanup Premium completes a scan, you can review and manage any found issues.

If you have enabled Automatic Maintenance, you can select which items Avast Cleanup Premium automatically deletes by clicking ☰Menu ▸ Settings ▸ Automatic Maintenance. Click the side arrow next to a category to view specific items within that category and manually de-select any items you don't want deleted.

What is a Maintenance scan?

The Maintenance scan is a comprehensive scan that checks for the following issues on your PC:

  • Broken Registry Items
  • Broken Shortcuts
  • System Junk
  • Browser Cache
  • Tracking Cookies
  • Browsing & Download History

To launch a Maintenance scan, double-click the Avast Cleanup Premium icon on your desktop or on your Windows task bar and click Maintenance. After a scan, you can select which items you want to resolve, then tap Fix & Clean.

You can additionally enable Automatic Maintenance, which allows Avast Cleanup Premium to run Maintenance scans when needed, without any actions from you. To enable and configure Automatic Maintenance, go to ☰Menu ▸ Settings ▸ Automatic Maintenance.

For detailed instructions, refer to the following article:

What is Speed Up?

The Speed Up option scans for issues which may be affecting the speed and performance of your system. During a Speed Up scan, Avast Cleanup Premium checks for the following issues:

  • Background & Startup Programs
  • Unnecessary programs
  • Maintenance

To launch a Speed Up scan, double-click the Avast Cleanup Premium icon on your desktop or on your Windows task bar and click Speed Up. After a scan, you can select which items you want to resolve. For detailed instructions, refer to the following article:

What is Free Up Space?

The Free Up Space option scans for leftover files created by the system, programs, or installers (such as temporary, log, and cached files, including browser data) which may be taking up large amounts of disk space on your PC.

To launch a Free Up Space scan, double-click the Avast Cleanup Premium icon on your desktop or on your Windows task bar and click Free Up Space. After a scan, you can select which items you want to resolve. For detailed instructions, refer to the following article:

What is Fix Problems?

The Fix Problems option scans for:

  • Unusual system settings, which may be affecting the reliability of your PC's behavior.
  • Outdated programs, which may represent a security risk.

To launch a Fix Problems scan, double-click the Avast Cleanup Premium icon on your desktop or on your Windows task bar and click Fix Problems. After a scan, you can select which issues you want to resolve. For detailed instructions, refer to the following article:

What is Outdated programs?

Outdated programs is a feature in Avast Cleanup Premium that keeps commonly used third-party software updated to eliminate potential security risks and improve the overall performance of your system. To specifiy how Avast Cleanup Premium responds when it detects an outdated program on your PC, go to ☰Menu ▸ Settings ▸ Outdated programs. The following options are available:

  • Fully automatic updates: Avast Cleanup Premium checks for, downloads, and installs updates automatically. No action is required from you.
  • Download only: Avast Cleanup Premium automatically checks for and downloads available updates, but you need to install them manually.
  • Check only: Avast Cleanup Premium checks for available updates, but you need to download and install them manually.

If you don't enable Fully automatic updates, you can check for issues and manage the download and installation of updates by clicking Fix problems on the main Avast Cleanup Premium dashboard.

What is the Rescue Center?

The Rescue Center allows you to undo certain changes made by Avast Cleanup Premium. To access the Rescue Center, click the rescue icon on the right side of the Avast Cleanup Premium interface. You can view a list of actions and click Undo next to any action you want to undo.

How does Avast Cleanup Premium determine the ratings for Unnecessary Programs?

During a Speed up scan, Avast Cleanup Premium scans for Unnecessary programs installed on your PC. When you click Unnecessary programs after the scan, you can view a list of programs and their ratings (out of five stars). To determine a program's rating, Avast Cleanup Premium uses a cloud-based rating system based on blacklists and whitelists, heuristic algorithms, Avast's Recommendation Engine, and user ratings. This makes it easier for you to determine which programs you want to keep and which programs you want to remove.

Download, installation, and activation

How do I install Avast Cleanup Premium?

  1. Download and run the Avast Cleanup Premium setup file.
  2. Click Yes in the User Account Control dialog.
  3. Set the language you want to use, then click OK.
  4. Review the file's location, then click Next.
  5. Click Install, then click Finish.

When the program is successfully installed, the Avast Cleanup Premium interface opens. If prompted, enter the activation code sent to the email used during the purchase. For detailed instructions, refer to the following articles:

How do I activate a paid subscription?

If you purchased Avast Cleanup Premium through another Avast program or the Avast Store, your license is activated automatically. If you purchase Avast Cleanup Premium before installation, you need to manually activate the program. There are 2 ways of doing this from the main screen of the Avast Cleanup Premium interface:

  • Order Confirmation Email: Activate the product using the activation code from your order confirmation email. To do this, click ☰Menu ▸ My licenses ▸ Enter a valid activation code and enter your activation code.
  • Avast Account: Activate the product via the Avast account connected to the email address you used during the purchase. To do this, click ☰Menu ▸ My licenses ▸ Login to your Avast Account.

For detailed instructions, refer to the following article:

How do I purchase Avast Cleanup Premium?

If you already use Avast Antivirus, follow these steps to purchase Avast Cleanup Premium:

  1. Open the Avast user interface and go to Performance ▸ Cleanup Premium.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After Avast Cleanup Premium performs an initial scan, click Resolve.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to purchase and install Avast Cleanup Premium.

If you do not use Avast Antivirus, you can purchase an Avast Cleanup Premium subscription from the Avast website.

Can I transfer my Avast Cleanup Premium activation code from one PC to another?

You can use your Avast Cleanup Premium activation code on the number of PCs you specified during purchase.

What should I do if my purchased subscription or activation code doesn't work?

If Avast Cleanup Premium does not accept your activation code:

  1. Use our webform or your Avast Account to re-send your activation code to the email address used for your purchase, then activate the subscription again.
  2. If the activation fails, uninstall Avast Cleanup Premium and restart your PC.
  3. Download and install the latest version of Avast Cleanup Premium.
  4. In the Avast Cleanup Premium interface, go to ☰ ▸ My licenses and activate the license.

If these steps do not work, contact Avast Customer Support.

Settings

How do I manage Avast Cleanup Premium settings?

You can access Avast Cleanup Premium settings by clicking ☰Menu at the top of the Avast Cleanup Premium interface, then selecting Settings. From Settings, you can perform the following actions:

  • General: change the language of the user interface, choose whether or not the Avast Cleanup Premium icon is visible in your System tray, and adjust your Personal privacy settings.
  • Notifications: manage which notifications you see from Avast Cleanup Premium.
  • Automatic Maintenance: specify which items Avast Cleanup Premium can delete during Automatic Maintenance and enable or disable this feature.
  • Outdated programs: select which actions Avast Cleanup Premium performs when it detects Outdated programs on your PC.
  • Rescue Center: specify which actions can be reversed via Rescue Center, and decide after how long backups are deleted.
  • Troubleshooting: tick Enable debug logging if you need to send a log file to Avast Support for troubleshooting purposes.

For more inforamtion refer to the following article:

Troubleshooting

Can I undo changes made by Avast Cleanup Premium?

Avast For More Than One Computer

Yes. If you are unsatisfied with any changes Avast Cleanup Premium makes to your PC, you can undo certain changes in the Rescue Center.

Not all Avast Cleanup Premium actions can be reversed.

How do I report a problem or suspected bug?

If Avast Cleanup Premium produces unexpected results or error messages, report the issue to Avast Support by submitting a ticket. Send a detailed description of how to reproduce the error and include the following information:

  • Your version of Windows and your PC's brand, model, and graphics card.
  • A detailed description of the problem and the sequence of actions leading up the issue.
  • Any error messages displayed.
  • Any differences on your PC following the Avast Cleanup Premium issue.

How do I report a falsely identified junk file or program that Avast Cleanup Premium removed from my system?

If Avast Cleanup Premium disables or removes a file or a program that you wanted to keep, report the issue to Avast Support by opening a support ticket and including the exact file or program name, all relevant details, and the undesired result.

What should I do when I receive a 'Well, this is embarassing...' error message?

If you have received a 'Well, this is embarassing.. error message', the issue may be the result of conflicts with Windows services configuration. Ensure that the relevant Windows services are set to run automatically or reinstall the product by following the steps in this article, Troubleshooting the 'Embarassing' error message in Cleanup Premium or Avast Antivirus.

  • Avast Cleanup Premium 19.x
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home / Pro / Enterprise / Education - 32 / 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1 / Pro / Enterprise - 32 / 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows 8 / Pro / Enterprise - 32 / 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic / Home Premium / Professional / Enterprise / Ultimate - Service Pack 1, 32 / 64-bit
//
With regards to firewalls, anti-virus
A virus is a computer program written by someone, with the presumed intent of spreading and causing grief. Like a human virus, a virus makes the infected computer “sick”: it causes poor performance, crashes, lost files and data, or more.
Also like a human virus, a computer virus replicates itself. Just as you can copy a file from one disk to another and have copies on both disks, a computer virus is in part defined by its ability to make copies of itself. Exactly how a virus does this depends on its type, but can include propagation over removable media such as USB drives, networks, or network-based activities such as user downloads.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
Than'>virus programs and anti-spyware
Spyware is a class of malware that, as its name implies, is typically designed to spy on you or your computer, silently collecting information that is subsequently sent on to others for typically nefarious purposes.
Various forms of advertising, including additional toolbars, homepage hacks, and data insertion (while technically not a form of spying) are often also included in the term spyware.
While very similar to viruses, spyware detection differs from virus detection in that it’s more behavioral; it watches what your computer is doing to determine the presence of spyware. Virus detection is more typically>firewall?

In recent years this question has become more complex than ever.

There are certain types of protection you need, and getting all that protection may involve running more than one program.

On the other hand, running more than one program of the wrong type can, indeed, cause problems.

Let’s see if I can’t sort this out for you.

What you need

As a general rule of thumb, you need only one of each of the following:

  • Anti-virus
  • Anti-spyware

While that appears relatively simple, it gets complex because:

  • Some anti-malware
    Anti-malware tools are tools that attempt to prevent, detect, and remove, all types of malware.
    In the past tools have differentiated between classes of malware such as viruses and spyware. You would need a separate utility for each: one anti-virus program, and another anti-spyware.
    Viruses and spyware and other forms of malicious software are all taking on each others characteristics to the point where the distinction between them is not only difficult to characterize, but ultimately not useful. They're all bad.
    Hence the term malware, to refer to all forms of malicious software, and the migration of security software targeted at a particular class of threat in to more all-encompassing anti-malware tools.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>anti-malware programs attempt to do two or all three of those operations simultaneously – meaning that it’s easy to accidentally have two or more programs trying to do the same thing.
  • There’s no perfect anti-virus or anti-spyware tool – meaning that sometimes you’ll want to have others available.

Anti-virus tools

Most anti-virus programs operate in two modes:

  • Scan: the utility examines memory
    When discussing computers, memory specifically refers to a computer’s RAM, or Random Access Memory.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>memory and files on disk for traces of malware [malicious software]
    Malware is short for malicious software. Malware is a kind of catchall phrase that encompasses pretty much any kind of software that could cause harm to your data or your machine.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>malware. This involves actually examining the contents each file for things that “look like” viruses.
  • Monitor: often referred to as “real time” monitor, the anti-virus program is continually running and scans files as they arrive on your machine, notifying you nearly immediately if the file you just received contains something that looks like a virus.

There’s nothing at all wrong with periodically running anti-virus scans with more than one anti-virus program. The key here is that it’s just a scan – it starts, it scans, and then it’s done. There’s no opportunity to come into conflict with another anti-virus program.

Real time monitoring, on the other hand, is another story. When you install most anti-virus programs, they often automatically install and enable their real time monitors. Running two or more real time anti-virus monitors at the same time is very likely to cause a conflict. That conflict could result in error messages, crashes of the anti-virus programs, or other types of failure.

Bottom line: it’s certainly OK to have more than one anti-virus program installed, and it can make sense to run a scan using a different program from time to time, but you must make sure you only have one real time monitor enabled at a time.

The simplest way to do that is to rely on a single good anti-virus program, and make sure that its database of known viruses is continually being updated.

Anti-spyware
Spyware is a class of malware that, as its name implies, is typically designed to spy on you or your computer, silently collecting information that is subsequently sent on to others for typically nefarious purposes.
Various forms of advertising, including additional toolbars, homepage hacks, and data insertion (while technically not a form of spying) are often also included in the term spyware.
While very similar to viruses, spyware detection differs from virus detection in that it’s more behavioral; it watches what your computer is doing to determine the presence of spyware. Virus detection is more typically>hard disk for traces of spyware. While an anti-spyware program typically does not scan every executable
An executable is a file containing instructions for a computer to run or “execute” some action. In other words, executable is simply another word for “program”.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>executable file on the disk, it does check certain registry
The registry is nothing more than a highly structured database of information managed by Windows. Almost all user and system settings, configuration information, passwords, and more are kept in the registry. Windows applications are also encouraged to keep their settings and configuration in the registry.
(Click on the term for full definition.)
'>registry entries, look at the contents of certain files, and check for the presence of others for things that “look like” spyware.
  • Monitor: like anti-virus programs, anti-spyware programs often have a “real time” component that monitors for certain spyware-like activities. A good example is that an attempt to change your default home page
    The term home page has two distinct and only semi-related meanings.
    1) The page of a web site that is displayed when no specific page is specified. For example, the page that you see when you visit http://askleo.comis its home page. This is typically referred to as the website’s home page.
    2) The page that is displayed by default when you start a web browser without specifying a specific page to be displayed. For example, when you run Internet Explorer (perhaps by just clicking on its icon) it typically displays a default page fetched from the internet. This is referred to as “your” home page, and every web browser allows you to configure that default page to be whatever you wish.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>home page will be caught (or prevented) in real time by many anti-spyware programs.

    • And once again, the bottom line is the same: periodic scans by different programs are quite alright, while the real time monitors installed by these utilities can easily come into conflict. Make sure only one package has its real time monitoring facility enabled.

    The most important thing is to start with a good anti-spyware program, and make sure that its database of known spyware is continually being updated.

    anti-malware
    Anti-malware tools are tools that attempt to prevent, detect, and remove, all types of malware.
    In the past tools have differentiated between classes of malware such as viruses and spyware. You would need a separate utility for each: one anti-virus program, and another anti-spyware.
    Viruses and spyware and other forms of malicious software are all taking on each others characteristics to the point where the distinction between them is not only difficult to characterize, but ultimately not useful. They're all bad.
    Hence the term malware, to refer to all forms of malicious software, and the migration of security software targeted at a particular class of threat in to more all-encompassing anti-malware tools.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>Anti-malware

    The term “anti-malware” is where things get complicated.

    Technically “malware” is an all-encompassing term for viruses, spyware, and anything else that we might consider harmful software. So in a sense an anti-malware tool would include both anti-virus and anti-spyware components.

    And many do.

    Avast for more than one computer screen

    But then there are tools like Malwarebytes Anti-malware, which for years has been an important tool in our arsenal, and yet has long been explicit about not being an anti-virus tool. (They recommended another anti-virus tool in their support forums.) Even today, as the scope of the tool appears to be expanding, they still seem to be avoiding the term “anti-virus” in favor of “anti-malware and “anti-spyware”.

    The result, of course, is confusion.

    A malware plan

    With all that confusion in sight, here’s a strategy that I use myself and recommend:

    • Select a single, good anti-virus program, install it and enable its real time component.
    • Select a single, good anti-spyware program, install it and enable its real time component.

    That’s it. Note that quite often the same program might provide both anti-virus and anti-spyware – in fact it’s getting harder and harder to find packages that don’t. While in the past I’ve generally shied away from all-in-one solutions, some are getting better, if not inevitable.

    What’s important here is that you know what components your anti-malware tool is providing, and not duplicate that with another tool.

    When issues arise, and you suspect malware – particularly malware that you believe your existing tools have not caught1 – then you would install additional tools without their real time component enabled. The purpose of these tools is to run an additional scan of your computer for the suspected malware. This is traditionally where I turn to Malwarebytes’ free version.

    This strategy keeps your system running with enough protection, but not too much protection, and with a plan should something ever make it through.

    Firewalls

    Firewalls are a different beast from the tools we’ve talked about so far. They fall into roughly two categories: hardware and software.

    A software firewall is just that – software that’s installed on your machine that prevents certain types of intrusion into your system from the outside. And in some cases, it also monitors for suspicious attempts to connect to the outside from within your computer. In both cases the functions are performed in real time, as they happen.

    As you can guess from the previous discussion, two programs trying to perform the same action at the same time can lead to problems. I would most certainly not run two different software firewalls at the same time. That implies that if Windows Firewall is turned on, I would turn it off as part of installing another firewall such as Zone Alarm. In actuality, I would expect the installation of a third party firewall to automatically disable and replace the built in Windows Firewall.

    Avast For More Than One Computer Mac

    In most homes and small businesses, your router

    Another Word For More Than One

    A router is a computer network device that receives data through one connection and then sends (routes) it to other connections, perhaps making changes to the data as it passes it on.
    Most consumer-grade routers are actually fairly simple devices, with a connection to the internet on one “side” (the “outside” or WAN connection), and connections to one or more computers on the other (“inside” or LAN connections). In homes and small businesses, a router is mostly thought of as a way to share one internet connection with multiple computers.
    Many consumer-grade routers also include a wireless access point, which is simply a way to connect more computers to the LAN to share the internet connection. Technically, the access point is a separate device, which has simply been included in the same box as the router for convenience. Thus, a “wireless router” is nothing more than a router that happens to have a wireless access point built in.
    Think of a router as a small computer that can be programmed to understand, manipulate, and route the data that it is asked to handle. For example, broadband routers include the ability to “hide” computers behind a type of firewall, which involves slightly modifying the data as it traverses the device (referred to as NAT).
    All routers include some kind of user interface to configure how the router will treat traffic. Large commercial routers have the equivalent of a full-blown computer programming language to describe how they should operate, and also include the ability to communicate with other routers to describe or determine the best way to get network traffic from point A to point B. Consumer and small business grade routers usually have a simple web-based interface that allows you to control various configuration options, such as IP addressing and security.
    Related on Ask Leo!:
    * What’s the difference between a Hub, a Switch and a Router?
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>routeris a hardware firewall. Routers provide a level of protection that prevents your computer from being seen from the internet, unless you initiate the outbound connection. There’s nothing to install on your PC; it’s just another box that sits between you and your internet connection.

    There’s nothing wrong with having both a software and a hardware firewall. It’s partially redundant, but it’s harmless. In fact, if there are machines within your LAN [Local Area Network]

    Avast For More Than One Computer Screen

    LAN is an acronym for Local Area Network.
    There’s no formal definition as to just how local “local” is, but in general, it refers to a network of devices in a single location, where even “location” is a vague term.
    A LAN most commonly refers to a network within a home or business that shares a single connection to another network (typically to a WAN), but the term has also been used to refer to the network within a corporation – even though the corporation may have many locations, country- or even planet-wide.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>LAN that you don’t actually trust, having both can actually be an appropriate choice, as your router will protect you from threats coming in from the internet, whereas your software firewall would protect you from threats that might originate from a compromised machine within your local network
    In computing, a network is simply a collection of computers and digital devices continuously interconnected in such a way that they can exchange data.
    (Click on the term for full definition.)
    '>network.

    Technically, there’s also really nothing wrong with having multiple hardware firewalls. You can put a router behind a router if you like. However, a) it will slow down your connectivity somewhat, and b) there are certain types of communications protocols that may break as a result. Common protocols like web and email do not, so it’s usually OK, but it’s not really recommended.