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I run Avast on all of my personal machines now. A few years back I was on the AVG bandwagon until I switched to a corporate version of Symantec I could use from work. I figured since it was a paid solution for business it must be better, but the only difference I found was the brand. That only lasted about six months.

There’s only two features listed for the free version of Avast; block viruses and spyware and allow assistance from a geek friend. All I need is the first one, the antivirus protection. So far Avast has been pretty good to me. I think I’ve been using it for well over two years now which makes it the longest I’ve ever stayed with one AV program. I don’t think I’ve been infected once (knock on wood) in that whole time on any of my (like a dozen) devices.

I had no idea about the second feature until I decided to write this post. I tried to test this remote feature out, but I just couldn’t get it to work. I sat back and thought about it for a bit until I thought of another way to attack the problem. I immediately went to my closet to put on the tightest flood pants I had, slipped on some dress shoes that looked like they were from the 1970’s, and adorned my face with a pair of thick rimmed angular glasses. As soon as I returned to my computer, Avast remote assistance just connected on its own. lol

Ok, maybe that’s not how it happened, but I did test out the remote assistance feature and it’s really cool. It seemed pretty peppy too. I think you need Avast version 7 for this feature to be available. Here’s all you do…

Double click on your Avast tray icon to open up Avast Free Antivirus and click the Support link at the top of the window. From the support window, click on the option that says Use Remote Assist.

In the Remote Assistance window you’ll see two options; Allow Remote Control and Control Remote Computer.

If you select Allow Remote Control, you’ll see a box pop up (image, below left) with a code to provide to the user offering their remote assistance.

If you select Control Remote Computer, you’ll also see a box pop up (image, below right), but this one will have an area to input the code you got from the person requesting remote assistance.

Click Connect and you’ll see the remote users desktop magically appear in front of you.