Windows 7: Do I need the Avast Free Mail Shield if I use Yahoo Mail online

Hi,

I've just installed Avast! free antivirus on my Windows 7 PC. The installation installed something called the Mail Shield. Is there any point in having this turned on if I only access my emails using Yahoo's webmail service? Does it only scan mail if I use a client such as Windows Live Mail 2011?



Thanks in Advance!

You don't need it if you are using a web based mail like yahoo. You can do a custom install of avast and untick the mail shield.

Thanks very much for your reply!

Do I have to uninstall it or can I simply disable it by pressing 'Stop'?

To change avast!'s installed shields go to control panel > programs & features > avast! > uninstall > change > select the shields you want to remove/add > ok > restart.

Thanks for your reply!

Does it make any difference if I simply Disable them permanently in the avast interface or is it better to uninstall them?

Just use the STOP button in the mail shield.

You can leave it on also.
You won't notice the difference in how Avast runs.

Your call both will work if you are planning to use outlook in near future then i would say stop the shield, but then you will have a yellow mark in avast tray icon to solve this go to setting > status bar > untick mail shield. And if you never going to use outlook or such then uninstall it. But frankly if you are worried about resourse use then this wont help at all because the shield won't use any resourse if it won't have any data comming through it. And Avast is a very light AV. I also don't use outlook or p2p application but still i have everything installed.

Hope this helps

As others have said, you can stop the shield and disable notifications within avast!'s UI, but I prefer the cleaner approach of not installing any shield that I don't need. avast! gives the user one of the best custom installers for just that reason!

Thanks for all your replies!

I've decided to remove the shields I'm not planning to use in the future.

Thanks for reporting back. If you have any other questions, let us know.