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!
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit SP1AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-572GB (1GBx2) DDR2 PC2-5300 SO-DIMMATI Radeon X1200
Computer type
Laptop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Toshiba Equium A210-1C4 Laptop
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit SP1
CPU
AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57
Motherboard
AMD SB600
Memory
2GB (1GBx2) DDR2 PC2-5300 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card(s)
ATI Radeon X1200
Sound Card
Realtek HD Audio
Monitor(s) Displays
15.4" Toshiba TruBrite Laptop LCD Display
Screen Resolution
1280 x 800
Hard Drives
80GB Hitachi TravelStar 5K250/
1TB Western Digital Elements USB
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.
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.
Samsung 830 120GB SSD
Intel 320 120GB SSD
Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
PSU
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W Modular
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.
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
My Computer
At a glance
windows 7 ultimate 32 bitIntel core 2 duo T6400 @ 2.00 GHz2048 MB DDR 2 399.0 MHz
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.
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!