How to Ensure Avira Free is Updating Correctly

The update servers of the free version of Avira Antivir are often overloaded and struggle to keep up with demand . For this reason your first update may take a long time - an hour or even more. As the install package comes with very old virus definitions, we suggest you avoid surfing until the initial update is finished. You can howevr speed-up the first update by downloading the latest Avira updates here, then double-clicking the Avira system tray icon and choosing Update > Manual update, and load downloaded file.

To keep an on-going watch on the Avira updates double-click the Avira system tray icon. Then click the Configuration button. A new window is opened. Choose Expert mode. Click General > Security. Now check Show notice if the virus definition file is out of date and choose Alert if last update is older than 2 days.

Avira should update itself on its own approximately once a day but it is possible that this may not take place. As Avira has market-leading heuristics, small lags in updates are not as fatal for Avira as for most of its rivals. However, if Avira fails to update regularly on your PC, you may need consider changing to another free AV.

Update (29.11.09): Avira has improved their update system. At the moment the update problem seems to have been eliminated.