Windows users will be delighted to hear that Avast! 6.0 free edition has been released, packing even more punch into the free antivirus solution.

For extra piece of mind the team have introduced AutoSandbox, a feature that automatically executes suspicious-looking files in a safe virtual environment. Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of AVAST Software explained “If the item is dangerous, the virtual computer is shut down and the user’s real machine remains safe. And, if the item is safe, there is no hassle from a false positive”.

Building on what is already an impressive non-commercial security tool, several other exciting new features have been added prompting AVAST Software to release 6 reasons to give your old antivirus the boot.

Amongst them are WebRep, the first “reputation guide” for malware to be integrated into a free antivirus package. There are also several new Internet security features, including Web and Script Shields as well as Site Blocking providing additional security at HTTP and browser-level.

Avast! users enjoy regular definition updates, a top-performing detection engine and don’t pay a penny.

Such a rich set of features from a free antivirus tool may leave many asking whether commercial security software is really worth the expense. Do you use a free antivirus? Do you pay? What are your reasons? Talk about it in the comments below.