By midyear, avast! has more than 135 million active users and over 165 million user registrations – all with just over 150 employees. New product launches: avast! Business Protection line (with a simplified central administration console); avast! 6.0 series, with new innovations that include: WebRep™ (a website reputation tool), SafeZone™ (a clean-desktop option for added safety with sensitive online transactions), and AutoSandbox™ (the first automatic virtualization feature offered within a free antivirus).

Summit Partners invests $100 million for a minority share of the company, confirming the unique position of avast! in the global marketplace. Says Han Sikkens, a Principal in Summit Partners, "it is rare to find a company such as AVAST that redefines how an industry does business. We are very excited about the growth prospects of this exceptional company." ALWIL Software changes its name to AVAST Software, to more closely align the company with the brand, and avast! reaches 130 million registered users. New product launches: avast! 5.0 series, with a new antivirus engine and an optional Silent Firewall and virtualization Sandbox.

To strengthen the team, ALWIL hires Vincent Steckler (formerly of Symantec) as CEO. The avast! registered-user base jumps from 68 million to over 100 million, and the company reaches 100 employees. New product launch: the 5.0 series of avast! Free Antivirus, avast! Pro Antivirus, and avast! Internet Security.

ALWIL puts major focus on acquiring a multinational sales and support team and localizing avast! antivirus and avast.com into more languages. The company reaches 50 million registered users and 60 employees. New product launch: avast! 4.8.

The company reaches 40 million registered avast! users with only 38 employees, for a ratio of one million users per employee, which the company will maintain over the coming years. ALWIL Software transforms into a joint stock company. New product launches: avast! Mac Edition and avast! Windows Home Server Edition.

The avast! user base doubles twice, first to 10 million and then to 20 million by year's end, in large part due to the availability of more language versions and a number of industry awards for quality. avast! sweeps the SC Awards categories with Best Antivirus, as well as Anti-Malware (European) and Readers' Choice (USA). New product launch: avast! Linux Home Edition.

As a great way for avast! to reach new users at a time when the internet does not have such high penetration, ALWIL begins cooperation with SanDisk. Thanks to this partnership, avast! needs language localization for all SanDisk markets. Thus, ALWIL hires the first people for in-house localization and support – this is the first step toward avast! becoming an international success in terms of supported languages. New product launches: avast! U3 Edition (for SanDisk) and avast! 4.6.

Only 30 months after its first user registration, the free version of avast! reaches one million users. Until this time, it remains uncertain as to whether giving for free what others sell will work, but reaching one million users confirms a successful increase in visibility for the company. ALWIL implements an international reseller channel for its paid-for security solutions. New product launches: avast! Linux version, avast! 4.5 Home/Professional edition, avast! Distributed Network Manager (ADNM), and avast! BART CD 2.0.

The growing free avast! user base generates a need to offer other paid-for solutions effectively online. Thus, ALWIL turns to Digital River's online sales distribution share-it! New product launches: avast! Bootable Antivirus & Recovery Tool (BART) CD and the (free) avast! 4 Home Edition (under Ondrej Vlček's R&D supervision).

Co-founder Eduard Kučera implements an innovative user-community growth strategy based on the principle that all computer users deserve protection from harmful threats, and that computer safety should not be a luxury some cannot afford. Thus, on June 1, ALWIL Software launches a free antivirus solution for home (non-commercial) use. Six months later (January, 2002), a new registration system sees the very first user registration of free avast! antivirus Home Edition.

ALWIL Software provides the avast! antivirus engine to McAfee, which licenses it for use in its own line of McAfee antivirus products – proving the effectiveness of avast! antivirus technologies with the "Powered by avast! engine" logo on the McAfee VirusScan boxes. Also, ALWIL hires its first tech-support specialist, Pavel Mourek.

avast! antivirus is one of the first three antivirus programs globally to win Virus Bulletin's VB100 awards in all testing categories. Virus Bulletin magazine is highly recognized as a leading independent authority on computer security, and even a single VB100 award is difficult to attain.

A young Ondrej Vlček (current AVAST CTO) joins ALWIL while completing his university studies. He writes the first antivirus program for Windows 95.

Founders Pavel Baudiš and Eduard Kučera, free from the socioeconomic constraints of the former regime, finally transform ALWIL Software from a 'cooperative' into a joint partnership 'company'.

The Velvet Revolution and new Czechoslovak independence from the Soviet Union bring economic freedom to business endeavors. In the preceding years, organizations were not allowed to have 'company' status and had to remain only a 'cooperative'.

Pavel Baudiš, then a researcher at Prague's Mathematical Machines Research Institute, encounters a sample of the Vienna Virus and, intrigued by it, writes a program able to remove it. He then shows it to colleague Eduard Kučera and, together, they start ALWIL Software cooperative, which releases the first avast! antivirus. Due to the oppressive regime, they are unable to form a 'company' at this time.