Bugs Awaaaaay........... (AVG AntiVirus Free Edition)

Member Name: Jingodan

Product:	AVG AntiVirus Free Edition
Date:	22/07/08 (352 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free, Always Alert, Easy Installation, Daily Updates, Online Search Protection too*

Disadvantages: Advanced features are head scratching to set, Slow scan

If your looking to save yourself some money, on the yearly expenditure of renewing your Anti Virus software subscription. Then look no further than AVG, because its absolutely FREE!!!

I've been using AVG for the past two years now and previously i'd tried Norton, Kapersky and Mcafee too, on a combination of both work and home machines in the past. AVG quite simply is brilliant, not just because its free, but its actually a superb essential piece of software for anyones home machine and it works just as well, if not better than those paid yearly subscription titles.

The current free version is 8 and this review is based on that version.

Where to get it:
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http://free.avg.com/

System Requirements:
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Operating System - Windows 2000, Windows Xp & Vista
Processor : Intel or AMD 300mhz +
Memory: 256 mb
Hard Drive Space 30mb

Installation & Features:
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Installing the software is relatively quick and straight forward. A series of prompts and clicks will get you fully protected within minutes.

The "free" version of AVGs software is classed as "basic" and in a nutshell it is. The basic version offers you full protection against virus's, spyware threats, detection and delivers safe removal.

Of course for a cash upgrade you can get a much more expandable version of AVG that offers applications such as a firewall and anti spam etc. However, with other software developers offering fantastic free firewall applications etc online, then you can survive without the extras that the paid version of AVG can provide and use them in conjunction instead.

The feature that i like the most about AVG 8, is its "Link Scanner" tracking facility. This kicks in, when your using a search engine such as "google" and when it displays your search results it also displays "green ticks" next to them, to represent that those sites are tested as safe from viruses and spyware. whereas a "red X" suggests the site could be harmful and urges you to proceed with caution.

* (Online search engines that work in conjunction with the "Link Scanner" protection are Yahoo, Msn and Google.)

Scanning & Funtionality
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Using the software is fairly straight forward, your presented with a colourful, yet basic interface when you open up the AVG software. Your not overwhelmed by a high level number of options or sub menus, but an interface thats fairly easy on the eyes and for the most self explanatory.

Where this software can fall down, is it's confusing advanced features and how to interact with them, to personalise your software more.

For example, the preset of this software, is to virus scan literally everytime you switch your computer on, likewise it will search for virus protection updates everytime you start up your computer too. Great in theory, but a pain if you don't leave your computer on all day, and may switch it on and off a few times. Changing these options so you can decide yourself when to scan and when to update, can be a real trawl, before you finally stumble upon the options to fix that nagging issue.

A full virus scan using AVG can take time. Speed wise its not great, especially if your using a machine thats only got a single core processor. From my own experience a single core processor machine can take upto and over an hour in some cases to complete its scan. While a dual core processor machine takes around 20-30 minutes.

The plus side is that you can alter the scanning speed and make it scan faster, however doing so, does leave the software at risk of not searching thoroughly enough. So for me, i wouldn't advise it.

Detection, Protection & Removal
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For the negatives of how slow a scan can be, and how head scratching it can be to personalise the software for your use. Where this software really scores well, is its detection and protection.

I'm amazed sometimes just how good this software is, considering its free. I repair computers in my spare time, which includes repairing system problems. I've lost count how many times manually i've had to remove viruses that some "paid" anti virus softwares have either not detected properly and could not remove.

In all my time of using this software its never had a problem in detection, protection or removal. Even so, on one occasion i popped a version of this on a friends laptop. She wanted to use it to keep her protected between the time of her current software running out, and going to buy another subscription. Only straight away it picked up two viruses threats that her current software failed to detect!

Equally having tested out this software to the full, should you dare to risk planting your foot in a site thats a "red X" with AVG's built in "Link Scanner", it can and will detect a virus or dangerous file instantly and will either remove or heal it for you, at your request. So this software really is on the ball and never seems to sleep.

You can't fail to be impressed either, with the continous daily virus updates AVG gives you. That in itself gives you total peace of mind, that despite being free, your getting full value for your loyalty and trust towards this application.

AVG 8 now has a spyware scan encorporated into its virus scan that previous versions didn't have. So during your scan it will detect any cookies or spyware files that are sat on your machine as well, that are potentially malicious. Again like with any detected viral threats, you can either heal or remove those offending files.

Support Base
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Ok, so your a little stuck or unsure regarding either elements of the AVG software or help on threats that have been detected? AVG does provide a very good online help facility and Encyclopedia of all known theats. If you see either a suspicious cookie file listed from a search, or even detect a virus on your machine, you can look up via the "help" button, for the defination of the dangers, risk and what this file/s can potentially do to your machine.

Overall:
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AVG is really an excellent piece of software and i'd recommend anyone to try it. While AVG remains Free then i'd doubt very much i'll ever go back to the paid subscriptions of other Anti Virus software.

Thanks for reading my review of AVG 8.

Summary: Excellent Anti Virus protection for Free!

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