Free, and better than the bought ones (AVG AntiVirus Free Edition)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	AVG AntiVirus Free Edition
Date:	02/12/08 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Does a great job

Disadvantages: Sometimes scanning is a little slow, doesn't always block everything bad

AVG Anti-virus is a program that pretty much all the computer experts I know (and this varies from people who have worked in commercial IT for years as well as more theory-based computer science students) recommend.

If you go into a store like PC World, they are often linked to someone like Norton and McAfee and so will push their products. If you google these names, you'll find that they aren't great names in anti-virus software, just highly commercialised ones. You also have to pay for the poor service and software they offer, whereas there is a full free version of AVG available for download (just google it). You can also buy it for added features - this isn't necessary but is useful if you're serious about keeping your computer safe.

Like any other anti-virus software, it alerts you when there's a security risk to your computer e.g. it finds a dodgy file or piece of software, either live as you're using your computer or through a scan. It will try to heal or block such things, and though it's not 100% successful all of the time, it is a lot more effective than other anti-virus programs out there.

Recently my family's PC had a severe torjan virus and AVG managed to clean out and delete all the files but two, which I had to delete manually. However, reading about what this particular virus had done to other people's computers I realised that we actually got off pretty lightly and escaped most of the damage, mainly due to AVG.

The free version has a surprising number of features; you can schedule scans at a particular time of day, automatically connect to the update server, and view a history of past scans and threats. It also warns you of real-time threats to your computer via pop ups.

If I were going to choose a piece of anti-virus software, I would definitely go for this or Avast.

Summary: Highly recommended

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