Want to stay virus free? AVG is for you! (AVG AntiVirus Free Edition)

Member Name: topherbenn

Product:	AVG AntiVirus Free Edition
Date:	07/03/09 (420 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flexibility with virus scans, e-mail scanner, very thorough.

Disadvantages: The repairing of files doesn't always work; it's often the case infected files have to be deleted

Norton used to be the best anti-virus program around, then came along this outstanding free package from AVG, and I've never thought to use Norton since.

I switched a good few years ago and since have never had any major problems with viruses at all - proving that this is up to the job! And anyway, who wants to pay for an anti-virus software package when this one is free?

Firstly, the switch was incredibly simple, all it took was downloading the package from the official AVG website (http://free.avg.com/) and clicking install, after that it's as easy as installing any other piece of software, just follow the instructions; easy! As far as setting up the program, there's little you actually need to do. Once installed you can customise the program as much as you like, or if you don't like to get technical, the default settings will do the job just fine.

When it comes to customising the program, you can set a scheduled scan at a certain time every day, and should your computer not be on at this time, click the box to allow the program to scan you computer when it next starts up; this way you'll never miss a scan! When it comes to each scan you can decide exactly what to scan; from choosing individual files and folders, to your whole computer. In addition, choose whether to scan tracking cookies, infectable files only, media files, and you can have the program warn of potentially harmful programs or files, so you can be rest assured that your computer will stay virus free.

But what if you do get a virus? AVG has a brilliant virus vault, which continues to update if you allow it to do so. If you want this program to work, you have to let it be allowed to update whenever it wants to, to ensure you have the latest virus information so the program can detect new found viruses. There's two options when AVG highlights a virus, one; you try and repair the file with the use of AVG. It might sound complicated but this program does it for you. If it's a file you really want to keep, then you should always try this. Unfortunately it's not successful every time, which leads me onto option two. Option two means deleting the infected file from your system. It sounds dramatic, but when you are told about an infected file, you should find out about the file itself. If it's not worth keeping, simply delete it (sending it to the virus vault which can be emptied of all it's contents) thus removing it entirely.

The free edition also comes with an integrated e-mail scanner, viruses through e-mails can be some of the worst around, so as you check your e-mails, AVG will scan each e-mail ensuring it isn't infected. It does add a few seconds onto the downloading of e-mails, but wouldn't you rather be virus free?

Summary: Stay virus free with this free software package from AVG.

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