Feb 11
3
AVG Anti-Virus Free Review
MSRP: $34.99
- The Good: AVG Anti-Virus 2011 comes with Social Networking Protection and a Link Scanner.
- The Bad: It is effective, but not the fastest and often overprotects resulting in false positives (treating legit files as malware).
- The Verdict: AVG Anti-Virus remains one of the best antivirus software available,
Functional Features
The AVG Anti-Virus for 2011 is better than its predecessor. It is loaded with compelling features and new tools that protect your PC to make it one of the best antiviruses softer around. AVG Anti-Virus is fully armed to secure you PC
- Its gamer mode allows you to enjoy full-screen games, movies and presentations without popup interruptions or announcements while still getting protected. The AVG Anti-Virus now also includes an innovative Social Networking Protection that scans in realtime any link on MySpace or Facebook.
- It comes with a PC system optimizer utility that scans your system and locates registry errors, junk files, disk errors and broken shortcuts. You can fix these issues but only once. This is more a promotional come-on for you to buy its AVG PC TuneUp.
- It offers internet link-scanning with its proprietary AVG LinkScanner that secures your online surfing without seriously degrading your browsing speed. It assigns color-coded security icons adjacent to every search engine results from Google, Yahoo or Bing, to show in realtime which website is fine (green), bad (red) or requires caution (orange) when visiting.
- Online protection comes form its AVG Online Shield that filters out viruses and spyware threats from a number of angles, including phishing scams, worms, keyloggers, Trojans, and rootkits as well as adware and malware coming from IM chats, browsing and email attachments. It also scans outbound email to make sure you don’t accidentally pass a virus along to others. AVG’s new cloud antivirus computing ensures updated signature database for new threats as identified. You get regular downloads on a default 4-hour updating that can be reset to every hour if needed.
Effectiveness:
Its detection rates may not be as impressive as some other AV programs we’ve reviewed, but where it is good, it really shines. Recent AV-Comparatives and Virus Bulletin tests show that it uses one of the most powerful antivirus scanners with really good performance. The one caveat is its penchant for “overprotecting” at times, flagging legit files (false positives).
User Friendliness
The software is easy to download and installation is simple and straightforward without requiring a reboot. It’s not the fastest but its quick enough and you can just sit back and let it self-install. But you can do some customization while installing, like downloading the ABG toolbar for your browser which is a great tool for knowing the security status of the sites you’re visiting.
Help & Support:
In-program help and user manual are standard. It comes with online help resources that include a FAQ section in its website, email support and a knowledge database. with a user manual and links to additional resources online. The online support center has the usual FAQ section and knowledgebase, but there’s no phone support.
Summary
The robust set of protection features of the AVG Anti-Virus make it one of the best antivirus solutions for the Windows desktop we’ve reviewed. The 2011 iteration brings new features that enhance the solution while maintaining its ease of use and level of protection that we’ve come to expect from AVG. While not the best overall, at its price point, we definitely recommend AVG Anti-Virus 2011.
