- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/NT
- Date added: February 16, 2006
- Total Downloads: 227,465,042
- Downloads last week: 1,737,919
- See full specifications
A newer version of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 20202 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
This antiviral program offers rock-solid protection for no financial commitment. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition provides all the necessities, including a tool for scanning your hard drive and e-mail, as well as a real-time shield to prevent infections. By default, the application is set to search for new virus definitions daily, but you always can use the scheduling tool to change this. Should a virus create serious system problems, AVG create a rescue disk to scan your computer in MS-DOS mode. The program doesn't tax your system when scanning or when running in the background and always proved effective in our tests. This app's interface can't be described as beautiful, yet it is mostly simple to navigate. Sure, you can plunk down a lot of cash for an antiviral application with more features, but AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition delivers the goods for free. Watch the CNET video review of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition:
Publisher's description
From AVG Technologies USA :AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy to use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements). Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.
Version 7.1.375 adds detection of new variants of worms.
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User reviews of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.1.375
- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 20202 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 174 user reviewsSee all 174 user reviews
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142 out of 198 people found this review helpful
Version: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.1.375
"Great anti-virus and it's FREE!"
Pros: 1) Computer's with low RAM, like say, only 256 MB or below, should use AVG. It hardly slows down pc startup unlike Norton or other commercial anti-viruses.
2) For those who have heard that Avast! is better, well maybe but I find Avast!'s full system scans to be terribly slow. It took me more than an hour to complete a full scan with Avast! On the other hand, AVG only took about 25 minutes and it doesn't use too much RAM during these scans too so I can do something else like web browsing without being slowed down.
3) There's no technical support for this free edition but at least there's a forum. Better than Norton which doesn't even have a forum, right?
4) Has about all the features you'll need in an anti-virus.
5) Super fast updating. Updates are frequent too.
6) Efficient automatic updating (I have Norton on another PC and it's slow to automatically update- if there's any).
7) Here's a nice one, AVG has a feature called Rescue Disk Wizard. The Rescue Disk lets you scan and clean files on your pc while in MS-DOS mode (at the command prompt). It's useful if your system area has been infected.
8) It's free.
Cons: 1) For IM users, AVG doesn't have any IM protection, hopefully there will be in the future.
2) AVG doesn't have a firewall together with it like Norton or PC-Cillin but it's free, remember? And if you want Norton or PC-Cillin, you'll have to dig into your wallet. So, you choose yourself. Sides, there's quite a few free firewalls out there. In fact, there's lots of free software that provides features commercial software charge you for.
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21 out of 26 people found this review helpful
Version: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.1.375
Pros: System scan is averagely fast
Very light on system resources
Quick at system start-up
Good detection rate with the E-mail, resident shield scanner and shell extension
Update manager
Simple interface which would be good for inexperienced users
Low footprints
Cons: Doesn't have a built in lightweight firewall (unlike Avast)
It has a fairly basic interface which may not suite experienced users
Not many options (like Norton) but is a hell of a lot better!
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32 out of 38 people found this review helpful
Version: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.1.375
Pros: This program takes you back, five years or so, when antivirus programs just did their antivirus thing and stayed out of your way. Now we get all these ridiculous gimmicks intended to justify high price tags.
AVG is free and takes care of the antivirus routine without making itself obnoxious. It's got very regular updates to its virus definitions.
I'm not sure how they do this for free. I hope a lot of people are buying their other software!
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15 out of 17 people found this review helpful
Version: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.1.375
Pros: 1. Fast updates.-2. E-mail scanner.-3. Resident shield.-4. 100%Virus Bulletin and 100%ISCA Labs.-5. Fast scanning.-6.Easy to use in case of virus: click heal and if this not works click move to virus fault.-7. Easy install and uninstall.-8. No registration needed.-9. Looks great.-10. AVG Free is completely free.
Cons: There are no cons about this one!
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35 out of 51 people found this review helpful
Version: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.1.375
Pros: The numeber one thing is it is obviously free, which is always nice. It can pick up some items, and updates around every four days with newer definitions. It is good if you cannot afford a better program that requires a payment.
It is an easy to use program and can be navigated by nearly anyone.
Cons: The interface needs a lot of work, it looks more like Windows 95. The program doesn't really catch too many items as other programs and doesn't have a firewall bundled in it.
There is no customer support for it, which is understandable since you are not paying for it.
The test item doesn't work properly. If you select an item, it will scan the exterior shell and will say whatever that is in the exterior shell, not just the item you scanned. Also, testing a "single" item doesn't remove it, they will make you scan fully.
There are some better programs out there, a good free one is Avast, but it isn't the greatest. For being free, it is pretty good but does not include a firewall ethier. I reccommend if you have the money get Norton, it may scan slow, but has very fresh definitions and catches the most things I have used. (Note: It only hogs memory when scanning, which isn't a big deal, but a lot of people seem to think so. Programs like McAfee hog all the time due even when not scanning.)
There are also some techniques that you can practice to nearly virus free, such as don't download anything that is less than the file size should be. This is especially with P2P clients. So many people actually download programs that are 875.8 KB big, which is very ignorant. Right away, you can tell it is no good because of its size. Always look at what you plan to download, and download from trusted sources when avaible.
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