A newer version of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is available.
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User reviews
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142 out of 198 people found this review helpful
5 stars
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
4 stars
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
5 stars
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
5 stars
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
3 stars
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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