A newer version of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is available.
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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.
- 5 replies to this review
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Great review! I also skimmed some of your other reviews and they are all very helpful! It's clear you put a lot of time and thought into them. One thing that irks me is that I am just starting to review products that I've had for a long time so now I'm writing some reviws but I can't figure out how the heck to make a line break! It won't allow the br tag! So how do you make line breaks? If you help another reviewer out, I'd really appreciate it! Please e-mail to lorddonk@yahoo.com
Hope you read this reply and can answer my question! Thanks!
~Lorddonk
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Thanks for liking my review and posting this nice reply. Well, I use Ad-Aware SE Plus (which includes Ad-Watch), Spybot Search & Destroy, Spyware Blaster, HijackThis, CWSShredder, CCleaner, IE-Spyad, WinPatrol and a HOSTS file. I also scan with Trendmicro's Housecall every now and then. It's an online scanner and I've deleted quite a number of very little known spyware (and a few very little know trojans too) with it. I can't give you the link as Download(.com) won't let it so just do a Google on "housecall". Both Ad-Aware and Spybot are scanners while Spyware Blaster immunizes your computer from spyware in it's database. Spybot has an immunization feature too. Ad-Watch isn't free and it's not the best at blocking spyware from installing on your computer but it's very good at detecting registry changes. A free replacement for Ad-Watch would be Spyware Guard and Spybot's TeaTimer feature. CWSShredder scans and deletes variants of the spyware Cool Web Search only and HijackThis is a little complicated. IE-Spyad adds a long list of bad sites to Internet Explorer's restricted list. A HOSTS file is a little complicated to explain but trust me, it's good. You can get a good HOSTS file and an explanation for it at (mvps.org)(/winhelp2002/)(hosts)(.htm). Ignore the brackets when inserting the URL, I have to do it this way because Download.com doesn't allow URLs. And WinPatrol is good for adding another layer of protection as it doesn't require too much system resources. Also, always have a firewall. Windows Firewall is a good choice but maybe I'm saying that because I'm behind my router's firewall. If you believe you need a better firewall, try Sygate Firewall from here- (pcworld.com)(/downloads/)(file_description/)(0,fid,8132,00) (.asp). Once again, ignore the brackets. You have to get it from PC World because Sygate is now under Symantec and doesn't offer free products anymore. Lastly, maybe get another browser. I'm not gonna say (insert name of other browser here) is safer, faster or better than Internet Explorer because I know some Microsoft fans are gonna say I'm biased and stuff but maybe (name of other browser) makes surfing easier and more fun. Who knows? You might find Internet Explorer to be boring and difficult (especially with the recent IE exploit still not being patched) once you try another browser. That's what I felt about Internet Explorer after I started using (censored). There you go, hope this is useful enough.
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Wow, thanks. I didn't know that. Is it- "C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avgw.exe" /SE %1 -with a space between avgw.exe" and /SE %1 or not? There's no way for me to rectify my review until there's a new version of AVG though. So thanks and sorry.
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About no IM protection: to a certain extent, that isn't true. You can get it to scan files you receive on MSN Messenger. Copy this link without the brackets: ("C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avgw.exe" /SE %1). Paste that into the part to scan for viruses and it will scan anything you receive through it.
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Thank you for taking the time to write such an ib deoth review of the application. Yours was the first review I read. You've really put the thought in to it. I plan n trying it just based on your findings :-) Have you a preference on any apps you've had success with for the reduction/eliminations of ad and spyware?
Thanks again. If you have time and could reply to htrussell@bresnan.net your effort would be much appreciated. I have this page added to my favorites however files tend to get lost in my machine. I need to refresh the system but time seems to always be an issue.
Regards friend,
Tom
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