AVG Free Edition Review

Easily one of the most popular antivirus packages, AVG's free antivirus software has recently received quite the overhaul. Many critics of AVG have pointed out that their antivirus software has fallen slightly behind its competition in the past few years. With the latest free AVG update in 2011, many of the issues that plagued AVG free edition have been rectified.

The antivirus market is very competitive, even though developers offer free products in many cases. AVG has been around for years, supplying desktop users with quality software, but since a few years ago, the performance of AVG's software has gotten noticeably slower. The scan speed had also begun to compare quite poorly to other competitors. Installation can take less than five minutes with the most recent edition, and to illustrate just how much of a difference this is, the last edition of AVG's software had thirteen install windows, versus the most recent edition's five install windows.

The new features that have been added to the free edition of AVG's antivirus software are quite an improvement. One new feature, called Smart Scanning, greatly reduces virus scan duration after the initial scan. Once a file has been scanned a single time, it is deemed safe and is not scanned again unless a change to the data has been made. Smart Scanning also prioritizes the automated system scans so that if the computer is being used when a scan begins, AVG's software will reduce the amount of processing power and memory the scan will use. Likewise, if the computer is not in use, AVG will pour more system resources into the scan. This allows you to continue working, or playing games during scans uninhibited.

The user interface has received a few touch-ups since the last version of the free AVG software. All of the security features offered by AVG are now collected together on the software's main screen. You can also use a single button to scan your computer. AVG's interface has remained mostly the same, but the few changes that have been made have improved its usability, especially for novice computer users.

For those who enjoy surfing Facebook, free AVG has included a LinkScanner that allows you to determine the status of links before clicking on them. A green check mark represents a link that has been deemed safe by the software, while a red X signifies a potentially dangerous link. The detection system that is used by the professional version of AVG is now available in the free edition. This detection engine has been reviewed to be a strong and capable detection engine, but occasionally the consistency of scans are lackluster.

The overall performance of the free AVG edition is quite standard for a free antivirus package. A broad expanse of security tools are offered to protect computers from viruses. Thankfully, the scan times have been dramatically improved, bringing AVG back in line with its competitors. It can be hard to be too critical of free software, and thankfully, the AVG developers have tried to freshen up their antivirus software.

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