Avg antivirus free edition 2012 review

While the latter free offering is purely antivirus, the former offers far more features that you'd expect from its rivals. Firewall, anti-rootkit and identity protection features are all present and correct. They're clearly explained and easy to set up as well. However, among these features on display on the main page are the PC Analyzer and LiveKive applications. Although they appear to be part of AVG Internet Security , clicking on them leads you to a page asking you to subscribe to the services separately.

An understandable request, but it's never nice to be told that a feature you think you've paid for actually requires a separate subscription. On the antivirus front, CPU usage was 10 per cent, which is pretty good, although there is a slight delay in opening and closing windows and sending emails while the full system scan is running.

Still, it completed a scan in a very fast 7 minutes, 41 seconds - one of the fastest times we've seen. The main feature that is included with this update is the 'Do Not Track' function.

If you've ever browsed for a product on one website, then gone to another website and found adverts for the product or similar ones popping up and seemingly following you, then you'll have experienced what AVG Internet Security is tackling.

While delivering targeted adverts to web users might not seem too bad, some people will be worried that their browsing information is being stored and shared without their knowledge or consent.

That's just a few points better than last year's model. AVG scored 16 percentage points higher than Internet Explorer alone. However, IE had a really bad week for phishing detection. Its detection rate typically averages about 40 points behind Norton; this week it was 75 points behind. Had it been working as well as usual, it would have beaten AVG.

Exploit Protection As mentioned earlier, the Surf-Shield component is designed to detect hacked or malicious Web sites that contain dangerous exploits.

To evaluate its prowess I attacked the test system using exploits generated by the Core Impact penetration system. Surf-Shield blocked six of the 32 exploits, identifying each by name. Another four were blocked when the real-time antivirus component detected the files they were attempting to place on the system.

None of the exploits actually succeeded in penetrating security. AVG's protection is darn good considering that it's free and that most antivirus products don't even try to protect against exploits.

AVG includes a number of useful bonus features. Its PC Analyzer tool scans your system for junk files that can be deleted, useless or erroneous Registry entries, and broken file shortcuts. It also checks the system's drives for fragmentation. When finished it reports how many errors it found and rates the severity of the problem. This tool has an unusual free trial mode.

You can run a full tuneup exactly once; repeated use requires a purchase. AVG also installs a browser toolbar that offers safe search, current weather, and quick access to Windows Explorer, Notepad, and Calculator. Perhaps more useful is its Facebook button. Once you install the AVG Facebook app, clicking the button gets a quick view of your news feed, notifications, friend requests, or messages.

However, the setting described in the help wasn't actually present in the product, and I didn't see any LinkScanner activity on Facebook. A Very Good Choice This product is a great choice overall for free antivirus protection. It has the best scores among current products in my malware removal test and very good scores for malware blocking as well. The independent labs also give it high marks. Will it retain that title? We'll know after the rest of the security products arrive.

PCMag India staff Oct 24, Excellent 4. Bottom Line This free product scored better than the commercial competition in PCMag's hands-on antivirus tests, and it also gets high marks from the independent labs. It now integrates with other AVG products and includes useful bonus features. Pros Very good scores in PCMag's malware removal and malware blocking tests.

High ratings from independent labs. Protection against phishing and exploits. Toolbar with safe search, Facebook access, and more. Fast scan. Cons Rootkit scan is separate from whole computer scan. Phishing and exploit protection less effective than antivirus.

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