AVG Quick Stats:

Pricing:	1 Year:  $29.99 protection for three computers
Free Trial	Yes – you can Try it NOW for 30 Days Try NOW for 30 Days Free!
Virus Definition Updates:	4x a day
Proactive Detection Effectiveness:	Good
On Demand Detection Effectiveness:	Very Good
Over-all System Performance:	Good
Customer Service:	Free technical support by e-mail and online support through the comprehensive online knowledgebase.
More Info:	Make Sure to Compare Anti-Virus Software Providers for Additional Plan Statistics

Detailed AVG Review:

AVG offers an antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows from one of the world’s most trusted security companies. AVG grants you real-time protection, automatic updates, low-impact background scanning for on-line threats, and instant quarantining or removal of infected files ensures maximum protection.

AVG Likes:

Effective Resident Shield technology: Resident Shield is one of the greatest successes of AVG. AVG’s Resident Shield can detect dynamic malware in real time, even prior to the complete system scan. Resident Shield is very effective in keeping malware from launching and installing on your computer. You’ll notice that as soon as you open a folder containing malwares, the shield will start wiping them out. Even with the manually modified versions of the malwares, AVG was still able to wipe out most of the malwares. For all the remaining malwares, the utility completely prevented their launch and installation

Accurate dangerous links flagging: Another good addition in the arsenal of AVG is its LinkScanner technology. Its analysis happens in real time, so if a normally safe site gets hacked, the utility catches the problem immediately. The converse is also true: If a hacked site gets repaired, LinkScanner gives it a green light. LinkScanner’s toolbar installs in both Internet Explorer and Firefox so most of us will not have problems with compatibility. Its Search-Shield feature checks all search results from Google, MSN, and Yahoo! and inserts an icon identifying the site as safe, questionable, risky, or dangerous. If the site you’re about to visit is dangerous, the software displays a warning page instead of the requested page.

User friendly interface: The new AVG features a streamlined and more intuitive interface. This version looks completely different from the previous version and most of the problems that the users have reported are gone. The core window now highlights three crucial areas: status, on-demand scanning, and program updates. The software gathers every setting into a tree structure of different depths, and many of the actual configuration pages contain just a single setting. But users will seldom have to dig into these complex settings.

Reliable Antispam technology: AVG just processes the incoming POP3 e-mail stream and prefixes the subject line of supposed spam messages with SPAM. For additional efficiency, you can import your address book into the whitelist, so your usual correspondents will never get blocked.

AVG DisLikes:

Cleanup leaves nonactive file and Registry traces: AVG Free doesn’t clean up all the mess associated with malware and spyware. Once AVG has wiped out the vital executable files, it thinks the job is done, but the fact is it leaves many Registry keys and data files behind.

Lack of additional features: The new AVG still doesn’t include the parental control feature or privacy protection features found in many suites. This is a big thumbs-down since most of AVG’s competition offers these additional features.

Malware and Spyware removal problems: Users have immediately noticed that Resident Shield frequently pops up to report that it had discovered a threat. Then, as all of us will do, they chose to remove the threat, but in many cases AVG8 reported the same threat again and again. This would indicate that the removal failed. Furthermore, we encountered instances were AVG detects spyware, but in many cases AVG just couldn’t seem to remove the detected spyware.

Compatibility issues: After installing AVG, users of Lenovo’s internet access connection complained that their connection failed to work properly. Their connection waited for over ten minutes to get the wireless connection. Another incompatibility issue with AVG involves the fact that it hasn’t quite caught up with a recent change in the format of Google’s sponsored links. This then causes problems with their LinkScanner feature.

AVG Bottom Line:

AVG8.5 is a lot better looking and easier to use than its previous version. It now includes helpful new exploit-detection technology, and its spam filtering is better than what most suites offer. But, just like all other antivirus programs, AVG has some shortcomings including incomplete cleanups, spyware removal problems, compatibility issues, and lack of parental control and antiphishing.

Buy AVG Antivirus for only $29.99! That’s $5 off right now!!