The free edition of AVG Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware has served me quite well for the past a few years. I am quite happy that I walked away from Symantec and welcomed AVG back then. If you are looking for a good alternative Anti-Virus tool you might want to give this AVG free one a try.
The version 9 was just released and can be downloaded directly from AVG website. Here are what the basic free edition offers:
- Surf, and search with confidence, while LinkScanner® keeps you safe from harmful sites
- Get online and offline protection from viruses, spyware, and other nasties
- Enjoy consistently high-speed PC performance with our new enhanced virus scanner
- Automatic updates keep your protection current
- Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7
The installation process is still pretty easy and straightforward. You just need to be cautious about the additional stuff that are got installed during the installation process. Particularly, when asked for installing AVG Security Toolbar, I usually un-check them and move to next.
Note that once it’s installed, AVG Safe Search add-on will be installed on Firefox and IE so that its featured LinkScanner can keep you safe surfing the web on both Firefox and IE. .
When first launching the program, you will be prompted a window providing you two choices of system scanning. If your system is fine and clean, you can safely select to Wait until the first scheduled scan starts. Otherwise, it was recommended that just run a scan now.
Now, it’s pretty much all set if there is no new updates found on AVG update server. You can put your mind in peace and safely surf the web without worrying too much the thread. Leave that piece to AVG.
The program doesn’t require a lot of your interaction to keep it going. It’s pretty much automated. But it’s always a good idea manually updating the virus definition file once a while, in case the scheduled update doesn’t run successfully.
And of course, the full version has more features than the basic free on if you are interested.
