Introduction
A while back, I reviewed Microsoft Security Essentials. Today, I’m going to review another favorite in the free anti-virus market; AVG 2011 Free Edition.
Here is a link to the page:
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
Notice how many times you have to click and how complicated they make it for you to get to the download page of AVG Free, (which is actually hosted by Cnet Downloads as well as AVG itself.). At every step, they compare the Free product to its more expensive, paid cousins, trying to coerce you into paying for the whole shebang!
Installation
Installing AVG is a little more involved, complicated, and lengthy than installing Microsoft Security Essentials. It is important to note that the installer, which weighs in at just under 5MB, actually downloads an additional 143MB from the internet during the installation. That means that you will need an internet connection during the installation of AVG, which might be an inconvenience to some.
The AVG installer shows a 3-slide slide show of the three main features of AVG 2011 Free Edition.
They are:
-LinkScanner
-Smart Scanning
-Social Networking Protection
There is one thing on the Social Networking Protection slide that made it completely worthwhile for me to review this product:
Okay, they’re just little alien things. But they’re damn cute. In fact, I think they are the best thing about AVG 2011. Well, if AVG really surprises me how well it protects my computer later on, then that would be my favorite. But until then, these little AVG-Colored critters are a nice touch to add some humor to an otherwise rather uninteresting piece of software.
AVG 2011 Free Edition took about 15 minuted to install, from the time I opened the installer file to when it was completely finished.
AVG takes 105MB of disk space, which is a lot, compared to MSE’s 17MB.
The User Interface
Well, lets start out with a screenshot:
You have the status of every component of AVG, along with two ads to get you to upgrade to the paid version of AVG anti-virus. You have quick access to the Scanner and the Updates, along with being only two clicks away from the Settings menu.
AVG has a very complex Settings manager. You can change and tweak almost every aspect of the program. Most users will probably never even need to change any settings, but more advanced users might want to explore every nook and cranny of the configuration options.
This is what it looks like while it’s scanning:
After the scan it gives you a reasonable detailed report on what it’s done:
You can access most basic functions of the program from the tray icon:
PC Analyzer is a new thing introduced in AVG 2011. You can use it once for free, or you can pay to be able to use it as many times as you want, in increments of 12 months.
Web Browser Integration
AVG 2011 has a very powerful presence in your internet browsing experience. It has its own toolbar, search engine, New Tab page, and Link Scanner add-on.
This is what happened when I tried to visit a site known to contain malware (goggle.com):
Even though the AVG search engine is powered by Google, it has slightly different results and a slightly different layout. Here is a direct comparison with the exact same search terms:
Security:
AVG has always been very aggressive at scanning. Part of the reason we no longer put it on the computers at work is that customers complained that it slowed down their computer too much when it scanned, that it scanned too often, and that it made their hard drive noisy. Twice, customers even went as far as to say that AVG was responsible for the premature failure of their hard disks…
That said, the AVG scan is very deep and thorough. Unfortunately, there is one thing that is really bothersome about it: If you miss a scheduled scan, it will scan the next time you turn your copmuter on. If you turn your computer off or interrupt it before it’s done, it will start over the scan the next time you turn your computer on. I understand the people at AVG were trying to make sure that you scan often, but with a good enough “Resident Shield”, I think they went a little overboard, and many people I know agree with me.
Anyway, I think AVG’s reaction to a malware infection on your computer is somewhat ridiculous.
It pops up two big red windows. The first one is notifying you that it has detected an active exploit, and is asking you whether you want to remove it or allow it. The second window, “multiple threat detection”, shows up due to an error that all AVG anti-virus programs since 9.0 have had: They count each single infection twice. When you actually try to remove both, it tells you in failed to remove the second one. This is because it’s the same one it just removed! It’s a bothersome little quirk that they have had years to fix, and I’m not sure why they haven’t.
Speed and Performance
Specifications of my test computer:
-1.7GHz Pentium M Processor
-1GB Memory
-32GB SSD
-Windows XP Professional SP3
This has always been AVG’s weak point, and AVG 2011 does nothing to improve it; AVG has always been a bloated, large program, using lots of memory and CPU to simply exist, even when it’s doing nothing at all. My computer, (even though it’s not very fast to begin with), took noticeably longer to start up, wake from sleep mode, and even open programs.
AVG’s total (approximate) memory usage during scan = 92MB
AVG’s total (approximate) memory usage idle = 26MB
And when scanning, it makes the computer really become laggy, unresponsive, and extremely slow, even with their so-called “Smart Scanning” crap.
Conclusion/Scoring:
Speed: 5/10
Security: 8.5/10
Ease of Use: 8/10
Looks/Interface: 8/10
Value (Free): 7.5/10
Total Score: 7.4/10
The bottom line: while AVG does a good job at protecting your computer, it has annoying ads and really slows down your computer.
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Review sample source: www.avg.com
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