Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

CyberDoc999 reviewed v2016 Build 7294 on Dec 1, 2015

does not stop PUP's

CyberDoc999 reviewed v2016 Build 7294 on Dec 1, 2015

does not stop PUP's

starcreatives reviewed v2015 15.0 Build 5941 on Apr 20, 2015

I am using free AVG for may years.in my laptop. It is a good antivirus and give full security to my system.

RichyBR reviewed v2015 15.0 Build 5645a8758 on Feb 16, 2015

Unfortunately, today AVG is not what it used to be a few years ago. However, it still offers decent virus protection.
http://softchamp.com/download-avg-antivirus-free

Vivek Kowshik reviewed v2014 14.0.4745 on Nov 29, 2014

I have been using this AV for years. I have realized now that these vendors are in overdrive mode, cramming more aggressive features that mess up with the OS and other security software.

This one would cause freezing of my OS (Win8 on a Dell Inspiron 3537), each time there was a major AV update. I then switched to Avira, and found it turned ON the Windows firewall, although I had Comodo FW installed, and then the frequent freezing and crashing of the OS, disabling of my touchpad etc.

I have now decided I had enough of this overly aggressive junk, and installed Panda cloud AV. Although it is just a few days old, I faced no such issues. I suppose a cloud based AV loads a lot less stuff on your PC, and therefore is lighter and less prone to causing problems of incompatibility and the like. I recommend all those who have faced similar issues to use a cloud based AV, with Comodo FW (which has some AV features) with a back up scanner such as Malwarebytes, and a browser protection software - Malwarebytes Antiexploit. and I guarantee, you will be free of problems.

johnusa reviewed v2014.4354 on Mar 24, 2014

This irritating and poorly written garbage software keeps changing IE Tabs to open in a blank page instead of my set home page. This has been going on for many versions of this abysmal software and AVG is completely deaf and uncaring to fix this bug even though I have written and notified these idiots many times.

I am starting to hate AVG.

mapimopi reviewed v2014.4336 on Mar 18, 2014

I used McAfee for years until I found this. I've been using it for the past year on three machines and have found it better and easier to use than McAfee.
http://orbitaldownloads.com/avg-antivirus/

TGB72 reviewed v2014.4336 on Mar 12, 2014

I'm using 2014.0.4336 and all seems to work flawless, with all it's modules and services is consuming 184MB of memory, not so high for an AV. And it's free, that's good enough for me.

johnusa reviewed v2014 14.0.4335 on Feb 4, 2014

A very poor and irritating program, and I hope that AVG will read about my two big issues with their poorly designed and irritating programs, as it applies to all of their security program versions.
1: Why in the world does your Toolbar keeps changing my new opened IE Tabs to open a blank page. I change my Tabs options to open in my home page, but your lousy and irritating Toolbar keeps reverting new Tabs to open a blank page. Why in hell do you allow this to happen?

2: Why you stupid sadists not allow your users to customize our Toolbar. I do not want the ugly Facebook icon to appear, and you stupidly do not give me any options to remove this ugly icon.

I will never use your horrible and irritating programs.

Hilbert reviewed v2014 14.0.4161 on Nov 14, 2013

The full downloads/off-line installation files such as:

avg_free_x86_all_2014_4142a6696.exe
avg_free_x64_all_2014_4116a6613.exe
avg_free_x86_all_2013_3349a6461.exe

simply WILL NOT install on my Win 7 64-bit, machines. Even a clean Windows 7 installation breaks these versions of AVG (although earlier versions from last year will still install). Also, from other internet reports, it seems that I'm not alone in having AVG's install fail.

Moreover, I'm not going to bother trying this version, as it and earlier versions are not the full package but just downloaders. Fileforum, why this change, won't AVG let you have the real thing?

If AVG cannot even get the program's installer to work without error messages then it says precious little for the product as a whole!

I used to recommend AVG to clients but no longer. Even when I'm able to install it, it's now a dog of a program to use.

Also, yuh really have to wonder what the hell's going on at AVG when the installer repeatedly crashes across multiple machines. After all, antivirus software is usually renowned for its ruggedness for obvious reasons.

Sorry there's no zero star.

johnusa reviewed v2014 14.0 Build 4142 on Sep 27, 2013

The AVG LinkScanner, the horrible, lousy, irritating piece of s*** add-on toolbar that is included in this program must be fixed and stubborn AVG refuses to fix this garbage add-on because they make money out if it while infuriating their customers and users.
This garbage add-on insists on adding s***ty icons that cannot be removed or customized, like "Facebook" which I hate, and "Performance" which is actually and ad for AVG for more garbage software.
A message to AVG: **** you and give your users the option to customize this garbage ads-on and remove ugly icons we do not want.
Now go to hell AVG.

nvic reviewed v2014 14.0 Build 4142 on Sep 26, 2013

Used v9 (the last decent version) up until recently, dumped in early June for Avast. Ever since they went to the year-numbered versions, the product has been junk.

Also very bloated and comes with a bunch of crapware (toolbars/search engine pages/etc.).

fast777 reviewed v2014 14.0 Build 4142 on Sep 26, 2013

THEY HAVE TOTALLY SCREWED THE POOCH... THEY NEED TO GET BACK TO REAL BASICS AND STOP FOISTING CRAP ADD-ON INTO OUR PC'S.... ENOUGH ALREADY..!!!!!!! STOP THE INSANITY...!!!!!!!!!!!

Music4Ever reviewed v2014 14.0 Build 4142 on Sep 26, 2013

Removed this yesterday from a PC that wouldn't open any links nor would allow downloading of anything, turned out it was this piece of junk - There is a standalone uninstaller for it still left the registry entries left that were causing the problem though - IMO the worst AV there is:

No stars ~

olivergiving reviewed v2014 14.0 Build 4116 on Sep 25, 2013

avg is not bad

Rhett2100 reviewed v2013.3392 on Aug 16, 2013

AVG Virus "Protection" charged me $60.00 for Virus Protection AND NOW Wants $90.00 MORE to Remove Viruses!!!! RIP OFF Company!!!!

malleusdeus reviewed v2013.3392 on Aug 7, 2013

I made an account with this site specifically to write this review..if that tells you anything. I have used AVG for nearly a decade now and always been very pleased. I recently upgraded to a new PC and, naturally installed AVG Antivirus Free as I always have; yet was very disappointed to find that they are now bundling their safesearch toolbar into their other programming...without notifying you. So I found that my "new tab" page of Google Chrome was now AVG Safesearch page which takes a rather annoying time to load, and is an extra hindrance in actually reaching your desired webpage. I scoured AVG forums to find that tech support was offering no viable solutions or even apologies whatsoever for their unethical actions. A few moments ago I chose to uninstall AVG and found the AVG Toolbar in my programslist as well, and uninstalled it. Due to the unethical, and irresponsible nature of AVG as of late, I don't know if I will ever make use of their products again.

johnusa reviewed v2013.3392 on Jul 30, 2013

The security part is very good.
The issue I have with all AVG software is the horrible and irritating Toolbar that gets installed in IE cause it also installs the "Facebook" icon which is not possible to remove, and the stupid AVG ad that appears in the "Performance" icon which when you click on it takes you to an AVG site so you can download more junk.
AVG must allow a user of this horrible Toolbar to customize and remove icons they do not want to appear. I have written AVG many times requesting this option but they are not listening, as I would guess that they are getting paid handsomely to include that garbage Facebook icon.

TC17 reviewed v2013.3343 on Jun 8, 2013

I am giving this a 1 star due to the fact this company is bundling their crap, AVG Toolbars hidden inside of other program installs without even asking. Its a pain to remove also. That speaks for itself about the ethics of this company.

Avast is starting to become that way also. Nothing but stupid popups all the time. You would have thought these program would have done the opposite, considering you can run Microsoft Security Essentials for free.

gatorfan95 reviewed v2013.3336 on May 9, 2013

If I had a dollar for everyone of my friend's computers I have taken this mess off of and installed Avast! in it's stead I could buy a new gaming computer. Has been junk for a long time, still junk.

Chip525 reviewed v2013.3272 on Apr 5, 2013

Avoid this program! Constant popupmads to purchase additional features is extremely annoying. It is ironic that I bought this product only to have them bother me multiple times a day. Wish I had stayed with MacAffee.

johnusa reviewed v2013.3272 on Apr 4, 2013

I hate the IE Toolbar that AVG provides, even the updated version that comes with this newly released software.
AVG stupidly does not give the user any options to customize this irritating and poorly designed Toolbar.
I hate the Facebook icon that AVG insists to include on the Toolbar.
Open letter to AVG: Give us options to customize the Toolbar so we can remove any features that we do not want to include and see in our browsers.

BloodyNightmares reviewed v2013.3258 on Mar 21, 2013

This is the absolute worse anti-virus I have ever tried to install. It got about half way through then blue screened my lap top. I wasted my last 30 minutes on my phone trying to fix it and ended up having to do a system restore to 3 days ago. I will NEVER try and install anything that has something to so with them again. If it weren't for GuruAid, I may have never been able to fix my computer again. And, if it were an option, I wouldn't even give AVG a star. So, for the record, I give them 0.

Music4Ever reviewed v2013.3258 on Mar 16, 2013

I had the misfortune of fixing my neighbours PC yesterday that had crawled to a halt & had difficulty closing down or re-starting. The cause was a messed up AVG free installation after removing it & spending some time cleaning the PC up all was OK - Avoid what was once a decent AV but no longer.

CrafterCat reviewed v2013.2897 on Feb 26, 2013

McAfee has been giving me a headache for months, so I went back to AVG, and it's working fine. Used the Tune-Up and my computer is running much faster. I used AVG some years ago, but I switched when the new computer came with McAfee, so I just stayed with that. Sorry I did, and at twice the price of AVG. I have Vista, by the way, and there's been no problem.

doug1746 reviewed v2013.2897 on Feb 23, 2013

Have been a paying AVG user for years....this latest version has crash and crippled my laptop....their support is terrible...NO help.....my IT guy can not get the laptop going and has tried removing AVG to no avail....it has now impacted my home PC's...the crawl and crash continously....the product is terrible....trying to uninstall and get something else....all these techies think they know it all but sometimes they should just stop, relax, and let things be as they are.....garbage now....!!!

Stephen Metcalfe reviewed v2013.2805 on Dec 25, 2012

Do NOT install AVG PC Tuneup. This product is defective and can harm your Windows installation!

I updated to the latest AVG antivirus 2013 having used it for several years without problems. Unfortunately it also installed a demo version of AVG PC TuneUp that kept poping up a window saying my installation had problems and I should purchase AVG PC TuneUp. In a fit of insanity, I did so and have regretted it ever since. During the installation, AVG PC TuneUp crashed my Windows 7 and and when I rebooted I could not start Windows. I had to do a Windows repair, going back to my last Windows update. Even now I get a popup that says:

The installation of this AVG product is defective. Please install the AVG product again to correct the problem.

I have tried uninstalling AVG PC TuneUp and was told the product was defective.
I have tried re-installing AVG antivirus 2013.
I have tried using the removal tools as directed at http://www.avg.com/us-en...vbnN8Y2RmPXx2YXI9MHw%3D

Guess what? I still get the popup saying the AVG product is defective.

I agree with AVG. Their product IS defective.

pkassoc reviewed v2013.2741 on Nov 24, 2012

i paid for avg a year ago. Decided to reup again and paid. As few days after i paid, i got a email asking if i wanted to try a free "speed up my computer" software for one day or buy the item for an extra 39.95. I didnt do anything but i noticed that my computer became much slower. I am certain that they changed my version to create this problem and i really resent such unethical behavior. I will post this event on as many reviews as i can until enuf people verify that they have the same problem. I hope to raise awareness since i am powerless to do anything else. I have read in other reviews that you cant even get portions of the software off if you remove the program; portions of it keep running in the background!!!

mimi2 reviewed v2013.2741 on Oct 22, 2012

Do not download this product!!! It is impossible to remove all of it even if you uninstall. Three weeks after uninstalling their crappy program I now find my google search being hijacked to their "secure search engine". Have tried everything to get that gone to no avail.
Customer support is horrible and they want me to pay 129.00 for one of their techs to remove this rogue part of their program. Chat not available and no phone number in the US to call.
Bad Bad Bad program and company!!!!!!!!!!!! Rating i a big fat 0

smilesarah reviewed v2013 13.0.2667 on Sep 24, 2012

Ir's not bad,but Norton 360 v5 is better than it.You can try out the free trial norton 360.http://www.antivirusprice.co.uk/

beatmakershq reviewed v2013 13.0.2667 on Sep 12, 2012

not bad but not the best on the market that's for sure.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v2013 13.0.2667 on Sep 6, 2012

this is NOT lite!
it made my quad core i7 run much slower

I agree
Sig based AV's are a thing of the past.

sheinaya reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 2197a5126 on Jul 21, 2012

Cool! but try ca anti virus, for me its the best, real time scanner is very light, unlike other anti-virus makes your PC stuck at 5-10secs.
I have a copy, license will expire on 2015,
you can download it here>> ca-anti-virus dot weebly dot com

michelonline reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 2197a5126 on Jul 17, 2012

Only one big disadvantage that as time passes it makes PC slower and slower

morf reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 2127a4918 on Jun 8, 2012

AVG sounds like a good option to paid for anti virus but it slows down your PC and when like me you try to uninstal AVG it takes you around the houses by not completely uninstalling. In the end I had to manually delete the AVG files in the registry which has taken me all afternoon. Prior to AVG I had Macafee which is not ideal but better than AVG grinding my PC to a almost halt.
I would never ever recommend any one installing AVG 2012. I have now loaded Norton which I have used previously and still lives up to expectations with out intruding on my work, the PC cruises now instead of crawling along with the AVG anti virus on board.
For the Techies I have a Core 2 Duo processor and 3 gig of RAM and 1 Tb hard drive more than enough to run Flash software and Photoshop at the same time.

Further comments::::
This weekend I have uninstalled AVG 2012 from three PCs with 3 different OS
Vista, Wondows 7 and XP. The comment above relates to Vista. There are still problems wit the PC but it is getting beter but no thanks to AVG.
Uninstalling from Windows 7 was a bit easier. It took a while to uninstall and I had to tidy up the registry. This PC was very slow but now works as it should with a i5 processor. The old Dell PC with XP uninstalled as it should have with the soft ware being cleaned out and as far as I can see now residue from AVG.

From this experience it appears AVG works well with XP but is a night mare if installed on Vista. If using Windows 7 it can still be a problem and should be avoided. In all cases AVG 2012 slowed the PCs down but to differnet degrees. XP was marginal. Vista was slow especially if the AVG search engine was used even though it was based on Google. Windows 7 was very slow even though the PC was only a month old and has 4 gig RAM and a i5 processor.

I orginally loaded AVG because of the reports about how bad MaCafee was in controlled tests. What these tests dont tell you is how the software works in the real world where you are using a PC/laptop with different OS and how easy it is to uninstall and if it is user friendly. Its okay if you are a Techi or engineer who uses PCs and software every day all day but for Joe Pubic we dont have hours to spend trying to get the PC working as it should and also we do have a job to do which is why we are using PCs and laptops at home.

Music4Ever reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 2126a4890 on Mar 27, 2012

Sig based AV's are a thing of the past.

marym reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 1913a4770 on Mar 2, 2012

I have been trying to install AVG 2012 internet security. With several useless calls to their "HELP" desk the program will not install despite the fact that AVG 2010 successfully installed and worked.

I have been their customer since 2008. (sigh) All that is over with! Good-bye AVG. It was nice knowing you.

some guy reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 1913a4770 on Jan 31, 2012

all the good reviews you see are either by fools or the program developers .
Far behind the others in a independent test
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

DarrenH reviewed v2012 12.0.1901 on Jan 25, 2012

This is one of the best rated programs. Personally I've used few antivirus programs but this version of AVG Anti-Virus is one of the most powerful antivirus of the moment. You can read more about it here: http://www.freevirusprotections.net/
http://www.freevirusprot...virus-free-edition.html

jayk reviewed v2012 12.0.1901 on Jan 19, 2012

AVG is good since it is free. But it gives so many alerts without telling you what to do about it. For example I get a pop up each time I visit practically any site it gives three ominous options - "Add to exceptions" (what if it is dangerous, you decide - how would I know), "Go to file" (what will I do going to the file) or "Ignore the threat" (Ignore! and...then what? Will it not sit on my computer for ever?)

I had used Avast - it was more "silent" except for the loud virus updation notification ( you can turn it off). Not sure whether the silence is because it manages everything or is it because it could not find anything.

However avg comes with a few stuff like registry cleaner, duplicate finder etc , which are very good. I have removed my other dupe finders like auslogistics etc, cos avg's is more user friendly and less confusing. I hope they did the same when they give an alert. Had it not been for this alert thing I would have rated avg above 4.5. Now its 3

holy1661 reviewed v2012 12.0.1901 on Dec 28, 2011

First off, I would not run any computer without antivirus installed. While virus are not as popular as they used to be, they are still out there waiting.
Any mention of how much slower they make your computer is ill informed at this point. The slow down is so negligible, nobody even bothers to do a benchmark while disabling antivirus.
The real issue at this point is spyware, and will do as much or more damage than a virus (the fake Antivirus 2012 for example). It is important to also install at least the free Super-Antispyware for example. AVG and Avast do not block spyware, although they both mention that they do.
With both AV and Antispyware running at least you are almost protected.
AVG is good, and you can look here for real world protection results: http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart2.php. Although I have been using Avast, I may switch back to AVG now that I see this chart...
I would give AVG a five if it blocked rootkit spyware's like AV2012, for that you have to use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to get rid of it.

Also: get it from http://www.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download

netean reviewed v2012 12.0.1901 on Dec 28, 2011

Such as it is, it;'s ok. But in my honest opinion I think all of these virus scanners are somewhat pointless. I've run without antivirus for nearly 2 years, the only virus I did get was ironically when I was had some antirvuris installed that I was evaluating. neither it nor the other 3 anti virus apps I tried saw it let alone fixed it. They seem to spend more time bringing up false positives and stopping advertising cookies than anything useful.
I'll go back to running withuot anti virus and monitoring things myself. AVg just slows you machine down without actually doing much as far I can see.

nvic reviewed v2012 12.0.1901 on Dec 23, 2011

Works fine, but gets more bloated with each release. Thinking of switching to MS Security Essentials.

As for the "Tim The Computer Wizard Inc" a few reviews down, he's been banned on several security sites. Avoid him.

Input Overload reviewed v2012 12.0.1901 on Dec 23, 2011

Was good some years ago now bloated & not particularly good, every dog has it's day.

BTW 'Tim The Computer Wizard Inc' is blocked by Malwarebytes / Webroot Secure Anywhere & blacklisted by WOT. Beware & avoid the URL.

tl307 Seems to be pushing his site, no problems with it though the files are not current - Use the main site.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Lovely Spam, Lovely Spam, Lovely Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, I Don't Like Spam!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8huXkSaL7o

helpplease reviewed v2012 12.0.1873 on Dec 9, 2011

I just downloaded the free download now my laptop two times now wanted to do a disk dump...any solutions or anyone else have this problem?

Sammo reviewed v2012 12.0.1873 on Nov 22, 2011

Well, its kind of hard to actually give this a review. When I tried to install AVG it told me to uninstall my Online Armor. Na, no thanks.

securtek reviewed v2012 12.0.1872 on Nov 17, 2011

I have used AVG free for many years with no problems until I upgraded (fresh install) to W7 64bit. The software installs correctly & scans but crashes on updates. I have tried downloading the updates and I have tried the auto updates, neither one works and both crash the program. Each time I have allowed AVG to send an email home but to no avail they cannot seems to fix the problem thru many releases. What i always get is an unspecified error message asking if I would like to send diagnostic data to AVG for analysis.

Tim The Computer Wizard Inc reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 8134 on Nov 3, 2011

For the last 22 years I have more than 750 local customers running AVG Free, including 2012. I can tell you from a vast experience, not 1 computer's experience that AVG Free is in the top 2. Avast is just as good except it asks too many questions that the end user does not read. When a user becomes comfortable clicking "Yes" and "OK" without reading the question, it is a potential problem.

AVG Free is a great program when accompanied by anti-spyware titles like Malwarebytes, Spybot & Ad-Aware.

If it seems to cause a problem after installing, I have found the problem is related to a previous issue undetected by the old anti-virus program that had been missed. Or the old anti-virus program that was uninstalled or not properly uninstalled. Most anti-virus programs offer an uninstaller to be run AFTER the title has been uninstalled in Control Panel. Often several uninstallers need to be ran due to the system's anti-virus history.

The negative reviews posted are complaints from the average user and they have not had a professional address the issues they are experiencing.

www.comp-wizard.com

Luc72 reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 1831 on Oct 7, 2011

Installed on many differents pc (with XP / 7) without problems, except on one with a firewall: it always freeze on installation.

trex21 reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 1809a4504 on Oct 4, 2011

AVG 6 was good freeware, 11 is a resource hogging monster that has to be dragged kicking and screaming just to get it to uninstall.

jtsmith525 reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 1796a4455 on Sep 4, 2011

AVG is horrible. I had McAfee Anti-Virus as a trial subscription when I purchased my computer for 15 months. About 2 weeks ago it ran out and I didn't have the money to purchase the renewal subscription. So I decided to go for the AVG Free anti-virus software. My father raves about it and says it's better than Norton. So I put it on my computer. AVG neglected to mention several things about their software. First being, when you download the Free version you're getting their virus software, not anti-virus. My computer is now chock full of viruses and running slower than ever. Two, once you download the software to your computer you cannot uninstall it! It keeps giving me an error message to uninstall it. Three, to uninstall it, you have to call and have a tech remotely do so. So I called and spent a little over an hour on the phone with a tech with a very heavy accent who was very difficult to understand. Finally after about an hour he says, "Okay, I can fix this problem for you. For $129.99 I can uninstall AVG and have full service for one year on your computer." Yes, I would have to pay them $130 to uninstall the program that has successfully crashed my computer. I said screw it, bought the renewal for McAfee and attempted to run a virus scan with that. Oops...AVG won't let the McAfee software open up. Try going to the McAfee webpage...nope it won't load. Try going to the AVG site and click on the link to call AVG..link doesn't work. But don't worry the link to download AVG to my computer still works great. Needless to say, I'm going to have to wipe my computer clean and reinstall the entire operating system. Please, for the love of God do not install AVG onto your computer. Hopefully I save at least one person from making the same mistake I did.

baki_princ reviewed v2012 12.0 Build 1796a4455 on Sep 2, 2011

i would use it but avg always sees cracks as virus, and that i cant alow :D

susansusie reviewed v2011.1390a3758 on Aug 16, 2011

I find this software is useful.

theallen reviewed v2011.1390a3758 on Aug 3, 2011

I feel secure with this program.

haynesj reviewed v2011.1375a3626 on Jun 30, 2011

NEVER EVER purchase the AVG software. Their tech support is horrible. I am trying to uninstall and it keeps giving me an error message. Their tech support will not assist me in removing it from my computer.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v2011.1375a3626 on May 12, 2011

pure crap

ron_marz reviewed v2011.1375a3626 on May 11, 2011

162 megabytes.

Orbitration reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on May 1, 2011

I'm a tech. No, really, I am, have been for years.
When someone brings a box over that's not right, and it has AVG on it, especially 11, I remove it and replace it with something else.
What a dog program this turned into over the years.

jofin reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on Apr 29, 2011

I was happy with AVG until last year. It has gradually become more and more bloated and instead of progressing, seems to have gone backwards. I used to put it on all my customers PCs but have stopped from this release. The downloadable installation file has been cut down to the minimum and it requires an internet connection at initial setup to get the rest. This might be acceptable to single users but is absolutely no good when repeatedly doing installations.

bekossi reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on Apr 28, 2011

Your better off without any antivirus software then this piece of junk.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on Apr 28, 2011

you should read the latest test results
AVG is the worst of the worst
it got 13 percent

nvic reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on Apr 27, 2011

Does the job, but is definitely bloatware.

I still use v9 on 3 of my systems because its lighter than 2011 (although not by much...).

HeilNizar reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on Apr 27, 2011

lol

war593122 reviewed v2011.1325a3589 on Apr 27, 2011

Version 6 rocked. After that it become bloatware.

Yuck!

CyberDoc999 reviewed v2011.1209a3533 on Mar 31, 2011

Why do people use this????
it is the most bloated slow thing ever made!
it is rated as middle of the pack also

asaenz reviewed v2011.1209a3533 on Mar 30, 2011

AVG was good more than 5 years ago. I would use MSE except that it only has quarantine and delete as the options when it finds something and I might want it to ignore if I think it is safe. So my next best choice for AV would be Avira ... it seems to give me the control I want on my computer without bogging it down with a memory consuming cpu cycle hogging AV program (except for the occasional ad). I would only install AVG to scan for any malware that other programs might have missed and if clean go back to a prior-to-installation restore point.

prflowers reviewed v2011.1209a3533 on Mar 30, 2011

I used AVG for more than 5 years. This was a great antivirus untill about a year ago. Don't even think about trying to use it now. Avir is better, faster, and does not slow your computer down.

Input Overload reviewed v2011.1204a3403 on Mar 16, 2011

This program is nothing like as good as it used to be. If you really must have free Anti-Virus use MS Security Essentials.

Better still look for coupons for NIS & pay a few £'s for a hugely better product.

egg83 reviewed v2011.1204a3403 on Mar 15, 2011

I too used to use AVG, but have since switched to Avast! and have had no problems since. Download size is quite large, but I guess having this program is better than having no antivirus solution at all.

Aegis69 reviewed v10.0.1202a3370 on Jan 24, 2011

147 meg? Yasus!

I went linux about a year ago, don't need my computing horsepower bogged down by a third party app scanning everything because Microsoft were too lazy to do their jobs. Having said that, if you still are on Windoze, I recommend MSE. Thats a product they bought from some company, and its works pretty well, and is free.

DudeBoyz reviewed v10.0.1202a3370 on Jan 24, 2011

147+ meg - really? Avira has this thing beat. AVG was once a great program - but since they bought that other company and tried to integrate their tech, it's just gone to heck. I can't recommend this to anybody when you have Avira available for free.

ke4jcd reviewed v10.0.1153a3218 on Nov 25, 2010

Best antivirus software you'll ever buy, oh that's right, it's free.

ferdburfell reviewed v10.0.1153a3218 on Nov 1, 2010

AVG Free is - Free. The adage "you get what you pay for" comes to mind. However - This has been a good product for several years. I have installed the free version on an untold number of machines because it worked...past tense. Now I'm reminded of Peter Norton Computing that started out GREAT and slowly became a black-hole behemoth, lumbering along & requiring unreasonable resources.
If the free version is bloatware, then how does the company expect to sell the registered version? The updates to version 9 eventually get to version 2011 & the problems start. I do this for a living - all day, nearly 7 days a week & AVG 2011 has gone to hell.
They best right now do what Norton has done - FIX IT! Norton anything now installs quickly, has a near zero footprint & works perfectly. I only point that out because it can be done. I installed AVG Free on all my repairs/fresh installs/restores. But not anymore. I'm doing MS Security Essentials now. I hate that.

war593122 reviewed v10.0.1153a3218 on Nov 1, 2010

Use to be 1 of the best!

Now just bloated crapware!

aybiss reviewed v10.0.1144a3191 on Oct 21, 2010

Seems to have lost sight of 64 bit systems, and downloading from their site seems to require registration.

johnusa reviewed v10.0.1144a3191 on Oct 19, 2010

Has become very bloated, slow and uses a lot of PC resources.
Like other user's comments here, I agree that this software has lost my recommendation. It is ridiculously large and many of its features are not needed.
I used to install it on many PCs, but not any more.
Avast Free is a very good version to consider, get it here:
http://fileforum.betanew...-Antivirus/1034566665/1
Shame on AVG for messing it up big time.

Alexander-GG reviewed v10.0.1120 on Oct 17, 2010

1. Installer file - 107 Mb. Needs download during installation.
2. High system resources usage. Slows down the system.
3. Link scanner doesn't work with Google Chrome.
4. Absolutely unneeded features like - "PC Analyzer" which does nothing except pushing you to buy one more AVG product.
5. Pop-up offering to upgrade (or to say correctly "pop-down") every time you open the anti-virus window.
6. No ability to temporary disable scanner without entering the "advanced" settings.
7. Not well organized menu.

...and this is most downloaded anti-virus? Heh...

XeNdO reviewed v10.0.1120 on Oct 3, 2010

10 will not install on my Windows 7 machine. dll's "fail to register". 3 tries.
works well on 2 XP machines but...

Input Overload reviewed v10.0.1120 on Sep 30, 2010

MikeTechno, Surely that's a good thing refusing to install if you already have an AV installed. Eset does a similar thing. It's common knowledge everywhere: Only ever have one AV, & other Anti-Spy-ware progs. MS Essentials leaves AVG behind now.

I can't see how you can get greedy when you are offering a free product, your logic is flawed.

MikeTechno reviewed v10.0.1120 on Sep 29, 2010

This is funny. The new version of AVG now won't even install if you have a competing AV program on your system. I also run Avira AntiVir and AVG always use to just warn you that if you install it, there may be issues with the competing software (but there never were any), now it won't even let you install it until you remove the competing product from your system first. Sorry AVG. When you get that greedy and that selfish...YOU LOSE! So long AVG!

And| reviewed v10.0.1120 on Sep 29, 2010

135mb? Can one say bloatware? The prior version was a heft 70-ish mb.

To much, thinking that alternatives fills up at 50mb.

Space is not everything, just an indicator of how bloated AVG has become. I am having better results with Avast these days.

Go gome AVG.

lehenryjr reviewed v10.0.1120 on Sep 28, 2010

I would say AVG is decent, but it's not on my 'first-load' on a new PC list. I dropped AVG when the application kept maxing out my PC for no reason. I complained in the forums and found that AVG's support was arrogant and dismissed my claim; one month later my issue was the same as everyone elses- maxed out CPU.

I switched to another anti-virus and I've not had another performance issue; and still no viruses.

It's good, if you've the horses to pull it.

some guy reviewed v9.0.851a3009 on Jul 21, 2010

to many other free-wares do a better job
1 Avira home free edition
2 Avast free edition
3 Microsoft security essentials

4690 reviewed v9.0.819a2842 on Jun 21, 2010

It is easy to download and run. AVG worked OK; lots of settings and seemed to do a good scan. But some scanner areas did not seem to work and some kept reverting back to the default.

Lant reviewed v9.0.819a2842 on Jun 10, 2010

This program is worse than the trojan I was trying to remove with it. First it failed to find the trojan. Second is that it turns your computer into molasses. Even trying to open a text file takes forever. The 3rd and worst thing is that I have tried to remove this program 3 times and can't. It goes through the uninstall process and then gives me this error saying the it avg will not respond.
Not one bit of the program is removed.
I tried the companies support form and it won't let me entert the complete version number then gives a validation error because the number is not entered.

The computer I have this on is vertually unuseable now. STAY AWAY FROM AVG.

Raton reviewed v9.0.819a2842 on May 5, 2010

"I have used this program
for many years, and installed
it on many of my friend's machines.
None of these machines has ever
been infected by a virus."

Same here ! I recently switched to Avast, but wouldn't feel bad if I had to
use AVG. Certainly superior to either McAfee or Symantec (Norton AV).
The free anti-virus programs are overall better than ones you pay for.

The PC Rat

nvic reviewed v9.0.790a2730 on Mar 10, 2010

Never had an issue with this app. Yeah, it does miss the nastier rootkits and well-cloaked malware, but it does an OK job if you have to grab a free AV quickly.

Any PC I fix gets either this, Antivir, or Avast unless the owner provides a disc for a paid product (that's not Norton - Too many units come back with speed and network connectivity issues caused by it, even though it's detection rates are impressive)

Dwayne_Anthony reviewed v8.5.323a1500 on Feb 9, 2010

According to my point of view you may get better help from here,

http://www.spywarelib.com/

hughv reviewed v9.0.730a1834 on Feb 3, 2010

I have used this program for many years, and installed it on many of my friend's machines.
None of these machines has ever been infected by a virus.
No AV is perfect, but I've been very satisfied with this product through many versions.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v9.0.730a1834 on Jan 20, 2010

worst of any free av
can not stop most newer viruses

dstream reviewed v9.0.730a1834 on Jan 18, 2010

http://www.av-comparativ...summary/summary2009.pdf

came absolutely nowhere in the comparative reports by the independent test labs.

the only positive it gave is they do a free version i.e. this.

always in the bottom for detection, always up there for resource hogging. Very very average detection rates

CyberDoc999 reviewed v9.0.730a1834 on Jan 16, 2010

what the
avg killed my windows

"In case you are not able to run your Windows XP operating system after AVG virus definition update, it may be caused by a false positive on a specific "user32.dll" system file. The file was moved to the AVG Virus Vault and deleted. Therefore it is not possible to start Windows."

http://www.avg.com/support

Vimes reviewed v9.0.716a1803 on Dec 13, 2009

I have found it to be just about adequate for my needs. I did use Avira, which seems to have a high detection rate, BUT it also does have a high false positive detection rate - which is just as much as a problem as not detecting at all. Read the linked (well done for that) report posted below and you will note that Avira was marked down for that.
In use I now have found that either MSE or the new Avast (both Microsoft and the older Avast scored a three start tating as Advanced + in that below noted test and Avira managed a two start rating of Advanced) to be much better.
So I use Avast 5 beta 3. Spybot S&D and Spyware blaster to offer part of my layered protection.
If you download any suspect files always run them through...
http://www.virustotal.com/
..first anyway.
So coming back to this version of AVG. I did try it out and I was impressed "so so" however I am aware that there are reports which state that it is not as good as others on the market for the same free price.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v9.0.716a1803 on Dec 13, 2009

This made my 3 ghz dual core run very slow.
and it did not protect me very well from viruses.

dstream reviewed v9.0.716a1803 on Dec 12, 2009

Still the one of the worst antivirus to install on your pc

Known worms 4903 in wild it found 2350 48% detection
Backdoors 2839 it found 1866 66% detection
Trojans 15053 it found 6997 46% detection
malware 442 it found 240 54% detection

total of 23237 samples tested it found ta daaaaa 11453 49% of them making it 10th of of 16 tested.

highest was avira at 74% its free as well by the way. If you rely on this your barking!!!!!

http://www.av-comparativ...ondret/avc_report24.pdf

safe link I promise.

and a great 9 out of 11 in the latest unwanted program detection.

http://www.av-comparativ...est/pua/avc_pua2009.pdf

and a great 3rd from bottom in the we missed alot of the spyware category out of 16 it came 13th.

And people trust this program words fail me.

The above tests are from the industries independent test labs every month, each antivirus program is subject to the same vigorous no bull to the limit tests,. Using 0 day attacks as well as 3 month old virus samples and more.

Guess where avg comes each time.

umi81 reviewed v9.0.716a1803 on Dec 12, 2009

In my experience AVG 9 is faster than 8 and uses less memory, and still provides a reasonable deal of protection.
With default settings false positive are quite rare if compared with some others a/v.

dstream reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Dec 11, 2009

Ive installed ths once more to give an unbiased review. Im running a i920 quad core at idle 7% cpu time. barely tick over. Avg has taken upto 19% at idle whats it doing? and sitting tying up 2/3 of the cpu on one core?

Its now scanning my work machine which is mainly for internet and dev work.

the false positives are back its just decided a java module is infected and once more the vba module ive written is a trojan. How can anyone seriously use this to protect the pc they are on. Internet is alot lot lot slower due to its webfiltering and checking of every file.

Im glad to see betanews no longer have this as a editor pick. There own support forums are full of complaints that the support forum link is no longer on the free version homepage.

Its crap now, version 8 worked they have brought out 9 and totally broken detections and added lots of false positives as a good measure.

Awful.. and thankfully uninstalled once more

ron_marz reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Dec 7, 2009

Adds a hidden "$AVG" folder to the root directory of every drive. I'll bring my score back up to a 5 when this litter is removed, as it otherwise does a fine job.

Romas reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Nov 23, 2009

AVG 9 causes applications to lose focus every half an hour or so. Full screen apps like games just get alttabbed. Really annoying.

GadgetPig reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Nov 18, 2009

Once again a good release once "properly" configured:

a.) It's 2009 not 1989, make sure your PC has at LEAST 1gig ram and Pentium 4 2ghz or faster. You can buy a windows based 2ghz/2gig ram/160gig/DVD burner desktop for about $278 at Waly Mart now. Hardware is ridiculously cheap. Computers are not meant to be 20yr old appliances.

b.) choose "custom" setup and uncheck everything (leaving only the core AV itself).

c.) later during setup, DISABLE "daily scanning" option.

d.) for added security (especially friends and family) you need to judge whether or not they are competent to know safe computing practices. If they are "download and click" happy or not as knowledgeable, then consider setting them as standard or limited user rights WITHOUT admin rights. There is NO OS that is 100% secure. Even Linux/OSX with root password in the hands of the wrong user is dangerous.

e.) for friends and family of your choosing, consider installing teamviewer (installed as a service) for easy remote administration.

f.) sit back relax and have a beer

@Romas

Did you configure it as I explained above? I'm also a gamer, and I have never had any issue with AVG9 causing any kind of app focus at stock minimalist settings. There is also "gaming mode" in settings you can turn on and off. YMMV. I recommend uninstall AVG, reboot, run their AVG remnants remover (http://download.avg.com/...____.dir/avgremover.exe), then do a clean custom install of AVG9 with just the core AV as I described above. You can also check to see what time your AVG daily definition/program update checks is set to run and change the time.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Nov 13, 2009

this is slow and bloated

dink reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Nov 12, 2009

DO NOT install this hog!!
Yes, scans are faster, but it hogs system resources.
I installed this on an old machine and it stopped it in it's tracks!!
Went back to v. 8.5 and all was back to normal.
I suppose it's not so bad for a free alternative if you have a beefy machine.
Yes, Version 7.5 was the best by far!!

And hey Betanews, How about a recent updated screenshot?!!!!!!
Or is that too much to ask for when doing a review of a product?!!

DudeBoyz reviewed v9.0.707a1765 on Nov 12, 2009

Last good version was 7.5.x

It can slow systems down noticeably if all the features are enabled. The download weighs in at 74 megabytes. Avira with all it's problems weighs in at only 33 megabytes and is much faster, but does lack email scanning in the free version.

Good product once, not so much any more.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v9.0.704a1756 on Nov 11, 2009

most bloated POS ever made ....... made my system crawl !
3 ghz dual core 2 gigs ram

Yrgal reviewed v9.0.698a1730 on Oct 25, 2009

The protection this program gives is above average and should do the job for most users.

With that said... I noticed a few weeks ago that my computer was running slower than usual and figured it to be that time again to reinstall windows and wipe the sheet clean. I didn't think it could be anything else wrong than too many programs installed and too much obsolete information in the system files. Then I tried the AVG 9 update today and noticed that my computer was running even slower. Short story - uninstalled AVG and guess what? My computer runs really fast again! So my conclusion is that this little proggie is taking up way too much resources. Two stars and moving on to something better.

radiomaffia reviewed v9.0.698a1730 on Oct 24, 2009

It is about time that preventionsoftware with this behavior on computers and other software that make just worse instead of good on your running pc get blacklisted worldwide. But as allways, read the reviews here, visit their forums, they tell you more than the producer of the software will do...

Install Avira Antivir Personal - Free (for experts) or Avast Home Edition (for dummys). Both can be recommended instead of AVG and are free.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v9.0.698a1730 on Oct 24, 2009

Made my 3 ghz computer run very slow !

Hilbert reviewed v9.0.686a1719 on Oct 20, 2009

1. Loaded AVG 9 in the default Standard Installation mode and it installed.

2. Tried to load in the Custom Installation mode and it failed repeatedly. Repeated the install with various different items (mail scanned etc.) deselected and each time it failed to install. It seems that deselecting options kills the install stone dead. So much for the QA before it was released.

Part of the error message is as follows:

"Installation Failed... ....Error: MSVC Redistributables installation failed. Installation of AVG can not continue."

3. The uninstall feedback web site simply did not exist. Instead, the web site defaulted to the home page where (as usual) there is no feedback option.

4. As always, AVG, as does so many other manufactures, makes it almost impossible to contact them UNLESS you are actually purchasing something.

WHAT THESE IDIOTS DO NOT REALIZE IS HOW MUCH THIS TURNS OFF POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS. IF I CAN'T CONTACT THE COMPANY THEN I WILL NOT PURCHASE FROM IT. THIS IS A GOOD INDICATOR OF WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ONE WHEN CUSTOMER SERVICE IS REALLY NEEDED.

4. What's up with these turkeys? This has to be one of the worst stuff-ups I've seen for a new version launch in years.

dstream reviewed v9.0.686a1719 on Oct 17, 2009

Installed this to try and okay the interface has changed faster scanning.

AND

AND

AND

the false positives are still here yep its decided that my banks smartcard reader is spyware barclays are going to be happy, my cds ive imported into itunes shop bought cd`s contain the mp3 generic adware exploit wtf. Junk this crap now, sort out the rubbish detections. God help anyone who relies on this as protection.

there a -25 rating here

hahahah its scanned and detected my banks vb log on program as Generic11.AEDF.

totally laughable now

roj reviewed v9.0.686a1719 on Oct 15, 2009

It's arguably a good product and I used it for years but I'ev switched permanently to MS Security Essentials.

Why?

It's lighter, faster and better integrated into the OS, a situation that can only improve over time. (200Mb less RAM used and less intrusion into file operations while providing the same basic essential protection)

It doesn't nag me for a month once a year.

As time has passed, this product has gotten bulkier and more unweildy. In its present state I'm going to give it a 3.5 rounded 8p to a 4.

mjm01010101 reviewed v9.0.686a1719 on Oct 15, 2009

Once again Microsoft enters a market and kills its competitors. There is no longer a need for this crappy AV.

morrig reviewed v9.0.686a1719 on Oct 15, 2009

All those guys having a go at Reverb,i had something similar on win 7 a week ago when did a scan with Norman malware tool,on a system that was running fine,it started tpo flag up everthing as trojan even run32dll.It reached a point before I stopped it the damage was done, and it had not just quarantined but deleted,had to re-install system. As to AVG used for years till about 2 years ago when the the new version was to much of a resource hog.

dstream reviewed v8.5.420a1700 on Oct 1, 2009

Still crapware of the highest order. Installed this fresh today. Ive avira running quite happily on here, so i removed it and fresh installed and allowed it to update.

So far on my system after doing an full system scan. it has found 17 yes 17 false positives on my vista system. Theres nothing on it virus wise. Ive just uininstalled it.

False positive crapware still it is.

Hello,
I just started using AVG (free version) 8.5, and last night it ran a complete scan. Today when I looked for some files I'm using constantly, I found out they disappeared. Apparently AVG thinks they are trojans (although I'm sure they are not).

Is there a way to bring them back from quarantine or something similar? Those are really important files..

I appreciate your help!

Tom

from avg`s own fourm about is own program hmm

Pfurri reviewed v8.5.420a1700 on Sep 30, 2009

Sorry Reverb, but if someone talks such a bull.... (and not only once), he not only has half a brain ...; he has absolute "NO BRAIN" !!! That's the terrible truth for you !

Reverb reviewed v8.5.409a1634 on Sep 17, 2009

I apologise to those of you who were under the false impression that an AV that deletes vital system components is a good AV program. I realize this is your pet program and you will defend it to the bitter end but it doesn't change the fact that on a PC where the hard drive was wiped, XP SP2 PRO Retail (licensed copy I purchased at BestBuy 2 years ago) was installed AND NOTHING ELSE except AVG 8.5.406a1616 followed by it's updates it proceeded to flag both XP and AVG components as malware. I've never heard of an AV prog that confused its own components with malware.

It is very peculiar that FAQ #1574: False positive "user32.dll" - NOV 2008 in which AVG mistakenly flagged a vital Windows system component can no longer be found on AVG's website but older FAQs are still there.

THE REAL TAO: I do not work for a competitor. Anyone with half a brain knows that any software that deletes system files is either malware or a badly written POS.

In AVG's defense both McAfee and CA antivirus have had similar incidents. I wonder if they all use the same signature database.

THE REAL TAO reviewed v8.5.409a1634 on Sep 12, 2009

reverb,do you work for a competing anti virus company ?...anyone with half a brain knows avg does not attack files without reason...it uses various methods to identify malware and any system files detected as malware would definately have been compromised,im assuming you understand most virus's will target system32 folder ?...therefore when your system files where deleted it was due to them being infected...avg are not one of these new companies that have come from nowhere and they are NOT novice or rouge,avg free is the best free anti virus available,case closed.....

dink reviewed v8.5.409a1634 on Aug 13, 2009

Reverb: Did you reformat using the original source disc, or did you create an unattended installation disc for windows which modified and slipstreamed service packs in with the original files... Just a question...

As for everyone concerning false positives, I have this proggy running on all six of my machines...no falsies here. It don't slow my system down, as scans are the only physically demanding task that the software performs, and I'm not using my computers during that time. Schedule it to scan and update while you sleep.

The article author here for Betanews needs to update the damn screenshot!!!

And I found an article which tells you about giving 3 files in the AVG install folder different file extension names to get rid of that annoying drop-down notification....I have an ad-free AVG Free Edition. Here's the link to that website where I found the tip.
http://forum.notebookrev...php?t=400819&page=2

Reverb reviewed v8.5.406a1616 on Jul 29, 2009

Prospero424:
That sounds like a plausible explanation. Except I had wiped the hard drive, re-installed Windows XP, and immediately thereafter AVG after which I let it update itself. No other apps were installed yet. Sorry but any AV prog that doesn't know the difference between core system files, it's own components and malware is worse than having no AV running on your system.

Yes I have heard that recent malware actually attacks AV products which would explain why my Norton started acting weird after running for 3 months but AVG had a clean system and it rendered my system unbootable. Apparently AVG doesn't look at virus signatures, just filenames to determine what is a virus. I can't recommend this in any way.

Prospero424 reviewed v8.5.406a1616 on Jul 28, 2009

Reverb: The reason AVG identified system files as viruses (and probably why you were having problems uninstalling Norton, as well) is because they had been infected. This is SOP for nastier sorts of malware. Your system was almost certainly irreparably (by ANY software) infested, and in need of a wipe and reload. I've seen it hundreds of times.

Update: the thing is that I can assure you with 100% confidence that AVG doesn't detect major OS components on every install of XP as infected. There is without a doubt SOMETHING different about your system that's causing this. AVG does not work on file names alone, it works on virus signatures and heuristics just like every other antivirus product out there.

I'd suggest you write zeros to your drive (using a boot disk you can get from the hard drive manufacturer's web site) rather than a simple format and that you look REALLY close at the copy of XP you're installing on your system. Even if it's not obviously infected, there's something different about it. Let me know what you find in the discussion section above.

Review: Resource usage, unless you have a MAJOR problem, is actually very, very good compared to other offerings; especially the free ones. If you include system services and the application(s) being run, Avira and Avast both use roughly 80MB of system memory with "minimal" installation options. AVG free installed with minimal options uses roughly 25MB. I honestly can't tell a difference in CPU usage between any of these programs. It's minimal unless, as I said, you've got a major problem.

As for detection rates: yeah, they could be better. But you can't expect it to be as good as for-pay programs and, anecdotal evidence aside, it's comparable to other free solutions even if it gets beaten in some tests. The advantage to AVG is that they keep the application itself - the interface - more up to date than the free competition. It was the first to work properly under Vista, and it was the first to work properly under Windows 7. Heck, Avast still won't interface with the Windows 7 security center; it always reports that definitions are out of date even when they're not.

But no, you cannot just plop AVG down on a Windows system and hand it over to, say, a 14-year-old who knows just enough about computers to be dangerous, and expect it to come back clean. It won't. Few anti-malware packages CAN make that claim, though. And AVG is still a whole lot better than nothing. I know: faint praise, heh.

Bad news is that they've started using pop-up ad screens like Avira. Since that was the only thing keeping me from switching to Avira in the first place, I just ditched AVG.

Reverb reviewed v8.5.392a1598 on Jul 16, 2009

I don't think so. After Norton's CCSVHST.EXE ran my CPU to 90% or higher and couldn't be cleanly uninstalled I had to re-install XP SP3 and try another AV prog.

I read all the postive reviews and therefore downloaded, installed, let it update itself and all looked great!! - until I did a scan. It identified the following as viruses/trojans: WINLOGON.EXE (XP core system file), WPA.DLL (part of Windows product activation) and PROTECT.DLL (A file installed by AVG meaning it can't tell the difference between it's own system files and a virus).

After reboot I was unable to logon to Windows since it deleted vital components of the OS.

CATASTROPHIC FAIL!

Blaxima reviewed v8.5.392a1598 on Jul 15, 2009

I think I agree with Dana.

I only know 2 people who use this s***e and surprise surprise, I had to recently clean both those computers

It is a pig with poor detection

sturgess reviewed v8.5.386a1586 on Jun 30, 2009

Well Dana1, I've been using AVG and Avira on my two respective machines for many years. Both have performed well and never let me down. Unlike you I find that 99% of my friends who are using AVG have clean lean computing machines. Perhaps my friends are a little more knowledgeable than the crowd who appear to make up your clientele, what do you think ?

Dana1 reviewed v8.5.386a1586 on Jun 30, 2009

This software is crap. I service computers for a lot of people. 99% of computers that I see virus laden are running AVG free. May as well not be running any anti - virus software. I have actually downloaded a a known virus infected file to a computer running AVG free. It did not pick up on the virus nor did it detect it as a virus when the file was scanned. Pretty sad. I recommend Avast 4.8 Home. It runs neck and neck with Norton and is free. I use it personally, and have for years. Never seen a virus sneak by by. Stay away from AVG. Bloated and does not do the job !

Sammo reviewed v8.5.374a1564 on Jun 22, 2009

This is the BIGGEST resource hog I have ever seen. The resident shield constantly takes up over 90% of the cpu. Total CRAP! Just use Avira instead. Its lower in resource usage and higher in detection than AVG.

alalec reviewed v8.5.364a1545 on Jun 14, 2009

AVG is a stable and complete anti-virus/anti-spyware application. The free version includes most of the basic protection functions. I noticed systematic suspicious network connections by the module avgnsx.exe to sites in Russia like spaceweb.ru (IP address: 77.222.40.36 part of a hosting provider?). Another problem is that even if you decide to install some software like Alexa, AVG wouldn’t allow you. When AVG detects insecure software, the SKIP function which is designed to allow you to force the installation of an application that is recognized by AVG as insecure, does not work properly. AVG moves the insecure software to the vault or removes it. The detection level of insecure software is good but it fails in some cases. In some cases you might receive false alerts. The process of updating the virus DB is active and works fine. If you consider the available FREE anti-virus AND anti-spyware software, AVG is one of the best. But be aware that security when you are connected to Internet is something relative; usually the software designed to protect you is actually trying to spy on you EXCLUSIVELY.

autumnsun reviewed v8.5.364a1545 on Jun 10, 2009

I've running AVG AntiVirus 8.5 Free edition without incidents on Windows 7. The only item of note is in the Windows Action Center. After installing AVG and doing a few Updates, I still get the red flag with the message "Update AVG Anti-Virus Free (Important)".

i've done updates by clicking on the link in the Action Center and within the AVG application.

dstream reviewed v8.5.336a1515 on May 17, 2009

Many Many false positives on my system. Its absolutley clean, tried to tell me my compiled visual basic contained a worm. And any dvd which ive used for years was a virus. Plus various spyware files where found that where downloaded off itunes as mp3. Very unrelaible even for free.

theres much much better versions about avast, avira.

gone to total crapware

kbsoftware reviewed v8.5.329a1515 on May 12, 2009

Too many false positives, peazip etc even on two programs I wrote.
Updates don't seem to always work. Slows down the loading of programs etc. on my system, noticeable for just a second then everything seems to go back to normal.

Time to switch.

dink reviewed v8.5.325a1500 on May 4, 2009

I don't have any problem with false positives, as I don't have it scan my cookies.
I have it set to do all updates and scans while I sleep, Therefore gives me no interference when I'm using my pc's
Still my favorite free antivirus program.

I would give it a 5 rating if it didn't have the annoying notification at the bottom of the user interface!!

And is it possible to update the damn screenshot?!!!

sturgess reviewed v8.5.325a1500 on May 2, 2009

It's never let me down yet.

suthgal reviewed v8.5.325a1500 on May 1, 2009

I downloaded 8.5 this morning, installed it, then my IE would not work, but outlook did. It must have changed something in the registry. I uninstalled, then reinstalled for the same thing to happen. I then did a system restore. I used AVG for many years, but sorry to say 8.5 is so bad. Will download avast now.

huwawa reviewed v8.5.285a1462 on Mar 28, 2009

Made my system sloooooow, and generated to much of false virus warnings

GadgetPig reviewed v8.5.285a1462 on Mar 27, 2009

I've also been using this for years, works perfectly fine. I don't install the whole suite, just the resident shield option, I uncheck linkscanner/msoffice plugin/etc, and I also uncheck "enable daily scanning", since I don't visit any dubios web sites.

Latest tests from AVT-test.org March 2009 rate it 96% malware/87% adware detection, pretty good considering it's free.

http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02#March

Using resident shield option only, all core modules in process manager take up only 2200K total, not much at all, and doesn't slow down the system or affect gaming on my core 2duo 1.7mhz /2 gig ram.

As far as memory, you can pick up 4gig of ddr-2 800 memory for $33.00. Computer's and memory are ridiculously cheap nowadays, there's no excuse to still keep your pentium 4 or Athlon xp.

shdwstar reviewed v8.5.285a1462 on Mar 27, 2009

I've been using AVG for years now. It is the only anti virus I will advise my clients to use. Doesn't slow down any of the machines I run it on, and it doesn't put nasty files in every directory like norton products.

radiomaffia reviewed v8.5.283a1450 on Mar 20, 2009

Tested it and removed it and time that you should do the same, buggy , slow false positives and therefor dangerous for your system.Avast Home Edition is far the best when comes to beiing freeware and trustfull. Avira is also good but has a 1 user license in the free edition so you cannot use it on 2 or more pcs at your home and it nagging you to upgrade to pro so i forget about avira as well.

>>>[[[[Avast Antivirus Home Edition]]]]

gmartau reviewed v8.5.278a1439 on Mar 18, 2009

It was a very good antivirus that I used. Now is crap, is a virus itself, infected with stupidity, win32 of course.
To many false positives to trust anything what detects and they don't fix anything despite sending reports. Programs protected with Themida (www.oreans.com) are "infected" with win32/Themida. How paranoic to be to perpetuate this for several months for the sake of detection rate?
Don't mess with AVG Free or Pro tojan because will broke more than it fix.
If you install this, expect after the first scan to recover your programs from quarantine.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v8.5.278a1439 on Mar 4, 2009

What a pig ... slow and buggy
see AntiVir

Soozy reviewed v8.5.278a1439 on Mar 3, 2009

HMMM, not for Vista or is the info wrong?
And is this actually the free version?
AVG web site is very confusing as to the latest version for free, 8 or 8.5.
Answered my own questions, yes it is 8.5, even though a hover over of the download button says 8.0 and it is for Vista.

kholdstare reviewed v8.5.278a1439 on Mar 3, 2009

not everything free is good and this program proves that. all it does is tell you that you have a virus but doesn't do anything to delete it or clean it. this is up there with Norton

madmike reviewed v8.0.237a1428 on Feb 13, 2009

It may be free and thats commendable, but what cost is free. Its not as good as avira and other top flight programs.. 2 stars for free but security and stability ruin it

tbresson reviewed v8.0.234a1426 on Feb 12, 2009

After having used AVG for a very long time I feel kinda of sad to write this bad review about the product. Also because I'm not entirely sure that it's actually the program that's malfunctioning. But the latest months I've been having trouble with it. My Vista 32bit Ultimate Ed. keeps saying somethings wrong with it and there almost all the time some red exclaimation mark on the tray icon.

Sometimes trying to update the antivirus seems to solve the problem but no all the time. Eventually you get kind of used to errors like; it can't conenct to the virus database online, or that you need to restart for the next update to apply (without downloading any updates) and so forth.

I might be Vista or it might be Windows Defender really messing up the AVG product - who knows? I've decided to give Avast! a change again. It seems like the only real alternative to AVG anyway.

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.233a1424 on Feb 3, 2009

They're still providing updates to 7.5.x on a daily basis.

There is a reason for that. Version 8 is just NOT as good or as efficient as 7.5.x was. Win 98 SE rocked, Win ME sucked. People dig XP but Vista blows. Same deal here. Stick with 7.5.x for as long as you possibly can if you want to use AVG, but if you want to move beyond what 7.5.x offers, I'd seriously consider Avira and Avast instead. I've given AVG 8 try after try after try, and after all this time, it still does not measure up against AVG 7.5.x

That's just the harsh reality of it, at least for me. They had something great and I guess they just couldn't stop themselves from screwin' it up. Man... :(

Jammerdelray reviewed v8.0.233a1424 on Feb 3, 2009

Offers no rootkit protection which is a necessity. So it's still possible to get infected while running it.

fatray reviewed v8.0.233a1415 on Jan 25, 2009

I just switched from AVAST, got tired of AVAST telling me some of my good programs was a virus. So far AVG is nothing but good, I've never had a virus before and don't think I will ever get one. No I'm not a safe server I have many torrents that need cracks, hacks, nocd keys and so forth. Been running virus free for many good years now.
My only complaint so far is AVG always has that NAG screen on the bottom.

02clams reviewed v8.0.233a1415 on Jan 24, 2009

I have used on and off for years AVG, AVAST, and others. I firmly believe that anti-virus software slows down your computer and acts more like a virus than any form of protection. While using these products, I was able to infect my computer too. There is no substitute for a good firewall and smart computing in not clicking on everything that shows up in your mailbox or installing any program someone passes on to you.

This is just my opinion, but there is little proof of protection from these products.

computershack reviewed v8.0.233a1415 on Jan 24, 2009

DO NOT USE THIS. Everyone on tech forums I am on who have infected computers even though they're running AV are using AVG 8. The free version has protection for the most prevalent path of infection, malicious or compromised websites, removed.

If you really must have free, go with Avast.

sdmunoz reviewed v8.0.233a1415 on Jan 23, 2009

Getting bigger and bloated. Switch to avast!

Cris3 reviewed v8.0.233a1415 on Jan 15, 2009

I give this a 5-Star because of it's smooth integration with my Vista system. It is not bothersome to use and has adequate protection without using large resources that slow the computer.

You can test it's ability to protect by scanning with any number of online detection sources and see if they find anything worth fussing over.

Most people's computer activities don't require the ultimate protection, so this user friendly program works just fine.

Ian "Gizmo" Richards wrote in his newsletter today:
"Security research company Trend Micro recently reported that of the top 100 infections in the U.S. in 2008, approximately 63% were caused by downloading and running programs. E-mail-borne infections accounted for only 3%, while the exploitation of security flaws in products was responsible for a tiny 1.7% of PC infections."

AVG combined with a-squared malware protection works well for the common user who don't take on too much risk and are careful where they go on the internet and what they download.

Blaxima reviewed v8.0.229a1410 on Jan 7, 2009

I don't not what's worse, this poor detecting and intrusive anti-virus or fileforums new look. The colours are nice but the layout and lame gnome looking stars aren't(on the site that is)

From my experience trying different AV programs
Avira is the best free option and NOD32 the best pay one

guti reviewed v8.0.176a1400 on Dec 21, 2008

Even if stated by Betanews that it works on 2003, it is not. You will need a server version in order to install it.

Anyway, a good free AV.

Adrian79 reviewed v8.0.227a1407 on Dec 19, 2008

"Nod is the best along with Antivir then a distant third is KAV"

I 2nd that.

mjm01010101 reviewed v8.0.227a1407 on Dec 19, 2008

The only thing AV Comparitives proves (many years after the fact is well known,) is that ALL antivirus sucks, and I mean that in a polite fashion. It would be far better to train users to not install crap and run in userland than download and install this software which provides a false sense of security.

ALL antivirus software sucks and all have too many false positives or poor detection rates. ALL.

doctorsmith reviewed v8.0.227a1407 on Dec 19, 2008

as pointed out below AVG doesn't come up very good in AV Comparatives tests.
Not for me.

methuselah reviewed v8.0.227a1407 on Dec 19, 2008

I used the free version for years, after Norton's bloat and poor detection rates. (I think Symantec recently improved a lot.) I won a copy of the paid AVG Internet Security about a year ago. It's been good for me, and a number of people I know, although I haven't done a side by side test against eicar sigs with other programs. Ver. 8.0.200

eclipsingdivinity reviewed v8.0.176a1400 on Dec 4, 2008

burfadel, while I agree that Avast is also a great choice for a free antivirus, I would argue that Avast actually feels just as heavy as AVG. And i'll even give AVG credit for sprucing up it's interface

Obviously there are some excellent paid choices like Nod32 and Kaspersky that may be more aggressive with malicious software. But if you're just browsin' the web and playing games and not using your computer for heavy work or banking then you might just be alright with AVG, Avast or Antivir. Anybody who depends fully on the well being of their PC should consider some top ranking paid solutions.

burfadel reviewed v8.0.176a1399 on Dec 1, 2008

I am not a fan of AVG, I believe there are better free options out there such as Avast.

An antivirus is an important thing to have on your computer, its funny to read comments like the one a few reviews back on the list here saying that an antivirus isn't important and its purely retardation to have a resident scanner.

I would highly recommend NOT to take advice from people like that, for a start resident virus scanners do not scan every file by default. They scan files that are at risk of being infected. Scanning takes very little resources, and if your computer is slow with the antivirus its got nothing to do with the antivirus being slow, its your computer! AVG is a bit of a pig though, Avast is much more resource friendly. A reasonable antivirus does not slow your computer down, they're very 'transparent'. Its very easy to accidentally open an email attachment, or use a cd/dvd without scanning it and it can take only one slip up to infect your computer.

A word of WARNING:
Flash drives (pen drives/usb keys/SD, Compactflash etc) can affect your computer by simply plugging in affected drive!!!!

Use Avast if you want a good free one :)

some guy reviewed v8.0.176a1399 on Nov 30, 2008

pollok2
take your wanna be Warez site else where

catchpole reviewed v8.0.176a1399 on Nov 28, 2008

getting really slow

Aegis69 reviewed v8.0.176a1399 on Nov 28, 2008

I stopped using resident virus checkers because they slowed down my machine too much, AVG is no exception.

Lets face it, there are 2 places you can get a virus now, one is downloading illegals off peer to peer networks and the other is through your browser by going to a malicious website.

Solutions: 1. When you are done downloading Maya 9 from Shareaza, scan the folder with clamwin.

2. Get spybot and immunize your browser.

There. No more need for resident software to scan EVERY FILE as they its being accessed. Resident virus checkers are the single biggest reason people think their computer is slow and they need a new one, when they almost never do.

If you currently have virii on your machine, I recommend AVG to get them off, but one you are clean take my above advise so you do not get infected again, then get rid of your resident checker.

The sheer amount of retardation out there astounds me.

speedwaystar reviewed v8.0.199a1389 on Nov 10, 2008

AVG FAQ #1574: False positive "user32.dll"

"In case you are not able to run your Windows XP operating system after AVG virus definition update, it may be caused by a false positive on a specific "user32.dll" system file. The file was moved to the AVG Virus Vault and deleted. Therefore it is not possible to start Windows."

http://www.avg.com/support

FAIL

Stingray57 reviewed v8.0.199a1387 on Nov 5, 2008

I was a AVG guy for a long time - when v8 came out it kille dmy system constantly 100% CPU and seemed like they went nuts and added all kinda BLOAT crap to it. I agree with the other guy; 8 is not a upgrade to 7.5... For that reason I left them...

Letterman reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Nov 5, 2008

The best anti-virus you can find right now.

AVIRA has a better detection rate but is really poor when removing threats. It just can't repair anything. It removes files instead and only if they're not running. AVIRA can't do something as simple as reboot to remove files.

The AVG developers team should work on the resident scanner right now. Make it less cpu intensive and avoid locking file while scanning.

If you want a helper tool for AVG try http://tinyurl.com/avg107

Letterman reviewed v8.0.199a1387 on Nov 5, 2008

The best free anti-virus you can find right now (i know, this one is shareware).

AVIRA has a better detection rate but is really poor when removing threats. It just can't repair anything. It removes files instead and only if they're not running. AVIRA can't do something as simple as reboot to remove files.

The AVG developers team should work on the resident scanner right now. Make it less cpu intensive and avoid locking file while scanning.

If you want a helper tool for AVG try http://tinyurl.com/avg107

BillyBeta reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 29, 2008

DOES NOT WORK WITH SERVER 2003.
BetaNews needs to update it's product description.

Otherwise, it's pretty good with some problems. The search engine link checker is not a great idea. It generates a lot of unnecessary tcp traffic. The whitelisting is difficult to configure and doesn't always behave as needed.

I stopped recommending v8 because it didn't fit my needs. But it's still pretty good. Better than most free versions.

martinb reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 28, 2008

I used AVG free for several months with no problems. Purchased AVG 8.0 (full package) and attempted to install on Windows XP, SP2 machine. Install failed and caused me to lose internet connectivity. Downloaded utility from their site to "fix" the problem. Attempted to repair the installation also failed. Attempts to remove the installation failed. Ultimately, I had to download a removal utility to get rid of AVG. The advertised 24/7 support is a joke. It's been almost 48 hours days and I still have no response from their technical support other than a confirmation email assigning a request # for my case. Before you buy, look at their web site under support and hot topics and you will see a topic relating to loss of internet service after installation. Their solutions didn't work for me and according to one of the distributors I called there is no U.S. telephone support. I could have purchased support from that company at a rate of approximately $20.00 for the first 15 minutes with a technician. I have asked for a refund and will look for another product.

Adrian79 reviewed v8.0.196a1383 on Oct 28, 2008

ok, yes NOD32 is the best by far, but this was the best "free" av for alongggg time!!!

but now, Avira blows it away.. boot time much faster!!

FailedCRC reviewed v8.0.196a1383 on Oct 24, 2008

Detection rates are still OK, it's a shame that version 8 has gone the same way as suites like Norton and Mcafee, boot times are especially slow.

Thumbs down, 8.0 is not an upgrade to 7.5

robmanic44 reviewed v8.0.196a1383 on Oct 24, 2008

There's ESET and there's everything else. If you're using anything other than NOD32 you have the wrong anti-virus.

joeshmoe7 reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 22, 2008

Working fine here. -3 though for a few too many false positives, but +1 for easily being able to add an exclusion path to the resident scanner, and +1 for still being able to uncheck the garbage in the custom install option.

Stevefarrell reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 22, 2008

AVG 7.5 was a fantastic AV. I was using AVG for 4 years up until the messed things up with AVG 8.0 Now Ive moved to a different AV.

ghammer reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 21, 2008

Many machines come into the shop infected. When we remove the drive, clean it on a seperate system, and reinstall it, guess what AV we see most times when we boot it...

ron_marz reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 21, 2008

AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 is a great program (AVG 7.5) ruined.

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 21, 2008

There is a reason why they are still providing daily updates for previous versions. It is because so many users wish to stay with 7.5.x.

Version 8 By Comparison is bloated, slow and has had feature and stability problems related to the incorporation of newly purchased assets.

IMO, they should not have tried to combine their good code base with the problematic code of the purchased assets.

Detection rate is less than AntiVir by a noticeable amount, and it performs poorly in terms of speed as well.

They took a pretty darn good product and transformed it into an unworthy successor. It is a sad turn of events, but I don't think anyone can deny that in comparison to 7.5, 8 does in fact disappoint.

roj reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 21, 2008

Zee333:

I'm with Undesired Username and it's twits like you who are responsible for vendors thinking that they can get away with bloated nonsense like Vista, Symantec products, and other inefficient bloatware. I have an Athlon64 AM2 6000+ w/4Gb running a 64bit OS (XP64, NOT Vista) and I'm sreiously contemplating leaving AVG because of its incessant inability to reach its server, it's hogging of files and it's ever degrading performance.

Get a clue - more hardware is not a panacea for inefficient, poorly designed and poorly executing code. Some of us remember when it was a point of pride to develope well designed and efficient code.

This app is quickly falling out of that category.

THREE stars.

Undesired Username reviewed v8.0.175a1382 on Oct 21, 2008

People like me and Aegis69 are simply more aware of the performance impact that applications like this have. If I installed this turd on my sister-in-law's computer, she'd simply think that's how her PC was supposed to work.

Zee333 reviewed v8.0.173a1373 on Oct 3, 2008

@Aegis69
When will people like you reolize that we're not living in 1998 anymore, computers are more then able to handle programs like this and others together without a problem and if your computer isn't able to then i suggest you upgrade your old a** computer because my computer isn't anything great and is able to handle this just fine with several other programs.

Ryusennin reviewed v8.0.173a1373 on Oct 1, 2008

I finally switched to Avira after using AVG for eight years. AVG8 is an insane resource hog, browsing my mails in Thunderbird and simply running programs in XP was incredibly slow with the new resident shield. I couldn't stand it anymore. Not even mentioning the incredible amount of false positives.

AVG was great; now there are much better free alternatives than this bloated antivirus. Avira is the new sherif in town.

CyberDoc999 reviewed v8.0.173a1373 on Oct 1, 2008

Slow, buggy, failed to catch a virus that nailed me!
now I use AntiVir it is way better!

Aegis69 reviewed v8.0.173a1373 on Sep 30, 2008

7.5 was great, light, small, fast. 8 is going down the road Norton went down, too big, too many system resources are used, slows down even fast systems. When will developers realize that their app is not the only one running on peoples systems?

Alexander-GG reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Sep 30, 2008

The free version has a nag screen which offers you to upgrade to premium version every time you open a program window. The IE and Firefox toolbar is awful. The features are very basic.

cyclone22 reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Sep 1, 2008

I was a AVG user for about 5 years.But recently AVG failed to detect Autorun viruses spreading through usb flash drives.
Finally Avira free version did the job for me.

catchpole reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Aug 28, 2008

i used AVG many years, but its gettin heavier and heavier. now i am happy Avast user, much lighter and as good as AVG.

netean reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Aug 28, 2008

looks nice, and at first glance seems to work well.

When manually selecting files/folders to scan it would be nice if it actually told you the results of the scan - I guess no results means no virus....
except that I got infected with a nasty rootkit and worm that AVG failed to quarantine heal or delete, then failed to remove at all.

Took me over 20 hours to find a solution that worked.. AVG couldn't hack it, so now it's gone from my system, just like the worm.

DarkRats reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Aug 28, 2008

The free version gets low priority access to the update servers. For me, that means only 1.2 kps download speed over broadband. Thats a major reason not to use this product. I don't pay for a cable connection to wait 10 minutes to download a few hundred KBs. AVG has definitely gone down hill since version 7.5, not only with their AV software, but also the way they treat their users. I would not install this on anyone's computer. BTW, why do you always show the screenshot from 7.5?

Zee333 reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Aug 28, 2008

The article below is now invalid as that issue has now been fixed.
This is a great anti virus and i have to agree the first few versions of AVG 8.0 were a bit buggy but its improved very much now

dink reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Aug 27, 2008

Don't think that you're gonna get AVG Pro for free...I'm sure it's just a trial period program that will cease to work after 30 days...unless you pay for it. If I'm gonna pay for AV then it's gonna be NOD32, but I'll continue to use AVG Free for now...

eaves reviewed v8.0.169a1359 on Aug 27, 2008

If the article were BS, then why did AVG retract the feature after the outcry?

Aegis69 reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Aug 27, 2008

Sorry but resident virus checkers slow your system down far too much to be worth it, use spybot immunization, run spybot once in a while to see if things start popping up, use firefox with adblocker, and install clamwin to scan individual EXE or ZIP files before you open them.

Be a little bit proactive with your security and you'll never need resident AV software running again.

meiamo reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Aug 18, 2008

i first had avira personal about a couple of months ago,but it was no good,so i turned into AVG free,and i was very happy with the resident shield and the every day updates,but my computer started acting strange,so i made a full scan that showed nothing,so i deleted AVG and got Pctools internet security the trial version which ends in 15 days then it starts to protect not protect and remove,but when i scaned my computer with it i found a trojan , a hijacker and a back door,when i removed those stuff my computer started working great again.
i dont recommend AVG even to my enemies(whoever they are),and from the other hand i recommend Pctools internet security to every one.
finally about AVG slowing down computers that's true,but to be honest Pctools internet security (like any internet security)does that too,but with it you don't need to have an external firewall,anti-spyware,or even an anti-spam,so it is much faster than puting all of those together,and again,i recommend Pctools internet security to anyone who is tired of trying helpless security programms.

roj reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Aug 14, 2008

Erasing my previous review and apologizing to the devs.

The product works as advertised and works well.

What DOESN'T work well is Vista's POS IPV4 kludge on top of IPV6 (just another Vista f-up in Enterprise Edition).

Good product, works well, not nearly as pudgy and slow as avast! and in general I'm very satisfied.

FIVE stars.

shdwstar reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Jul 29, 2008

for a more detailed review you can visit my site at http://mzk.gofreeserve.c...s.php?lng=en&pg=120

speedwaystar reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Jul 8, 2008

This used to be a great AV product. Unfortunately, it has transformed itself into a bloated resource hog that slows even fast machines to a crawl (try opening a network share folder with 100+ .exe files in it and enjoy twiddling your thumbs while AVG scans every one of them on default settings).

war593122 reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Jul 7, 2008

Indeed it does, just ran it in a virtual machine to see for myself and yes its a hog for sure...

dstream reviewed v8.0.138a1332 on Jul 7, 2008

It sucks on new computers as well never mind old

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.135a1330 on Jul 3, 2008

Eaves - I've read the link but I don't understand exactly what AVG 8 is doing. How is it increasing "fake traffic" on outside web sites?

I thought AVG AntiVirus Free only scanned local machines.

Does it now send data out to the web or something?

Thanks

eaves reviewed v8.0.135a1330 on Jul 3, 2008

A bloated mess that is still spamming websites with fake traffic.
http://www.theregister.c...ses_fake_traffic_as_ie6/

Below, in his gushing fanboy review, GadgetPig writes about AVG, "Has customizable install, only free antivirus that updates itself automatically (without any user interaction)". Maybe GadgetPig should look more closely at Avast!. While Avast's default for updating asks the user if he wants to update, it is a simple checkbox in the options screen to go to fully automatic, unprompted updating.

dstream reviewed v8.0.135a1330 on Jul 3, 2008

Absolute Crap now of the highest order. This is just bloatware. If your prepared for a system slowdown then install this.

Avoid avoid get something else I cannot at all recommend version 8.

Makes my quad core run like a zx spectrum

dudeboys.

it goes the to websites you google or similar and checks the sites for unwanted content. Like a previsit. To see how slow your net can be install it and watch your cable modem max out.

s***e of the highest order.!!!

and loads of sites are complaining about the fake hits.
In late February, AVG paired its updated anti-virus engine with a real-time malware scanner that vets search engine results before you click on them. If you search Google, for instance, this LinkScanner automatically visits each address that turns up on Google's results page.

According to the company, more than 20 million people have downloaded the new AVG 8, and this has caused a huge up-tick in traffic on sites across the web, including The Register. Because the scanner attempts to disguise itself as a real live human click, webmasters who rely on log files for their traffic numbers may be unaware their stats are skewed. And others complain that LinkScanner has added extra dollars to their bandwidth bill.

as i said complete s***eware

Safe Search. AVG scans Google, Yahoo! & MSN search results in real-time as you search and places safety ratings next to each link.

Safe Surf. AVG scans each and every Web site and Web link within a Web site before you open them to ensure they are safe.

Safe Link Scan. AVG scans every Web link you come across, whether in e-mails, documents or instant messages, no matter the source, before you open them to ensure you are protected in advance 100% of the time.

this is from its own website and it will slow your surfing down MASSIVELY

s***eware!!!

tipstir reviewed v8.0.135a1330 on Jul 2, 2008

The prior poster is right it is crap.

1. Slow to scan (take a couple of hours)
2. Can crash the system
3. Just don't install it use something else..

no_one reviewed v8.0.135a1330 on Jul 2, 2008

I have been using pay-for AVG for some years and have been happy with it, I have tried a previous build of (pay-for)8 and just run the current build of (pay-for)8......the useless piece of sh!t almost ground my computer to a stop, so I have gone back to 7.5 and unless AVG get their arse into gear I shall shift to a competitor.

glassdesigns reviewed v8.0.135a1330 on Jul 2, 2008

Used this for years but have been trying others since version 8.xxxx came out. It has turned into a resource hog with no serious added benefits. This is now bloatware.
I have finally settled on Avira as AVG's replacement. If AVG slims down then I may go back but once you have moved on it's tough to go back.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 26, 2008

AVG should just have stick with what worked so well in 7.5. Small memory useage, simple layout, and you could easily kill the processes and functions you didnt want.

paulm84 reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 25, 2008

no prpbelms with 8.0 system wise no errors no crashes

but i dont' like the phising filter it slows down my web surfing and frankly ie,FF and opera already protect me from bad sites

Morsel reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 25, 2008

AVG went from awesome free AV software, to a good one and to a bad one. This new version chews up nearly 85MB RAM (average) with all the processes combined. It's ok when you have 2GB of RAM on your PC and surfing Facebook, email, chat. But, while gaming or encoding videos that's not acceptable.

But, WORST is that you can't just kill the processes anymore through Task Manager like the previous versions. And EVEN WORST is that you can not kill the Services either! The darn thing is unstoppable!...unless you uninstall it like I did. I am very disappointed with AVG 8.

ninjeratu reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 25, 2008

The low detection rate and the high number of false positives is unacceptable. If you can't trust your AV to find virus/malware/spyware and have to rescan using other software "just to be sure" it's a complete waste of time using it. Just get something better instead.
Slow scanning. Reasonable system footprint, unless scanning. Slow updates.

It's free, but Avira is free too and Avira's a lot better than this in all regards. Avira's detection rate rival the commercial products.
AVG was a great free alternative to buying AV back when it had zero competition. Today there are alternatives and unless AVG shape up, they're going to die a slow and reasonably horrible death.

Anything is probably better than nothing, even with the false positives and low detection rate, so I will give this 2/5. I recommend NOD32 instead, or Avira if you're cheap.

Blaxima reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 24, 2008

Dude why not Antivir? Avast is crap much like this

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 24, 2008

Blaxima: I'll give it a look. This link is the right one, correct?

http://www.free-av.com/e...al__free_antivirus.html

Original Post:

Only one day left until they stop providing us with updated definition files for 7.5.

I've downloaded all the files so I can at least have all the definitions on disk so that if / when I do fresh re-installs, I can at least have AVG 7.5 updated to the June 25th release.

Guess we'll only have to worry about viruses released after that date.

It is such a bummer that version 8 turned out so bad. Take a good thing and screw it up. Happens all the time in big businesses, but it totally blows when it happens to everday apps.

Guess Avast is about the only top-level option on the free side.

Man, what a sad, sad thing.

It's like when your 10th grade sweetheart has to move out of state when her dad gets a new job. :(

ron_marz reviewed v8.0.101a1327 on Jun 24, 2008

From version 7.5 to 8.0, my review dropped from a 5 to a 2. As another poster noted, it really does flag every file named "keygen.exe" as a virus and won't let you open it without adding the whole folder containing it to the exclude list. It also has a nasty habit of flagging as viruses macros that I've written in Auto Hotkey and compiled to exe files.

But worst of all, as so many others have reported, is not just the bloat and the higher resource requirements, but the slowdown it imposes on your system every time you open a program from a link in the Start Menu, as apparently it has to scan every file in the target directory first.

AVG Anti-Virus used to be the best of the free virust scanners. Now it's down towards the bottom of the list.

Blaxima reviewed v8.0.131a1327 on Jun 24, 2008

Well if the fact that this AV sucks doesn't sway people I'm sure the BS on that article posted below wont either

Blaxima reviewed v8.0.131a1327 on Jun 24, 2008

http://www.av-comparativ.../ergebnisse_2008_05.php

This is a crap antivirus and the firewall is a joke but avast is even worse so I'm not sure how you can make those claims

AVG and Avast can't compare to even the pig of pigs Norton in actually protection

Someone posted this link to further the crap that is AVG
http://www.theregister.c...ews_web_traffic_numbers/

Nod is the best along with Antivir then a distant third is KAV.

eaves reviewed v8.0.130a1327 on Jun 20, 2008

AVG is a nuisance to the Internet. It uses AVG customer PCs to generate false traffic.

http://www.theregister.c...ews_web_traffic_numbers/

"Early last month, webmasters here at The Reg noticed an unexpected spike in our site traffic. Suddenly, we had far more readers than ever before, and they were reading at a record clip. Visits actually doubled on certain landing pages, and more than a few ho-hum stories attracted an audience worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner. Or so it seemed.

As it turns out, much of this traffic was driven by the new malware scanner from AVG Technologies.

Six months ago, AVG acquired Exploit Prevention Labs and its LinkScanner, a tool that automatically scans search engine results before you click on them. If you search Google, for instance, and ten results turn up, it visits all ten links to ensure they're malware free.

Then, in February, AVG paired LinkScanner with its anti-virus engine, which has about 70 million active users worldwide. The company estimates that 20 million machines have upgraded to its new security suite, AVG version 8, and this has already cooked up enough ghost clicks to skew traffic not only on The Reg but any number of other sites as well...."

Read the full article and see how cavalier AVG is about spamming the Internet with false traffic.

ajayseo reviewed v8.0.130a1327 on Jun 20, 2008

Its very good antivirus. We are using this antivirus only. Its has great features.

www.maharashtradirectory.com/busby-seo-challenge/

Tao2005 reviewed v8.0.125a1325 on Jun 18, 2008

I'll use Avast! and Comodo, before I'll use this. Wait... What am I saying, I already use Avast! and Comodo.

roj reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 16, 2008

The statements of it not being freeware are nonsense.

The free version is still there and 64-bit to boot.

FIVE stars.

Techwizard reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 15, 2008

Too bad it had to become shareware. It was the best of the freeware antivirus programs out there, but there are just too many really good freeware programs out there to justify paying for it. Free updates until the end of June, then so long AVG and hello Avast!

rms10 reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 12, 2008

This product is no longer freeware. It is trialware

GadgetPig reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 10, 2008

I rate this high as this is the most complete "free" antivirus available. Has customizable install, only free antivirus that updates itself automatically (without any user interaction), includes resident spyware protection, msoffice, and mail/pop3 protection.

When installing, obviously uncheck the toolbar option, and it's optional for resident link checker, office integration, and pop3 protection. I unchecked all those options except for spyware and resident spyware shield only.

c:\program files\avg takes up about 24.5 meg drive space
avgrsx.exe (resident shield) takes only 6980k
avgtray.exe (tray icon) takes only 1136K
avgwdsvc.exe (spyware protection?) takes only 3840k
total=11,956k

compare this with firefox3 nightly, which takes up 76,988K and I can't complain really considering it's doing an important job.

I'm running this on a core2duo notebook with Vista ultimate, 2gigs ram, no slowdown and no problem.

4gigs of DDR2 800 ram is now $73.00 on n_wegg, 2gigs of DDR2 800 is now $ 37.99. If anyone is worried about resources, please please consider more ram or upgrade your pc. We live in an age where memory and cpu is cheaper than ever before, and give more bang for the buck. Today's programs and operating systems are indeed resource hungry, and if you still have a P3,P4, or Athlon XP, it's really time to upgrade.

cheers!

marvngardn reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 10, 2008

FYI: It thinks that any program called keygen.exe is malware and defaults to disallow access.

Canuckistani reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 10, 2008

The resident scanner is a resource hog, it is true. However, to be effecient it has to be. All resident anti-virus/anti-spyware scanners are the same that way. If you can discipline yourself to manually scan each file you download and use Firefox 3.0 RC2 you can disable the resident anti-virus scanner and link checker and you'll get your resources back.

FailedCRC reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 10, 2008

Such a shame that the free product is now so resource hungry, I'm exclusively recommending avira from now on.

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 9, 2008

I've been testing version 8 extensively, and how anybody can, with a straight face, claim that it is faster and/or more efficient than version 7.5 is beyond me.

It is really going to suck when on June 25 they disallow any more updates for the 7.5 product line. If they are going to update virus definitions for a free product in version 8, why not also enable updated virus definitions for version 7.5 as well?

I'm not talking about bunches of code modifications to the actual application, but if you have to provide updated definitions to your other free product anyway, how hard can it be to simply provide them in a format compatible with 7.5 as well?

I'm sorely disappointed by their decision to turn their back on 7.5 users. It's not just freeloaders like me, but 7.5 users that have purchased the line of apps and are going to be getting shafted as well.

I don't like forced upgrades. Microsoft did it to get people to go with XP instead of Win 9x, for example, by no longer offering to WQHL drivers for the OS, and making it so compiled products like their own MS Office no longer work with the 9x platform, instead requiring Win 2000 or Win XP just to run.

I wish AVG would not follow that same path, but it appears that is what they have chosen to do, and it really is a pity.

I'm a huge fan of AVG and especially 7.5, and think it's great with all the hype and crud the retail companies like Symantec and McAffee pull that you can get a solution that is pretty much just as good, if not better, and you don't have to fork out tons of cash for a subscription.

But for many, 8.x is just not as good of an experience as 7.5 is, and being forcibly left behind is a real disappointment.

war593122 reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 9, 2008

Odd that it thinks you have 100s of activex adware on your system after running spybot search and destroy. Of course you don't!!

And I agree the interface is nice but yeah way to much bloat now... I just want the damn avg anti-virus scanner and nothing more...

Ryusennin reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 9, 2008

Much better than 7.5, GUI has been overhauled and streamlined. Lots of false positives in the first few weeks of release, but the virus database is greatly improving.

ShahinD reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 9, 2008

Good, efficient

Daddy_Spank reviewed v8.0.100a1323 on Jun 9, 2008

7.5 was great. This has gone downhill. Too much bloat. Stick to the point, Grisoft!!

Energizer23 reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 9, 2008

I loved 7.5. Version 8 caused problems on my ddesktop and laptop. I had to reinstall Windows XP on the desktop. Switched to Avast.

xnatx reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 5, 2008

They have ruined a perfectly good anti virus. AVG 7.5 was great. Uninstalled now using Avira.

hagjohn reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 3, 2008

It's my understanding that 9x and 2000 are not supported.

Use it on my laptop. Works great.

tontito reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 3, 2008

I can't say i don't like it.

Uses same mem in my system and i can tune it to ignore some folders, something that i coundn't do with previous free version.
I also like the icon .P

some guy reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 3, 2008

from a 1 to 10 it get a 6.5
Avira free edition baby

volcane reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 2, 2008

Prior to v8 it's good, uninstall v8 after using it for few days. Bloatware and unwanted nag screen.

Sammo reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 2, 2008

Bloatware. Scans are way too slow. After using version 7.5 for a long time I am really disappointed in version 8 and uninstalled it and installed avast! 4.8 which works great.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 2, 2008

yeah I am not very happy with v 8 either. 7.5 was great. little memory footprint, less bloat, and more to the point. I dont mind upgraded and new icons but this is too much bloat. Been using AVG for years now but im gonna have to start looking around for alternatives. really too bad as i really liked this AV program.

Ama3rd reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 2, 2008

Used AVG Free for a long time. Installed AVG 8.0 and I gave it maybe two hours before I uninstalled it. Reinstalled AVG 7.5.
I understand it's free, but what I don't understand is why change something that isn't broken?
Time to move on and use another anti virus application that only concerns itself with finding virus and etc...

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 2, 2008

Don't like 8. Oddly, with 7.5 installed, it updated yesterday and today with new virus definitions. 7.5 ain't quite dead on schedule...

They really, really need to slim 8 down. The free version is trying to do to many things now, and it's slowing down my rigs, and I'm not happy about that.

7.5 may not be up to date with the very latest definitions in a while, but it will still work on the majority of files most folks are likely to encounter, I would think.

Here's hopin' that 8.x gets better with time.

tbresson reviewed v8.0.100a1315 on Jun 2, 2008

According to what I've read the V8 version is also a bit buggy (or can be).

Or most importantly; they supposedly removed some of the protective features from the freeware version to the commercial version.

AntiVir or Avast! is supposedly good alternatives.

glassdesigns reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on May 21, 2008

I agree, 7.5 was good. 8.0 just adds bloat. I have switched to Avast. Avast is using half the memory of AVG on my system. Following the direction of Norton is not a good thing. Keep it simple. Adding bloat is not better.

winamp reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on May 16, 2008

it sad, v7.5 was very good. this new s*** only makes my computer slow. only good thing is the new layout and thats it free. any suggestion of better free av soft with low resorce cpu/mem use?

Cris3 reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on May 6, 2008

Version 8 required.
Grisoft has announced that version 7.5 will be automatically deleted after May 30, 2008.
I think this new version is ok.

joeshmoe7 reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on May 1, 2008

Well, if you want to talk about bloat, lol i removed norton from a machine and put this on, and the machine ran about 10x faster, it was an old xp with only 128mb of ram (the machine was virtually un-usable with norton). This works fine as long as you do a custom install and uncheck the un-needed junk. And disable daily scans. Would be better if they just left out the toolbar and email component, it would probably have cut down its download size a bit. All in all, for free, i think this is pretty decent.

Cooledit reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 30, 2008

no love here

v8 on startup eats about 40mb ram, with email
scanner and security toolbar disabled

v7.5 was at 2-3mb ram on startup

v8 also have noticable slower scanning than v7.5

dcaine100 reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 30, 2008

Upgraded from AVG 7.5 to 8.0 not totally convinced by AVG 8, the interface is a big improvement (pic above is 7.5)I had to turn the link scanner off by disabling the AVG safesearch add-on in firefox and IE because I use McAfee SiteAdvisor and linkscanner didn't work.

Download some test viruses from eicar.com and it detected all of them but only after downloading them.

Not bad for a free Anti-virus but I'm going to try AntiVir.

Aires reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 29, 2008

Is it just me, or have AVG taken a previous excellent anti-virus and turned into a far less user-friendly sluggish version, that immediately made me install it and go back to v7.5? I mean, this has really truly gone downhill with this version. I have disabled elements of the anti-virus which I don't need and it throws up a red exclamation mark in the system tray. I know what I've disabled - I don't need a red exclamation mark to tell me for God's sake. Also there's an element that you can't even disable in the Advanced settings (I forget which). I can't recommend this at all and you should stick with v7.5 - I never thought I'd ever say this but this only gets 1 Star I'm afraid. :(

dstream reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 28, 2008

this has just gone to garbage ware.

The previous version ran effortlessly for years now it has constant pop up reminders about paying for the full version.

Bloated as well and its found no end of false positives . All of a sudden I must have the most virus ridden system on the planet. Its 7.5 found nothing . Its 8.0 has found 23 all false psoitives of already running program. Im uninstalling this crapware now.

Guys theres noe better antivirus goto avast or antivir.

avast has found none of these false positives.

Crappola ware!!!

the bad part is if your on google or similar it will goto all the websites in a search without you asking and check them all.

it will visit every page and I mean every page in a search

TC17 reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 27, 2008

I would have given this a 5 star, but I won't because of the stupid link checking option it now uses. For example when you use google to search, it will check every single link on the page, and every page. This is unacceptable... and if you turn it off, then your stupid icon does nothing but display an annoying exclamation point as if something is wrong.

This also poses a problem because law enforcement recently was using entrapment to arrest people. Anyone clicking on one of their links automatically gets you arrested. And since this program is automatically checking every link, that is very bad.

mystic21 reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 26, 2008

I have to agree with dragonstar. after installing this new version, memory usage increased to unusable state, and if IE didn't crash, it was dead slow. I had it installed long enough to find that it detected spybot and spywareblaster prevention entries as infections, and it wanted to remove them. It is a problem they admit on their help page, but they say they can do nothing about it. I think that if you can test for a key's existence, you can also test for an entries value, and make a basic decision if it is really installed spyware or not. I think this is unfair practice on the part of grisoft, and definately a step in the wrong direction.

DragonStar reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 26, 2008

junk. just because there are machines out there that have 8gb of ram and dual quad core cpus does not mean that I want to use all that power to be able to open IE without crashing. the interface, although past due for update, was just fine without all the unnecessary garbage grisoft tossed in. I have been running avg for 7 years because it always was adequate, and maintained a small memory footprint. Now, all that is gone. Pure garbage, and a real disappointment.

wellingtonadd reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 25, 2008

The Avira AntiVir free is much better in performance and detection rates.

Blaxima reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 25, 2008

First off the good. The new UI is a welcome (and about time) change..........that is all. Now the bad, detection rate is mediocre and it has too many false postives. The impact on the system is not bad but the on demand scan time is ridiculously slow especially when compared to NOD and KAV which do better jobs with detection in a shorter time. I don't know, I'm a NOD user so maybe this is what you get with a free AV but AntiVir is free too and has excellent detection rates.

Atleast this is better than avast but like it was said already, the free version is practicly hidden on their website and that free price tag is the only excusable reason anyone should look to this instead of NOD

DoHickey reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 25, 2008

I installed this version as an upgrade from the 7.5 AVG free version. The install went smooth along with the automatic removal of the 7.5 version.

After a restart of the computer, I right clicked on the icon by the clock & did the update. It's nice that it does this in the background unlike the old version.

It did take a long time to scan the system, but it seems to be more thorough and found a lot of things that the old version didn't.
I use AOL 9.0 and had no problems using the software with this version of AVG. I don't play online games or any other type of games other than windows solitaire, so I didn't have that conflict.

Checking email with outlook express worked fine with the little pop up indicator that AVG was checking things. The new look of the AVG free is a nice change from the windows standard look.
I'm very happy with this product, thank you AVG.

Soozy reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 24, 2008

Very disappointed in this build.
AVG 7.5 never found any Trojans for AOL or AOL Desktop (no anti AOL remarks please).
Yet AVG8 found 22, but when I tried to Send to Analysis, because I feel they are false positives, the Send failed several times.
Then I try to go back on AOL and both AOL and AOL Desktop failed to launch.
I had to reopen AVG and restore the threats in the Virus Vault and reboot to get back on AOL.

Sammo reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 24, 2008

The new version has a much improved gui and a lot of new features. However, it falls short in its detection rate. I have noticed that it now missed stuff that it used to get in version 7 such as the EICAR Test Virus. The new command line scanner doesn't seem to get anything when used with GetRight. The last straw for me was the extremely SLOW scans. Even when set to a fast scan it takes nearly 4 hours to scan my 320 GB HD. The new Antivir only takes just over 1 hour to do the same scan and catches more stuff.

DudeBoyz reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 24, 2008

SECOND UPDATE: It causes mass slow-downs and crashes of apps even when it's just resident, with no scans being conducted.

Junkware - I'm going back to the 7.5. I'd rather have Adware that works than Junkware that don't. :)

UPDATE: It took over 2 hours to scan my other machine. TWO Freakin' Hours! That said, it flagged a bunch of stuff as "SPYWARE" that I don't think is spyware at all. A couple of official game patches even, and some trainers. Sure hope they work on version 8. So far, I'm not terribly impressed. I may end up going back to 7.5.x

Took me a while to find - I had to go to the SITE MAP link in order to locate the v8.x download:

http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download?prd=afe

They sure arent' making it as easy as I would like for folks to find the free version.

I wonder if they are planning to stop providing a free version, given how hard they are trying to hide it behind tons of links to the paid version.

For now, a 3. I'll test and determine if the software warrants more because of performance and offsets the hardcore push to the paid version.

marty reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 24, 2008

I might give BN a 3 since the download link is a 404. Downloaded directly from Grisoft - the update server failed. Hopefully this will be corrected in a day or so.

Ryusennin reviewed v8.0.100a1295 on Apr 24, 2008

AVG 8 Free is now available.

So long AVG 7 and thanks for all the phish.

DakotaSunRunner reviewed v7.5.524a1293 on Apr 21, 2008

I also like AVG, while it is true that there is no antivirus software made that will keep you entirely 100% safe, all of them try to do a good job. Some of them are just better at their job than others. I think that AVG is a pretty good software, perhaps not the very best, but it is free. If you use common sense with what you do on your computer this software should do well for you. The add that happens now and then with this software does not really bother me, but is somewhat a pain, but get over it, it is free. These companies cannot exist on giving everything away free.

One thing I notice on this forum and many others, are the forum rightous I call them and the forum bullies who know everything and anything about everything and anything, which of course is not true. Some come on these forums merely to argue and pretend to be better at wisdom than others, you all should basically ignore them, I do.

You put on your computer what you like and you need no approval from anyone to do that!

cowgaR reviewed v7.5.524a1293 on Apr 19, 2008

allways kept me safe...what a joke, how do you know it? there isn't an antivirus that makes you safe dude, just some are better...this one is the worst (well maybe after norton, everybody "likes" norton ;P)

2 days ago I was repairing a computer...strange problems with whole system (wi-fi not working, desktop flashing, closing any open application after 5 s of usage) so guess what...

first I fixed the wi-fi, updated RUNNING AVG with all its bloatware processes on a tray, and scanned up a comp with it while doing my sysinternals-autoruns-magic in background for diagnosics.

AVG didn't find a s***, I found 2 viruses through autoruns, first one was easy to destroy through safe-mode wipe-out, to destroy the 2nd one (much clever replicating at least to 5 different places with many backup-spawning-processes) I needed to use recovery console...

but prior to killing 2nd one I tried easier method, I uninstalled this crap AVG (with hour fresh antivirus base), restarted the PC and installed NOD32 3.0 30 day trial on a machine.
Immediately after the install (really fast one, much better than old 2.7 and NO REBOOT required at all!) it found out virus in memory (and registry entries for the 2nd one, already destroyed) and disabled it (well, just from annoying me; - so no desktop flashing, killing appz and so on). Sadly it couldn't delete the main .dll of the virus - not even at reboot process (but it tried to do so - at least that was the message in the log). Hence recovery console was the only low-level access to delete the bas**** ;) But still I've got at least diagnostic with virus name and all the info (that I've already knew...)

Thanks to Mark Russinovich for its wonderfull tools (process monitor and particularly for autoruns), thanks to NOD32 for super-simplicity and diagnostics (although s***ty repair) and go to hell with any AVG!

sturgess reviewed v7.5.524a1293 on Apr 19, 2008

Always kept me safe. It's free and I thank them for that.I don't mind them reminding me that they have a paid version available, it makes good business sense. So if you don't like what they are doing stop using them, now that's not too difficult for you lot to understand is it.

GrantTLC reviewed v7.5.524a1293 on Apr 19, 2008

AVG now nags at you to upgrade with obtrusive, intermittent pop-ups. And the free version is now next to impossible to find on their revamped website.

This is a sad downturn for one of the last decent free Anti-virus products.

DudeBoyz reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 17, 2008

I'm very annoyed by recent updates that seem to turn this product into Adware.

I don't like seeing the ad for version 8 on the main control center interface, and I am absolutely getting torqued about the pop-up dialog asking me to purchase version 8.

Is there any way to disable this crap?

I'm a longtime user and fan, but am almost to the point where I'm going to dump the program for something else.

If someone can help find or identify a way to get rid of the adware / nagware, I would appreciate it.

JeremyP reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 16, 2008

EarlyMorning Hours

It's always been hard to find the free version from the main website. This is nothing new. What is beginning to pi55 ME off with AVG, and I too have used it for years, is that I now have to reboot most days. Uh? Forum worse than useless, sadly

bourgeoisdude reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 16, 2008

Yeah, I had to finally stop using this one because of all the false positives it picked up--and in the end it's "tamper protection" (or whatever AVG calls it) prevented me from easily stopping the processes that picked up these certain false positives. When that happened this last time, I finally gave up and uninstalled AVG so that I could run the legitimate program.

It was a sad day in a way, but I had had enough of the inconveniences that it gave me. I started using AVG Free because it was free and easy, not so I would have to hassle all the time with it. Slowly over the years (particularly between version 6 and version 7), it had become more and more of a hassle.

Oh...and before you ask if I'm sure that the "false positives" were indeed false, I used http://virscan.org/ and found that only AVG had the false positive and no others. This happened four times last year alone with four separate programs, and once this year that was the last straw. Shame too, I've used AVG Free since version 5.0 on Windows 95.

I moved to Avast! now. Not anything super, way better customization features though. It also supposedly has slightly better detection rate and certainly can't have any worse results as far as false positives go...but I digress--after all, this is a review of AVG Antivirus, not a review over Avast! Antivirus.

madmike reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 16, 2008

Tis free yes, but WHAT price is free? although useful for peeps who cant be bothered either way, it does miss viruses.. which is a concern. I have not tried the paid version, but judging by the free version missing viruses, I dont think i want too. Sticking with NOD32

tbresson reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 15, 2008

Yes, it's still free. Look here: http://free.grisoft.com/

preinterpost reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 15, 2008

I cannot blame them for trying to push their commercial product. This is a very good free product and I am running it on several virtual machines. On serious iron I'd install more serious AV.

EarlyMorningHours reviewed v7.5.524a1289 on Apr 15, 2008

It appears that there is no more "free" version. All downloads are now 30 day trial versions. It was nice knowing you.

Update: I stand corrected. There is still a free version. Updated from 2 to 4 on rating. However, if you go to their main website, it is not evident that a free version is available at all. I looked everywhere and all I could find was "Free Trial". I don't like the direction this is headed in however. For the typical home user, this is just about the last free AV product that I can really recommend, but it's coming close to where I won't be able to do that.

djurbino reviewed v7.5.519a1276 on Mar 31, 2008

AVG Free has become nag-ware. It directs you to the website and displays bright, glossy ads for the pro version.

I could live with that -- if it wasn't for other new annoying behaviours.

e.g. after every other update, it now needs to reboot the computer to complete the update. And until you do reboot, it disables itself. So you either continue working with no AV protection, or you close everything down and reboot your computer.

Might be time to start checking out alternatives.

The MAZZTer reviewed v7.5.519a1276 on Mar 21, 2008

It's always been my choice for free anti-virus, however lately it's displaying ads for the commercial AVG product... I don't mind that in and of itself, but the fact that it doesn't SAY the ad is for the commercial product... it only says you should upgrade to "8.0". There IS no AVG Free 8.0... the link takes you to purchase a commercial AVG product.

I also frown on them limiting their Free AV scanner to an "old" engine. If I get infected with a virus that would have been stopped by the "new" engine, I'm not going to think "wow I should pay for the new engine". I'm going to think "wow AVG sucks, it missed this virus, I better use a different vendor".

tbresson reviewed v7.5.518a1275 on Mar 13, 2008

The correct version seems to be: 7.519a1276 and the links is here:
http://free.grisoft.com/.../avg75free_519a1276.exe

AVG is free to use, it's not the best antivirus out there, but it's one of the best free ones, it's user friendly, it updates without a hassle.

Adrian79 reviewed v8.0.81a1271 on Feb 28, 2008

before switching to the best AV ever "nod32" I used to use this AVG and loved it.. great software 2nd best.

fourte3n reviewed v7.5.516a1262 on Feb 23, 2008

I had 4 false positives on the first scan. I know they were false as nod32 never found an issue and symantec portable didn't either. It's unfortunate that this was happening.

* The program feleted the false positives without asking me for an action which cause a legally purchased games to be started again. :(

some guy reviewed v7.5.516a1262 on Feb 12, 2008

i think its good for free scans at a good speed.
I run a 3 boot OS system , last week my XP got a virus, and I used AVG free ran it and it found alot of files, then I ran Avira Antivir and that picked up at least 15 viruses AVG missed,
In my personal opinion
Avira is the Best. slow but deep scan I thought Avg
gave a little shallow scan qouick but to me wasnt deep.
my 2 cents

brusco reviewed v8.0.52a1239 Beta on Jan 18, 2008

@CyberDoc999

All quality anti-virus software kernels run as a virtual device driver. Its FAR more efficient than user mode and makes it harder for malware to attack or disable it (also keeps out of sight of n00bs like you so you don't accidentally terminate it)

Research your facts before criticizing.

lanky71 reviewed v8.0.52a1239 Beta on Jan 18, 2008

Quick and simple to use. No I haven't tried uninstalling it yet but then I have not needed to either on my Vista 64 system.

-Lord- reviewed v8.0.42a1225 Beta on Jan 4, 2008

Have you guys ever tried to uninstall this thing???

CyberDoc999 reviewed v8.0.42a1225 Beta on Jan 4, 2008

why would you need a Virtual Device Driver as the core?
More bloatware for your computer!

Mystiqq reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 29, 2007

Ive used few Antivirus programs but i rarely actually need them. As far as resources go, AVG in "inactive mode" wont take any resources.

For instance in NOD32, i've not managed to make it run without consuming at least 20mb of memory at all times. Even when you have everything turned off, it still is active in the background.

For anyone who needs AV that doesnt require you to have it runbing in the background even if you dont need it, AVG seems to do the job quite well.

Vivek Kowshik reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 21, 2007

I have been using this anti-virus for a couple of years now. My only gripe is that the update files keep getting bigger each time. Is this software downloading all its files each time? Just a few days of not updating means a few MB of downloads. Why can this not be sorted out??
I am also using Avast on another PC. This anti virus always has short and sweet downloads that finish in a flash. I don't know which is really better. Any inputs anyone????

-Lord- reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 21, 2007

People still use Zone Alarm???

Sammo reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 21, 2007

Great free AV. Winner of the December VB 100 award.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/index
http://www.virusbtn.com/...ive/results?vendor=VE10

Kaspersky, Avast, Panda, Antivir all FAILED the latest VB 100 award.

MikeTechno reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 21, 2007

I too like this program a great deal and thing the world of it. However, I also run Avira Anti-Vir free edition and notice that it is the program that always catches threats from e-mail attachments and web site dowloads. I always get pop-up warnings catching things from Anti-Vir, I never get any warnings from AVG. I also get pop up warnings from ZoneAlarm on threats it catches but never anything from AVG. Does that seem odd to anyone? I mean AVG does have active, realy time scanning, it isn't just passive scanning. You would think it would catch some things some times and throw up warnings about them, right?

fredlkrue reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 20, 2007

you forgot to mention that we don't have to restart for every single update like norton :)

MichaelDHam reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 20, 2007

AVG Free Edition is best by far, since my change to this over 2 years ago from Norton AV, no problems with my system works flawless, updates automatic of all components of the program daily and the best of all...IT IS ***FREE***!!!!

godzila reviewed v7.5.516a1225 on Dec 20, 2007

what is change log for this version?

mikeyx11 reviewed v7.5.503a1224 on Dec 14, 2007

Best anti-virus EVER.

Sammo reviewed v7.5.503a1224 on Dec 13, 2007

@bantam

In case you didn't read the VB100 reports, Kaspersky FAILED the December 2007 test. AVG PASSED the VB100 December 2007 test. Now, why would I want to PAY for software that FAILS when I can get an AV that PASSES for FREE?

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/index
http://www.virusbtn.com/...results.xml?vendor=VE10
http://www.virusbtn.com/...ive/results?vendor=VE15

bantam reviewed v7.5.503a1224 on Dec 13, 2007

Pay the Money and put your trust in Kaspersky!
I wouldnt THINK of using anything else, ive tried avg in the past and as mentioned it does NOT detect adware and spyware. Kasperksy keeps my system running safely Im using Kaspersky Internet security and i typically run spybot and adaware as a precation weekly and neither program ever detects anything....Kaspersky Keeps it ALL out!

No i dont work for kaspersky...lol just a faithful user

some guy reviewed v7.5.503a1224 on Dec 13, 2007

been using it for years,

a must have

Sammo reviewed v7.5.503a1205 on Dec 12, 2007

AVG won the VB100 award for December 2007. Kaspersky, Antivir and Avast all failed the December VB100 test.

http://www.virusbtn.com/...ive/results?vendor=VE10
http://www.virusbtn.com/...ive/results?vendor=VE15
http://www.virusbtn.com/...ive/results?vendor=VE37
http://www.virusbtn.com/...hive/results?vendor=VE9

mikelvgh reviewed v7.5.503a1205 on Nov 23, 2007

On the whole not a bad program for free, but I wouldn't pay for it.

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v7.5.503a1205 on Nov 19, 2007

Absolutely the best , Been in hardcore use for well over three years on 4,800 computers to date with ONE issue with a pro version when the firewall blew up.

xanderzone365 reviewed v7.5.503a1171 on Nov 14, 2007

Whoever said "AVG sucks" is actually something that I can't argue with.

It kinda slowed down my computer, and it didn't detect any adware files (unlike Avast).

Also, you can't even get technical support (e-mail) at all.

Avast, on the other hand, even for the free version, has technical support (e-mail) free of charge.

djactivator reviewed v7.5.503a1171 on Oct 24, 2007

avg sucks! I have installed the new version and it conflicted with my IMGBURN program, i burnt about 15 coasters to the point where I wanted to buy a new burner only to realize that for some ODD reason AVG does not get along with IMGBURN, i have burned the disc successfully in NERO 8 and after uninstalling AVG it works perfectly fine in both NERO 8 and IMGBURN! I will never EVER use AVG again and looking around for an alternative as we speak

RWW reviewed v7.5.503a1171 on Oct 22, 2007

Has always done the job for me!

Sven123456789 reviewed v7.5.503a1171 on Oct 22, 2007

To DudeBoyz, I was saying the same thing to myself. I downloaded the version your talking about that was 50.9 megs. I guess in the summer. This version is a 29 meg file. You would think the bigger download meant they had more anti virus defs. and other features. So whats going on there?

Sammo reviewed v7.5.503a1171 on Oct 22, 2007

Good av, but failed the VB 100 test in June.
http://www.virusbtn.com/...ive/results?vendor=VE10

Nikkie reviewed v7.5.488a1157 on Oct 6, 2007

Pretty decent virus scanner.It doesn't hog the resources too.I would like to see better detection rate, though.but so far so good...

anomoly reviewed v7.5.488a1157 on Oct 5, 2007

way too many false positives and locked files. No way to exclude anything-JUNK. The only thing this crap does right is update
I switched to clamwin-no realtime but personally I don't need it. Nor do I need an ap that takes over even a single file without my consent

godzila reviewed v7.5.488a1157 on Oct 5, 2007

best

DudeBoyz reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Oct 4, 2007

Anyone know why the recent version listed below is about 20 meg but the newer 7.5 version is almost 30 meg?

avg75free_446a965.exe = 20 meg

avg75free_488a1138.exe = 30 meg

BTW, I had to go the Grisoft web site to get the proper copy. The copy I downloaded from here did not work - prompted for a license number. Here's the link to the page I got it from:

http://free.grisoft.com/...oducts/us/frt/0?prd=aff

Best of luck.

steffanmsn reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 22, 2007

THIS IS THE CRACKED VERSION,dO NOT DOWNLOAD THE VERSION FROM THE HOME WEBSITE.Try this download of avg75f_488a1138 its cracked,if you have an older version,like avg75free_467a1008,you can install it,then update it,priority,optional,etc.Then continue till its installed.Now uninstall,but leave your settings and virus vault intact and restart your computer.now install avg75free_467a1008 again but this time you only want the license free code.COPY THE CODE AND EXIT SETUP.Now install avg75f_488a1138 and paste the code in where asked 4 the license code and continue untill installed,then update again and your finished .you
NOW YOU HAVE @AVG_TitleFree Edition.THANKS FILEFORUM NICE PROGRAM

anonymouscowturd reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 21, 2007

Agree with MichaelDHam. I can't get it to install at all. There is *NO* cancel button as someone has suggested. I simply proceed with the installtion, i have buttons for NEXT and Exit. So i can't even install the damn thing. Pants. I'm going back to the last version

Captain Hook reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 21, 2007

Crap program! Not even free when they call it free.
Strange...

I deleted my Floola 2.0 and it also deleted my YamiPod 1.6 and called a Virus!

(Floola and Yamipod are ITunes clones working very good)

It did even ask my before it deleted them.

Bad behavior!

some guy reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 21, 2007

it is free, just click cancel when it ask for a key, you get the freeware one .

for free it ranks good against the 3 other freeware,

against paid -share ware Kaspersky and Nod32 still lead the way

MichaelDHam reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 21, 2007

THIS IS NOT THE FREE VERSION! ASKS FOR LICENSE NUMBER! AVG FREE SITE STILL SHOWS PREVIOUS VERSION AS ACTUAL!

Soozy reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 20, 2007

I don't know about anyone else's experience, but this version is not for Free.
During the install it asked for a License # and does not except the Free one.
Added info about this latest update copied directly from AVG site.

The listed program updates should not be used for the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. AVG Free users can perform the update directly from within the program, or download updates from AVG Free Advisor website.

Jordanr05 reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 20, 2007

Nice app, free of charge, updates quickly, and uses very few resources.

Gets a 4 since it detected a false positive on my box.

godzila reviewed v7.5.488a1138 on Sep 20, 2007

nice

Nikkie reviewed v7.5.485a1117 on Sep 5, 2007

Use this with superantispyware and dynamic security agent...another great little bundle.

http://fileforum.betanew...ee_Edition/1142662646/1

http://fileforum.betanew...rity_Agent/1150224527/1

Canuckistani reviewed v7.5.485a1117 on Sep 4, 2007

@Soozy You can get help at the free support forum:
http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/

Soozy reviewed v7.5.484a1103 on Aug 29, 2007

Very disappointed in the lastest AVG.
It's coming up with false positives.
And because it is free, it's very difficult to contact Grisoft.

some guy reviewed v7.5.484a1103 on Aug 22, 2007

I use to be a big fan but with the poor detection rate I'm gona have to let you go.

I will agree with the guy that posted the test results.
can be seen here http://www.av-comparatives.org/

tinkerdill reviewed v7.5.484a1103 on Aug 22, 2007

ain't so bad as someone says. avast is crappy eye candy program, this is just simply antivirus program.

rabbitbert reviewed v7.5.484a1103 on Aug 22, 2007

After an hour Windows Vista 64-bit is crashing with a BSOD.
Something with "A thread ..." and in win2k32.sys

Even without this error i would not rate it 5 stars, it slows down the system tremendously.

Alex Stevens reviewed v7.5.484a1100 on Aug 16, 2007

Poor detection rates compared to Avast!, and no they are NOT all the same.

internetworld7 reviewed v7.5.476a1048 (Updated) on Jul 2, 2007

@Blaxima

Are you sure you're not a developer for Kaspersky? Kaspersky is very good antivirus protection. Hopefully 7.0 will correct a few annoying and stability issues.

However saying something totally uneducated and stupid like Avast!, AVG, Bitdefender and Antivir are all the same, is pretty pathetic.

Fist of all, Antivir's single engine continues to beat out the competition including Kaspersky in AV-Comparatives' testing. You can also take a look at AV-TEST results for last year and this one. Perhaps you are making a comparison between Antivir FREE and Kaspersky? Compare Antivir Premium and Kaspersky. Antivir by the way is significantly LIGHTER on system resources. Kaspersky isn't really a hog but it could definitely be lighter, a common complaint among Kaspersky users in the Kaspersky forum.

As far as AVG goes, NOT RECOMMENDED. Poor real-time protection. This needs improving badly.

spacedock01 reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 26, 2007

I've been using Grisoft AVG for a couple of years and I give it high marks. I do think, however, that the Resident Shield in its current form is overkill. I mean, it checks a program every time I open it even if I've opened it 15 times that day. This slows down my old Pentium 5, sometimes to a crawl. I turn it off unless I have a good reason not to. I do read all the reviews and I get other offerings to try and good info. Thanks to all who write them. And, of course, I'm very grateful to all the folks at BetaNews who work to make this great website available to me. Thanks a bunch! spacedock01

Blaxima reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 26, 2007

I'm convinced developers are leaving feedback.
tinkerdill is right, AVG, avast, antivir, bitdefender are all the same and thats average at best. Even the resource pig of pigs Norton is a safer and more recommendable option.

Say it with me now, "Kaspersky"

tinkerdill reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 25, 2007

hey siryak, if you want best free antivirus, use antivir. but i think all these free programs are almost the same.

siryak reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 25, 2007

Avast has a better detection system from my experience. It has caught things that AVG let slip by.

Techguy22 reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 25, 2007

AVG Anti-Virus provides poor real time protection and inferior on demand detection. I would never recommend this product to any one. If you do not belive me check out http://www.av-comparatives.org under Retrospective/ProActive Test and On-demand comparative. If you want a free anti-virus program try AntiVir Personal Edition. If you wan the best I would recommend the soon to be released Kaspersky AV 7.

godzila reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 25, 2007

ko me razume ni jedan antivirunsni program nije zastita 10000000& ima propusta

internetworld7 reviewed v7.5.476a1048 on Jun 25, 2007

You AVG fans need to educate yourself. Firstly, AVG Free is a VERY basic scanner that has VERY limited real-time protection. It offers no web or http scanning functionality which means you're open to script executable attacks if you stumble across a malicious site. Secondly, the reason AVG appears to be so lightweight is because it LACKS several very important protection technologies found in much more complete and trusted antivirus programs such as Kaspersky, F-Secure, Bit-Defender, Avira Antivir, NOD32 and Norton Antivirus 2007 (Now lighter on system resources). Almost all leading AV's provide antispyware protection at no additional charge. Using multiple solutions in real-time can cause your system to be unstable. AVG Free is nothing more than a stripped down unlimited demo. This product with it's lack of comprehensive protection has failed me in the past which resulted in tojan horse infection. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Dsfargeg reviewed v7.5.476a1043 on Jun 22, 2007

Only ok AV (there are many better ones, including free Avast), the firewall is poor, and the interface is absolutely hideous.
Not even free would this be a very good choice, much less when you have to pay for it.

Ian C. reviewed v7.5.472a1024 on Jun 4, 2007

AV-Comparitives broke the results up into a few categories based upon how well they did in the tests. The more viruses that it caught, without falsely identifying a file (referred to as a false positive), the higher the category it received.

# Advanced+
* NOD32 (68%)
# Advanced
* AntiVirusKit (31%)
* F-Secure (31%)
* Norman Virus Control (28%)
* Avast! Professional (26%)
* Norton (24%)
* McAfee (24%)
# Standard
* AntiVir (71%)
* TrustPort (58%)
* BitDefender Professional (48%)
* F-Prot (31%)
* Dr. Web (30%)
* Microsoft OneCare (18%)
* Kaspersky (9%)
* eScan (9%)
# Not Classified
* FortiClient (71%) Note: produced thousands of false positives.
* AVG (8%) Note: produced too many false positives and didn’t catch many viruses.

h377r1d3r reviewed v7.5.472a1024 on Jun 4, 2007

I don't trust it never did never will, had it installed @ parrents computer, replaced with BitDefender, and found freaking 10 worms and viruses... just give me a break;

vansrme reviewed v7.5.472a1024 on May 27, 2007

I give AVG an average grade here, because Avast has always had a better detection rate, and is quicker to update, and scan.

chris

RWW reviewed v7.5.472a1024 on May 25, 2007

Have used AVG from the time they posted their first version. Tried a couple others but have always ended up back with Grisoft. The way things have happened to other software I swear by I'm always fearful of somebody buying AVG and screwing it up. Let's hope that never happens!

bellgamin reviewed v7.5.467a1008 on Apr 27, 2007

AVG just keeps getting better & better in terms of protection and stability/ease of use. Unlike some of the other non-USA brands of antivirus, AVG has a fairly large staff at work on maintaining its engine and signatures up-to-date.

Another plus for AVG is the fact that the company (Grisoft) plans ahead when issuing a new, major update to its main program so that (unlike Avira) they don't get their servers into gridlock.

On the minus side, AVG doesn't update signatures as quickly & reactively as do (e.g.) Kaspersky, DrWeb, F-prot. Also, its heuristics are a hair less effective than those of (e.g.) NOD32, F-Prot, & DrWeb. Thus, I rate AVG at 4+ instead of 5.

deviantvamp reviewed v7.5.467a1008 on Apr 27, 2007

the best freeware is AOL sheild built by Kaspersky
has a much better detection rate.
it just has the g** AOL stamp on it but pure Kaspersky
http://www.activevirussh...ivirus/freeav/index.adp?

Why dont I receive an activation code ??

Umapathy reviewed v7.5.463a1000 on Apr 22, 2007

I agree that the review of [[some guy]] but AVG has some plus points. I am from Sri Lanka. There are many places in where it is difficult to find internet connections or there is no connectivity at all (Certain parts of war torn North and East). Where one can use AVG anti virus while can download the definitions elsewhere and update manually. This feature apparently missing in Active Virus Shield (here after AVS). When connected to the internet it requires user to click update instead of automatically updates like AVS. I personally think it as a drawback compared to AVS. I have come across situation where AVG Antivirus was not updated where internet connectivity is slow.
I would appreciate more if it improves the detection rate even further. As far as I know this antivirus has one of the highly installed software in Sri Lanka.

some guy reviewed v7.5.463a1000 on Apr 20, 2007

the best freeware is AOL sheild built by Kaspersky
has a much better detection rate.
it just has the g** AOL stamp on it but pure Kaspersky
http://www.activevirussh...ivirus/freeav/index.adp?

Cionno reviewed v7.5.446a991 on Apr 11, 2007

Very nice antivirus with many useful features it only lacks a truly refined detection engine.

In my humble opinion this free antivrus shares the second position with avast, the best freeware (for detection rates) remains AVS although it lacks some features

bigmama reviewed v7.5.446a991 on Apr 10, 2007

good

however avast is better

eclipsingdivinity reviewed v7.5.446a991 on Apr 10, 2007

One thing I absolutely love about Grisoft is just how reliable they are with AVG. I switched to Windows Vista back in February and AVG was the first thing I saw that supported it. Since there is really nothing else to use but CA Antivirus and Live Onecare, I gave it a download.

Ran solid, and did its job. Just what I expect from good software.

+1 respect for Grisoft who cares enough about their customers to get their products out in time when a new OS releases.

bsadowski1 reviewed v7.5.446a965 on Apr 7, 2007

I used to have AVG and it was good for a while. I liked the fact that it was low on resources, but I didn't like the low-priority updates. (Avast updates more often.)

Milo Kabuki reviewed v7.5.446a965 on Feb 25, 2007

Installed this and 2 days later when i started my PC it gave me a license error, would not let me uninstall, would not let me repair, tried to remove from safe mode, reg entries, you name it but it would not go, this has happened to me twice now and re-intsalling the OS is the only way round it, until this error is fixed from Grisoft i am not touching this again, shame really as i have used it for a while and it always served me well

seier reviewed v7.5.446a965 on Feb 24, 2007

One of the biggest problems with AntiViral solutions is that they break things. AVG can find many viruses and does so without taking a major performance, compatibility, or stability hit. I'm a computer repairman and have a very good idea of which AV programs do and don't break systems Norton, eTrust, McAfee, PC-Cillin, do, AVG doesn't.

Daddy_Spank reviewed v7.5.446a965 on Feb 24, 2007

Kaspersky is the best but this is a pretty darn good program especially due to its low use of resources and of course - its freeware :)

jk- reviewed v7.5.446a965 on Feb 24, 2007

A good program but beware, it is auto-set to remove files upon detection. It removed some of my archived files without prompiting and without an option to recover. Don't allow the post-installation scan to run, instead cancel it, go into the Test Center, and cofigure the scans to prompt for detection action. Also, it's best to check off "ignore faulty condition" under the realtime scanner so that the program stays active even if you don't ugrade it every 3 days.

Zankur reviewed v7.5.441a944 on Feb 22, 2007

This is an excellent antivirus program which has a good detection rate of 93%...

It is light on ur pc,very stable,and has great ease of use...

don't listen to idiots who criticize this wonderful product on basis of low detection-rates....

Goto av-comparitives.org or pcwelt site.........and find out.

Corbit reviewed v7.5.441a944 on Feb 15, 2007

Not a bad product. The best protection (and it's free!) has to be attributed to AOL (Yep, that's what it says) Active Virus Shield, based on Kaspersky. Hell has frozen over. Read the test results - http://www.virus.gr/engl...lt.asp?id=82&mnu=82

madcats reviewed v7.5.441a944 on Feb 8, 2007

It often won't load in a Vista(Retail) reboot. While Avast works fine in VISTA and scans automatically.
I haven't tested AVG Pro, could be a better product.

Only 1 change shown @"AVG Free"website: new version:

"Fixed problem with scanning encrypted files on NTFS volumes"

godzila reviewed v7.5.441a944 on Feb 8, 2007

extremlly good antivirus program detect all viruses its no 1 ceska republika

ThePcPractitioner reviewed v7.5.432a904 on Jan 21, 2007

I Have Been Using AVG Since 2001 Started With The Free version Then Went To Pro, Last Night I Bought The Malware AVG Which protects You From both Viruses & Spyware 44.95 USD Gets You 2 years Of Protection All My Clients Have it To, better reviews then both Norton & Mcafee & Many Others

AVG Finds Every Viorus I get, Avg Has Yet To Let me Or My Clients Down, Norton Mcafee panda And The Rest Have Always Crashed My Pc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

driesie reviewed v7.5.432a904 on Jan 8, 2007

I have used AVG for years but it is always best to study the latest test results of independent experts:
http://www.pcworld.com/a...475-page,1/article.html

Umapathy reviewed v7.5.432a904 on Jan 3, 2007

I give a rating of 3 since it's free, easy to use, regular updates and small foot print in the memory. But me too not very satisfied with the detection rate it seems like Avast! is doing better than this one. Also when virus got infected it doesn't clear very well.
One thing I noticed that when I browse http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm using Firefox browser it download the anti virus test file but it's not downloading when I use Internet Explorer does it mean it allows virus to go though Firefox browser? I tested Norton Anti virus 9 Server Edition client at the office using Firefox and Internet Explorer it defends irrespective of the browser (I didn't download the anti virus test file).

Banquo reviewed v7.5.432a904 on Jan 3, 2007

I used to think this program was so great. It uses very little resources and updates every single day. That sounds nice and all until you learn how poor it's detection rates are. Suddenly those other nice features seem moot. That's not to say it's terrible, but the point is being as safe as possible and there is another free program called Avast that has better detection rates (at least at the time I compared them)

mansa reviewed v7.5.432a861 on Dec 24, 2006

first I would like to say that I have tested a lot of antiviruses free and not. And every time I find something that make me change to another.
But if we speak about free antiviruses there are 4 on the run : avg, antivir,avast, and the free version of kaspersky (aol active virus shield ).
antivir has a very high rate detection but does not scan emails.
Avast is quite perfect : complete and small footprint, but it doesn't detect some old and "popular" viruses.
So this why AVG is the solution : it is like avast but detects old viruses like the "winfile"
But I think that u have tu use it only if you have safe surf and downloads cause the detection rate according to many forums is not very high. However I've been using it for a long time and until now my system is clean ( it has detected some trojans and viruses and deleted them ).
and to be sure that my system is clean I scaned it with kaspersky using another windows partition.
Bt if you use p2p applications and surf in crack sites and enter unknown forums, than it's better to use aol active virus shield : his only default is that it slows the system like all kasperskys.
So this is why I advise you to use avg for those who have modest machines ( comparing to avast : avg detects old viruses that avast doesn't )
But if you like to be well protected and for free use aol active virus shield.
Conclusion : if you have a good machine active virus shield is the best free solution, but if you want an antivirus that protects you from most known threats and with small footprint on your system than AVG is for you.

aliastom reviewed v7.5.432a861 on Dec 8, 2006

I like this free program because you just set it and forget it. It automatically downloads the latest definitions everyday, is light on resources and does its job quietly in the background. It caught and quarantined a "Worm/VB.CC" and a "Trojan Horse Dropper.Generic.DZD" from a Limewire download the first week I installed it, and has kept me virus free ever since. Oh, and did I mention it's FREE?

Betachecker reviewed v7.5.432a861 on Dec 7, 2006

Good AV but I prefer AVAST!

wingo reviewed v7.5.432a861 on Dec 7, 2006

Re: fluke75

"Even resource hogs like KAV, McAfee and Norton are much better."

->well McAfee nor Norton found the 2 yrs old virus i found on a w***zsite. NOD32 picked up the virus. AVG Av at least finds threaths unluke adaware.

demetrisk reviewed v7.5.432a861 on Dec 7, 2006

Not the most effective antivirus among the free ones according to the tests, but, in my opinion, the most useable. Maybe I wouldn't give it a 5 normally,* but I do it to balance the low ratings of those who misread the announcement.

* I reserve this for a program that would be as effective and light as NOD32, and the same time free to get. I think *personal* antivirus programs in general are too expensive for what they offer (i.e., nothing more than what you get by practicing safe and sane computing).

markrubi reviewed v7.5.432a861 on Dec 6, 2006

From http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

AVG Free 7.1 version will be discontinued on 15th of Jan 2007.

AVG 7.5 will still be supported!! People should learn to read what they are looking at.

fluke75 reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 16, 2006

I liked this anti virus untill I saw that it was more hype then real protection. One of my former bosses liked this AV so bad that he bought licences for more then a hundred computers, but they had virus problems ever since. There are much better alternatives to AVG free edition of which the best ones are Avast and the free version of BitDefender. AVG shame on you for pulling out the free version which made you what you are. The commertial one (both the server and workstation versions of the AV) is a poor effort. In that department Nod32, BitDefender, Avast Pro and F-Secure rule over AVG. Even resource hogs like KAV, McAfee and Norton are much better.

mrgrieves reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 5, 2006

I must admit that's how I first read the message, but if you look at it a little more closely it also has a link to version 7.5 free edition (if you've missed it, here it is again!)

draven_b4u reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 2, 2006

I have been using AVG Free at home for several years now. I loved it so much I purchased 100 Netowrk Edition licenses for my offices. Never had an issue with it and have recommended it to many.

Normally I would give it a 5, but I just received a notice stating that as of January 15th 2007 AVG will cease to support the free edition. At that point all home users will have to purchase the professional edition.

Looks like I will be looking for alternatives for home use. Pitty... I guess Avast will be getting more users in the new year.

Something Grisoft should note is that it's home based users are the ones who have taken them to the mainstream, it's too bad they will be left in the dark come January.

All qualms aside in regards to their recent decision to eliminate the free version, AVG is an excellent anti-virus solution.

zeeZee reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 1, 2006

i used avg for a long time. great program .detection rates are ok. can't come close to kapersky engine or nod32. i switched to aol active virus shield (kapersky engine and also free).

some guy reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 1, 2006

the for free their is no better plain and simple!

Todd 13 reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 1, 2006

This is still one of the best antivirus software programs you can get(free or paid).

antigin reviewed v7.5.430a828 on Nov 1, 2006

Not only private, but exactly one copy and for one machine.

norz reviewed v7.5.428a818 on Oct 31, 2006

License is *not* freeware, it's: free for private, non-commercial use only!
Maybe fileforum should clearly distinguish between pure freeware, and freeware for private use only, as I guess many of us also need software to use @ work...

mojoworking reviewed v7.5.428a818 on Oct 22, 2006

If this behaves on vista,like previous version,do not install.I was running on rc1 with problems,update on startup not appearing,then when installed rc2 on top rc1,vista started blocking Avg driver,so clicked on program uninstall Avg and no uninstall wizard came up,but Avg still their causing problems,even though I have heard its vista usable.Had to clean install off rc2 to resolve issue.

stopbuggingme reviewed v7.5.428a818 on Oct 20, 2006

Update of AVG 7.1 to 7.5

1. Run the AVG Free Edition 7.5 Setup program
2. Click "Next >" on the AVG "Welcome!" screen
3. Click "Accept" on the "License Agreement on Use of an AVG Free Edition" screen
4. Select "Repair installation" on the "Select Setup Type" screen and click "Next >"
5. Select "Restart the computer now" (pre-selected by the program automatically) and click "OK" on the "Installation Complete!" screen to restart your computer and complete the installation

Daddy_Spank reviewed v7.5.428a818 on Oct 20, 2006

I like this AV a lot, low system resources, and so far no viruses... *(knocking wood)* Recommended!!

isaacg reviewed v7.5.428a818 on Oct 19, 2006

You actually can reinstall over 7.1, just choose the Repair option when installing (as suggested by the AVG Free webpage). Worked perfectly on my machines. Seems to use amazingly less memory than 7.1, both my boxes avg's processes total

JEdwardP reviewed v7.5.428a818 on Oct 19, 2006

This version won't install over an existing 7.1x installation, and the interface is still garish, but for low-risk systems like mine, I still prefer it over Avast.

TC17 reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 13, 2006

This latest version STILL refuses to install on my laptop. It keeps claiming there is another version already installed(which there isn't), so it aborts the installation. Unlike EVERY other software program which has the ability to install over previous versions of their own software.

Apparently the Grisoft authors aren't smart enough to know how to upgrade from other versions of their own software? There is absolutely no excuse for it to abort the installation, just because it somehow detects a previous copy.

loupino reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 13, 2006

The best soloution for home and why not for office.
I work two years with it and i have no problem with viruses. AVG is better than all other antivirus software either in security or in resources.

seier reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 13, 2006

I personally prefer AVG over Norton or Trend Micro's offerings. It's not as powerful or as intrusive as either. More importantly it doesn't slow my system down and doesn't cost anything.

Ian C. reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 13, 2006

Funny dbdigital, I was thinking that it doesn't get much worse than this, accept for Norton.

Well I updated my review (bumped from 1 to a 3), seeing has how this came in handy. Finally came across a computer with some viruses that avast didn't detect. But still giving this a three seeing as how I've seen dozens of cases where it didn't catch stuff that avast did. And now I'm off to go bump my avast rating down to a 4.

dbdigital reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 12, 2006

It doesn't get better than this for viruses and it is FREE.

Does exactly what an anti-virus program should without getting in the way of any other programs or installations. Doesn't hog resources.

Updates are frequent and FREE.

I've used it for 2 years and it puts the "big boys" (aka Norton, McAfee, et al) to shame and it is FREE.

Lastly, did I mention it is FREE?

anomoly reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 12, 2006

Actually every time you go somewhere & you see viruses it's a stupid user to blame not the software. 2 years ago this software was not stable. Now it is & I have not seen it miss a beat.
For spyware I use spywareterminator which is also very robust. I haven't seen a virus on my pc since sp1 and that was only because I went online with no security or updates. virus smirus

clifton reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 12, 2006

AVG is not the solution for Malware but it is the BEST solution for Viruses. Use Spybot and Adaware and run them twice a week.

Don't blame AVG for malware!

some guy reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 12, 2006

Great free good updates. 5 easy never has failed me yet.

Btman your friends got to be morons.
you mean i have to update ounce a year?

DudeBoyz reviewed v7.1.408a815 on Oct 12, 2006

Guess I'm in the minority then. :(

This update seems to be just as stable and fast as previous versions, and it catches stuff that Norton doesn't on my 3 rigs.

To me, it seems to work great, but perhaps it is time to do some updated comparison testing just to confirm.

I appreciate that this product is free and very often updated.

I ONLY use the AV solution - I do not use it for spyware or stuff like that - so I am only judging it on the AV functionality. I use AdAware and Spybot to detect spyware.

It has a very easy update system too, which helps.

Don Juan reviewed v7.1.407a080 on Oct 10, 2006

btman: I am in complete agreement with you, this AV product is virtually useless.

btman reviewed v7.1.407a080 on Oct 7, 2006

Every time I go to someones house because they say they have a crappy computer... I go to their house and it's full of malware (mainly viruses and trojans and stuff).... Their anti-virus AVG.

It sucks, I give them Avast or Avira or if they can pay for an anti-virus I give them the best... Kaspersky.

alanpalmer reviewed v7.5.425a812 on Oct 6, 2006

Although the UI is ugly, it is easy to use, with all components easily accessible. I'm sure it uses less memory than many of the more fancy interfaces available.

DudeBoyz reviewed v7.1.407a080 on Sep 27, 2006

I really, really like this app. It is very lean, very clean and very capable. Converted from Norton AV and have not looked back since.

It doesn't try to do everything. It does one thing and does it very well, and that is all I have been looking for.

It is constantly updated and catches things other AV programs don't. Kudos to the developers for keeping it simple and free.

mansa reviewed v7.1.407a080 on Sep 27, 2006

not the best one but it's better than nothing
very light on system
has email scanner
grisoft stuff has aquired a considerable experience in the protection field so you can trust this one.

Comparing to avast, avg detect the winfile virus, avast no.
so if you surf safely this antivirus is for you

antivir is very good but do not have email scanner

aol active shield is excellent but heavy on sytem ressources

conclusion : 4 stars

Ian C. reviewed v7.1.407a080 on Sep 27, 2006

Terrible virus definitions, catches very little compared to most AV products, even the other free ones. Every bit as useless as Norton AV.

aeisele reviewed v7.1.407a080 on Sep 27, 2006

Some users rate AVG with a very low rating because they like other products better...But I rate it a 4 because it is in fact a very good product, they just need to revamp the user interface and make it a little more user-friendlier.

I have been using AVG Anti-Virus since a lot of time ago, but I know use AOL ActiveVirus Shield which is free and uses technology from Kaspersky which is very good.

Nod203 reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Sep 13, 2006

Great Free Antivirus

AVG Free is probably the best free antivirus, it doesn't slow your system down, it runs very smooth, extremely light on system resources, no conflicts with other software, very low number of false positives.

You guys may think Avast is better but I have to tell you something, I recently have a very very bad experience with Avast, my laptop (with up-to-date Avast installed) gets infected by Flashy trojan because Avast completely misses it. I remove Avast, install AVG and let it cleans Flashy trojan on my laptop, AVG does its great job and makes me surprise by its effectiveness.

It's ridiculous with Avast, I sent a sample of Flashy trojan to Avast but I (and all other Avast users) have to wait more than 1 week with no protection of this trojan until Avast updates this trojan into its database. This proves that Avast is quite slow to respond to new threats, very bad!!! AVG is much more better than Avast in this area.

With AntiVir, you have to deal with its high number of false positives from time to time and get annoyed with notify windows when it updates(I persoanlly think that's some kind of adware!!!! IMHO).

You guys may think that AntiVir and Avast are better by judge from results of some antivirus tests but that's just in lab test, not in the real world.

eclipsingdivinity reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 21, 2006

It seems with the advent of AOL Virus Shield, AOL Safety and Security center releasing for free. Along with Antivir's sturdy detection rates and the usability of Avast...I never have an excuse to turn to AVG anymore.

comeoffit reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 20, 2006

I have no idea what kind of drugs you need to be on to prefer this over all commercial products, regardless of price, or to overestimate its detection abilities ... but I envy the buzz you must be enjoying.

Every test and every review I've ever read puts avast! and AntiVir over AVG (av-comparatives.org is one of them, but not the only). AVG's spyware detection, in particular, is utterly atrocious. Oh, go ahead and fall back on the lame old "B-b-but, it's not anti-spyware software!" excuse, but the plain fact is that all decent "anti-virus" products are seriously stepping up their spyware detection as well.

Corbit reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 20, 2006

Odd reviews here. Detection rates on this are as good as Antivir, NAV and Avast. Program does just what it says it does, and isn't at all chunky. It's free, and is owned by Intel, which uses it across its entire enterprise. Updates come very frequently. I've used them all, and wouldn't swap for a free copy of any commercial product.

1uk3 reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 20, 2006

It's okay but hasn't got great detection rates, the interface is ugly (which doesn't really matter I guess) and quite often it can't clean viruses properly.

I'd recommend trying Avast! or AntiVir because they're both better.

andyted2 reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 20, 2006

One of the very best Free Virus Killers out There ,
I had McAfee Running on my computer and also AVG and guess which showed up a Virus First Yep AVG even after I did a full system Scan McAfee still did not show up the Virus , I have installed AVG on everybody I know`s Computer and I would Reccomend it to anyone if the marks were out of 10 I would give this Program Full Marks.

some guy reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 20, 2006

I have used AVG for years.
small foot print does what it says.
Interface could use a change looks a little w98 ish. Other then that it rocks ...

jesse5291 reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 19, 2006

The program was good at removing virus but some trojans were not heal or moved to the vault

HurricaneGame reviewed v7.1.405a791 on Aug 19, 2006

Not the best, but it does the job. (I guess.)

poles18 reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Aug 18, 2006

its a very useful scanner it scans emails for viruses. when my comp got a virus it detected it and executed its action very quickly and healed it so it was gone.

i still wish they had a free firewall not one that costs money

Daddy_Spank reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Aug 1, 2006

I have used AVG free edition for over a year on several computers, and never had a problem. Maybe I was lucky, maybe not, but the fact remains I never had a single virus.

niknet reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jul 11, 2006

So Far So Good.. Very Promised

kelly70 reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 21, 2006

I agree with most people who rated 5 for AVG.
What they said are the main features of AVG that I preferred and that made me support it.

To all AVG fans,

I think AVG is more than an AVeraGe antivirus program.
I think its "A" "V"ery "G"ood antivirus program!
Pitifully, I know its hard for some AVeraGe people to comprehend this.

sQin reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 21, 2006

Umapathy, i think you misunderstood. QBgreen told about Avira Antivir, not AVG. If you looked for some tests (Av-comparatives, Virus.gr ...), you would know AVG is just AVeraGe antivirus with AVeraGe protection.

Umapathy reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 21, 2006

I do agree with QBgreen. I have been used some other commercial AV and then came back to AVG free edition. It's amazing it's consumes quite low resources compared to many AV. I have been using this for more than an year and quite happy about AVG free version

QBgreen reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 20, 2006

My take: It's better than nothing at all. To end the silly "which one's best" argument, AntiVir has the highest detection rates of any freeware and many paid for anti-virus/malware programs. I'm a fifteen year network security specialist, and I speak from experience. The numbers don't lie, as well as the better protected computers.

some guy reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 20, 2006

The best free-ware virus program plain and simple.
low foot-print not a resource hog like the other's norton's so on so on.

Banquo reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 20, 2006

Best free AV hands down. Avast is a slow bloated piece of crap in comparison.

bbplayer reviewed v7.1.394a763 on Jun 20, 2006

One of the worst AVs you can possibly have on your system. Suck it up, and go spend 40 bucks on a good one.

AVG professional scored a 90% detecting viruses.. Professional... Not the free version...Thats horrible for a paid AV. Just imagine how horrible the free one is!

On the proactive test, the professional version scored a 7%... yes... 7. This is the ability to detect new viruses.

In comparison:

Kaspersky
*Version 5* - 99.57% on demand scan detection 24% proactive scan

*Version 6* - 99.6% on the proactive tests (on demand not tested yet)

Nod32

On demand scan - 97.89%
Proactive - 58%

www.kaspersky.com
www.nod32.com

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v7.1.394a752 on May 31, 2006

Ditto

imright reviewed v7.1.394a752 on May 28, 2006

Free, no registration needed, frequent updates and low memory usage. That's all I need and that's worth a 5!

aashay reviewed v7.1.394a752 on May 25, 2006

Try disinfecting or deleting any of the so called heavy viruses (Eg. Brontok) & we all know that this is just another piece of freeware crap that acts like a puppet whenever the computer is infected. I'd rather use Avast! Home if I want a free anti-virus. Moreover I think its better to pay up & get better protection (Eg. NOD32 or Kaspersky)

Skyfrog reviewed v7.1.394a752 on May 24, 2006

Why would anyone use XP64 anyway, that OS is crap. Nothing but incompatibility problems for what in return? Nothing.

minklein reviewed v7.1.394a752 on May 24, 2006

Does it work wit XP64 yet? If so I'll give it a 5.

WeR4saken reviewed v7.1.394a752 on May 24, 2006

Pros: Free, non-intrusive, keeps a low memory usage, doesn't noticeably slow your system down, clean install/uninstall.

Cons: Compared to the pay AV clients, only so-so on-demand detection & poor on-access detection. Only paid subscribers know what each update does. Free version gives less control. UI could use a makeover.

It'd be nice if someone could post what they changed in the 394 release.

gkar reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 4, 2006

Been using AVG Free and AVG Pro for years with no problems, recommended it to many people. Never had any problems with it screwing up my system. Never had a virus infestation to my knowelege since I've been using it.

bellgamin reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

AVG is a very good antivirus. See ratings by VirusBulletin, and AV-Comparatives.

With respect to ezh's comments, KAV is good enough that this sort of gratuitous plug isn't really necessary. If your box can handle KAV's heavy footprint, & if you have the $$$ to shell out for its rather expensive annual license, then it's indeed difficult to find a better AV.

Onsoku reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

Looks good even though I prefer Avast! Home for my home clients, due to it's visual and verbal clues as far as updates and warnings.

Edpaul reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

AVG is one SMOOTH piece of software. I used to use NAV -- no more -- that sucker really messes with your registry.

Pay no attention to the naysayers who have posted negative reviews here.

abraxisr reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

it works its easy to use lots of updates i even like the icon near the clock

Banquo reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

Perfect.

MichaelDHam reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

AVG Free replaced a PAID version of Norton AV 2006 and it has worked remarkably super to anything Norton has put out in the anti virus line that I have used in the past. This IS the best by far FREE or PAID antivirus program there is on the market today. Price is always right and not a system hog like the others. I highly recommend it to any computer user new or pro.

newruler reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

This program is great. Doesn't negatively impact my system performance like Norton did, been using it for years now. No infections on my system. I'm happy with it and regularly recommend it to others.

As for jan.kachlik's review, do you have anything to backup your poor review?

jan.kachlik reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

oooh.. i know this.. this is totaly shi... not antivirus.. I have very bad experiencies with that.

Dwiebelhaus reviewed v7.1.392a744 on May 3, 2006

The best all around anti-virus program period.

Nothing will protect you from everything you MUST use savy internet practices in conjunction with a slew of tools and utlities.

Firefox
Thunderbird
avg
adaware
spybot
spyware blaster
ewido
avorax sheild
regvac
Ccleaner
Winsock Fix
the list goes on..........

Wow , maybe I should buy a mac?
lol

RWW reviewed v7.1.392.741 on Apr 26, 2006

I have used AVG Free since it came out. It has never given any problems, has done the job for me.
And I like the interface. I find it easy to read, the interface on some programs suffer from their
"slickness".

mansa reviewed v7.1.384a729 on Apr 3, 2006

good antivirus and firewall but bad interface especially the notifications in update time

Daddy_Spank reviewed v7.1.385a729 on Mar 25, 2006

Works fine, with low use of ram and other resources. Not as good detection as kaspersky, but certainly better than the norton crap most computers are delivered with...

bourgeoisdude reviewed v7.1.385a729 on Mar 24, 2006

Works great for me...only use Spybot and Adaware or Windows Defender with it as it does not support removal of spyware...

The Pro version does btw.

joeshmoe7 reviewed v7.1.385a729 on Mar 24, 2006

I've been using it for a while now, no problems here. Works great and doesnt slow the system down. And you can't beat the price. Ok so the detection rates are not the best, but no antivirus will make you 100% immune to everything all the time.

mjm01010101 reviewed v7.1.385a721 on Mar 14, 2006

Not the best detection rates in the industry, but certainly a decent program for setting it up for cheapskates. I've seen this program BSOD a few times years ago and have slowly returned to using it, but for people that hate to pay for AV I install gladly.

Joe Dirt reviewed v7.1.385a721 on Mar 14, 2006

Great AV Program. Been using it at home for about a year now with no problems.

To all the goofballs whining about 64bit support: Nobody cares.

95% of the population (me included) doesn't want or care about 64 bit processors. Call me in 5 years and then maybe it will matter. :-)

Micronaut reviewed v7.1.385a721 on Mar 14, 2006

The antivirus capabilities of this software are irrelevant unless it's 64bit. I also hate the GUI bacause it doesn't use D3D and spin a huge anisotrophic filtered logo on my screen at 3 million fps. I would also like some kind of first person shooter integrated into the virus search, which I can use my stereoscopic glasses with.

Rock on.

sixpac reviewed v7.1.384a720 on Mar 10, 2006

Its an ok antivirus software but the interface is terrible and I think the updating process could be a little better streamlined.

shantanu reviewed v7.1.384a720 on Mar 10, 2006

F-Prot fan boy here too....but F-prot is just too intensive on the system! Keep both on my system !!!
(Realtime scanner of AVG only !!!)

More and more inclined to use AVG for the exact same reasons mentioned below; light on machine, ease of use/update, et al.

About the UI "issue"; it is actually much better that quite a few others out there, you can exactly find where everything is (don't have to hunt around)

minklein reviewed v7.1.375a716 on Feb 23, 2006

I was not bashing AVG for not supporting XP64, they have a great AV program and I thank them for all the years I used it. I am just disappointed that they chose not include 64 bit support in their free version.

I am currently running a 64 bit cpu,(stand alone)so why not run a 64 bit OS? I find XP64 very stable, it supports all of my hardware with 64 bit drivers,it runs every peice of software I have, 32 bit and native 64 bit editions. The only exception would be UBISoft and their Starforce protected games. And yes HL2 64 bit is awsome.

For me AVG gets a 5 for their 32 bit version and a 2 for no 64 bit support.

improvelence reviewed v7.1.375a716 on Feb 22, 2006

A stand-alone home user would use x64 if they wanted to.
A. have increased memory ability.
B. Edit movies much faster and more efficiently using one of the 64 bit programs out there (such as VirtualDub)
C. Take advantage of the increased speed of games such as Halflife 2 64 bit version.
D. Have a more stable operating system based of of Windows Server 2003.
E. MOVE INTO THE INEVITABLE FUTURE.
F. Have something to say to morons who post things like that on Betanews, a site geared more towards people who actually are interested in the advancing of technology.

I could go on an on, but I wont.

bourgeoisdude reviewed v7.1.375a716 on Feb 22, 2006

AVG Free edition is not to be used on a network or with a company, the license says so. Any stand-alone home user would never (or at least SHOULD never) use Windows XP x64 bit edition anyway.

Nicest free antivirus program around, plain and simple.

PC Rat reviewed v7.1.375a716 on Feb 22, 2006

...

Best anti-virus program available for personal computers !

And, the price is right: It's free.
...

The Computer Rodent

...

benZin reviewed v7.1.375a716 on Feb 22, 2006

very disappointed

minklein reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 19, 2006

Good AV for 32 bit Windows. AVG free does not support 64 bit XP, the buy me version does. The free version of Avast does support 64 bit Windows.

yanbell reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 18, 2006

I wonder if that w32 virus that avg had problems with was made by Norton? Just a thought I must be crazy XD !!!

some guy reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 16, 2006

Howell
your link says Kaspersky Personal Pro version 5.0.390
is the best?
From what it say's to with flying colors.
this link says diffrent http://www.av-comparativ.../ergebnisse_2005_11.php
and if I google it they all show diffrent results, so I belive just like addware programs their is no one hit wonder.... my 2 cents

Skyfrog reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 15, 2006

AVG is the best antivirus program I've used. Very light on resources, updates every day, never gives me any problems. Sorry but Avast is ugly, slow buggy junk compared to AVG.

sQin reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 15, 2006

not bloated and doesnt catch viruses.. Thats true

bourgeoisdude reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 15, 2006

Not bloated like all the rest--doesn't find all the baddies such as spyware and adware unless using the Pro version. Nonetheless it is the best free antivirus program overall, so I give it thumbs up.

MsDude reviewed v7.1.375a703 on Feb 7, 2006

This truly is a great peice of software. It has been on my pc for a few years now. Never EVER had a single virus. Good startup time. Easy on resources. Good realtime protection. Only bad thing is the GUI.

Dreimanis reviewed v7.1.375a691 on Jan 17, 2006

fast, doesn't eat resources but can't get rid of w32.parite virus.

Pegusis2 reviewed v7.1.375a691 on Jan 16, 2006

Best Free and Purchased AntiVirus on the market today Hands Down!

randal2k reviewed v7.1.375a691 on Jan 16, 2006

been useing this for years.
when working at an ISP, my boss had me make a few virii to test the norton mailserver av... they all went through, and when my bos called to ask me about how i made the virii he heard my system alert sound, over and over again... cuase everytime i touched a virii i made AVG yelled at me!! but norton, let it on through... same with macafee...
this has made me a strong believer, becuase the virii creator, i got off a warez page.... anyone can get.

guti reviewed v7.1.375a691 on Jan 16, 2006

Best freeware AV.
But if you can afford it, better get NOD32.

ckjnigel reviewed v7.1.375a691 on Jan 16, 2006

Excels at finding Trojan droppers that Symantec et al. miss. Noting the previous comment that 6% of his test viruses were missed, I have to say I am skeptical. Still, the paranoid can get a second opinion from the TrendMicro housecall ActiveX IE tool.
I just paid up for the ver 7.1 +Firewall Pro edition because the two-way firewall is about the only option for users of Win x64.

Metshrine reviewed v7.1.375a691 on Jan 16, 2006

A decent freeware antivirus, however I have seen much better commercial solutions. If you are not looking to pay for an a/v prog, this is for you as it is the best you will get. But some people overrate this program simply due to the fact that it is free.

With testing on a cd I have of infected files that I have compiled, it detected 94% of the viruses on the disc while others have achieved higher results.

gkar reviewed v7.1.371a676 on Jan 3, 2006

I continue using AVG because it doesn't require I/E to be installed (XPLite user). Not sure there are many decent AV programs out there that don't require I/E to be installed. To my knowlege I have never been infected since I started using AVG 3-4 years ago.

Frostek reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 7, 2005

Has consistently done an excellent job of keeping all my PCs safe.

Frequent, usually daily, updates and a straightforward to use application.

It gets my vote.

tremens reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 7, 2005

To Below:
I doubt it was up to date
Grade A for the price.

Aegis69 reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

Lets see how many times I can get called a retard by the 14 year olds on this review.

I'm surprised this AV gets only 90% on http://www.av-comparatives.org, but facts is facts. I still like this AV, when used in conjuction with Spybot and ZoneAlarm I think you're pretty safe.

Keep in mind nothing is 100% safe, but 90% is gonna stop almost everything out there.

sQin reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

Any arguments why is it best? Memory usage bigger than F-prot, Dr. Web..Its detection rate is average compared to KAV, NOD32, NORTON.. Check out latest tests http://www.av-comparatives.org/.
For free antivirus i recomend Avast or Antivir

John_Bedin reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

I bought the professional version, which is updated almost everyday until 2007. I have not had a virus infect my computer since the purchase.It scans my email at various times during the day I highly recomend the free versionsince I tried for a while . The program is made in Checoslovakia and, sincerely, puts Amercan anti-virus software to shame. I had used Norton Anti-virus but it failed to detect a "few" worms !!!!!!!! to my chagrin.

BogdanSHA reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

@Ravemansan: tried to send the file infected to all antivir you listed here? And no feedback? Hmm, strange, knowing that some of them are really good reviewed. Bitdefender is the most responsive to new threats as I know for now.
And one more thing: you didn't tried Kaspersky (witch I use & newer had problems in 3 years)

drumcat reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

I wish I could give it a 6 -- it deserves it.

This program would be worth paying for, yet it's a freebie! Low resources, and solid protection. Updates every few days. Awesome!

ravemanson reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

THE BEST!!!!!! This must be the best Anti-Virus ever made! This is the ONLY program which successfully removed a real nasty worm i couldn't get rid of. These are all other programs i tried:

Norton antivirus 2005
PC-cillin Internet Security 2005
McAfee VirusScan 8.0
Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004
Sophos antivirus
Avast 4 home edition
ZoneAlarm with Antivirus
BitDefender 9
F-Secure Anti-Virus 2005
ESET Nod32

ALL WITH THE LATEST SECURITY UPDATES!! If You wanna be safe, STOP THINKING about others!! They just want to take Your money away! AVG FREE OWNS!

Isys reviewed v7.1.371 on Dec 6, 2005

The point of an antivirus program is to prevent virii infection. No virii = effective program. I've been using Avg for years, visited all sorts of dodgy sites and downloaded thousands of files from various sources and Avg has caught everything thrown at it..nuff said.

btman reviewed v7.1.362a652 on Nov 8, 2005

AMAZING pff... heck no.... norton may be high but fixes alot more than this.... i like avast best who doesnt? im gettin pc tools antivirus 2.0 soon its new but pc tools i trust and they get frequent updates and last time i had a horrible virus i told them and they made a live update for me to get rid of it :D other people could download it but it solved my problem directly lol bak to avg....... maybe free but i dont see its popups saying i have a trojan... i see avasts!

themafia_69 reviewed v7.1.362a652 on Oct 28, 2005

AMAZING! been using it for over a year now, and no viruses have ever successfully entered my pc, i also know which files are dangerious anyways so i dont get infected, NORTON IS CRAP, also McAfee. This is free, and lighter on the system, fast scans, and not bloated like others that just give you a visual and thats all you depend on a good looking sui

rpavl reviewed v7.1.362a652 on Oct 28, 2005

Its Free...It Works, and doesnt take over your life....awesome.

Mark Gillespie reviewed v7.1.362a652 on Oct 28, 2005

Poor detection rate, even worse clean rates, GUI from the ark, slow...

All good reasons to get one of the better free Anti-virus products out there. Avast! for example.

OK, AVG is free, but that's pretty much all it has going for it.

mo_mo reviewed v7.1.362a652 on Oct 28, 2005

excellent ant-virus program, totally recommended to all people out there who do not wish to pay lots of $$$ to get protection...

some guy reviewed v7.1.361a651 on Oct 24, 2005

the best low cpu usage great up dates and its free the best Ive seen yet.....

1uk3 reviewed v7.1.361a651 on Oct 24, 2005

Very good detection rates. Fantastic for a free program! Sometimes has problems removing or healing viruses when found though.

DudeBoyz reviewed v7.1.361a651 on Oct 24, 2005

Very good free anti-virus application. Works quite well and given how expensive the Symantec AV subscription is now, there's hardly any reason not to give this app a try.

niop reviewed v7.1.361a651 on Oct 24, 2005

AVG is a good free anti-virus, available on several OS, but sorry for all, the only anti-virus that stop all threats is NOD32, i tried all of them since 4 years and stay with NOD32... The French Laboratories of Microsoft use it for 2 years, and i used Nod on a Toshiba Laptop PII 300Mhz with 192 Mo (XP Pro).

More Informations : www.nod32.com

Wins the 100% Virus Bulletin Award since 7 Years.

WhiteZero reviewed v7.1.361a651 on Oct 24, 2005

Best free AV out there.

RWW reviewed v7.1.361a651 on Oct 24, 2005

Ran into AVG when it first came out. Has protected my machine without fail. A rare thing if you don't have some kind of problem sooner or later with a program. I have no reason to change.

robmanic44 reviewed v7.1.360a650 on Oct 22, 2005

I bought a 2 year license for this and then gave it to a friend. I know I sound like a broken record, but F-Prot is a product that is worth the raves. I won't run anything else.

Zankur reviewed v7.1.360a650 on Oct 21, 2005

After having used norton for 3 yrs and mc-afee for 1 yr i went for avg in jan this year and have been highly impressed with its ease of usablility,light on pc,fast-scan,good protection,prompt updates.
now it has added support for win-64,protection for un-detected viruses as well.

ServerMechanic reviewed v7.1.360a650 on Oct 21, 2005

Something I noticed about AVG.

When it catches a virus it puts it in the vault. However I have had times on a customers computer that it finds so many that you can never get anything done because you're always clicking OK.

How about they make it like Symantec...so that it just quarenteens it and you can still work around what it's doing?

That's my only complaint :)

Oh yea....and Google is the Devil.

ecjs reviewed v7.0.344a618 on Aug 30, 2005

Free although I don't like it.

robmanic44 reviewed v7.0.344a618 on Aug 25, 2005

I have strayed from F-Prot twice and lived to regret it. There is no better virus scanner than F-Prot. It's scan speed and low resouce use is amazing. I have a 2 year license for AVG Pro and it doesn't even come close to F-Prot.

pateldecabotine reviewed v7.0.344a618 on Aug 25, 2005

AVG is one of the best antivirus progs out there, if not the best.
Up til now, I have used avast, norton, mcafee.
AVG is the only one that detected viruses, which went completely unnoticed to the others, yes including norton.
Not the best interface I admit.
But who cares, an excellent antivirus prog indeed.

ZenWarrior reviewed v7.0.344a618 on Aug 24, 2005

Not a single virus on any of at least a dozen computers in the 3+ years I've been using & recommending AVG . Can't beat that.

dalmiroy2k reviewed v7.0.344a618 on Aug 24, 2005

While Clamwin it's the best AV available, it doesn't support resident antivirus monitoring.
So if that is important for you, get AVG, a simple, usefull and freeware AV solution.

sQin reviewed v7.0.344a618 on Aug 24, 2005

If you want your PC to be well protected - stay away from freeware AVs. Theres no good free av app with high detection rates at the moment.

Finally, if you are not going to pay for the antivirus app, better look for AntiVir Personal or Avast!

rpavl reviewed v7.0.338a597 on Jul 26, 2005

Best of Them all. Period.

some guy reviewed v7.0.338a597 on Jul 23, 2005

avg is the best, plain simple. I wont make a big esay, like cough cough, but if you want a fast un bloated, low cpu usage, and updates you dont have to pay to get, like nortons,mcafees,ect....

hugh750 reviewed v7.0.338a597 on Jul 23, 2005

I Downloaded This Version Of Avg Anti Virus Yesterday ANd It Works Beautifully,I Highly Recommend Avg Over Norton Anti Virus Because Avg Does All That Norton Does Plus It's Not A System Resource Hog.

Maverick_16 reviewed v7.336 on Jul 15, 2005

i always highly recommend AVG FREE very passionately.

But im not sure with this one... is it just me!!!

This is not the FREE version. And the size is not 11,730KB but 16+MB. Even the download file name doesn't have the word FREE in it.

Checked the grisoft free avg homepage and the current version is still avg70free_323a539.exe.

BN should correct the heading for this entry. Thanks.

christoofar reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

LOL @ Metshrine. Hey if you are happy having Symantec wrapping it's tendrils thruout your system, even after you delete it, more power to you. For those of us who want a simple to use, low resource-draining A/V app that DOES provide daily updates and DOES protect very well, AVG is just that. Both AVG's ( & Avasts) corporate stance in providing *everyone* with reliable A/V protection, whether paid for version or not, is quite admirable & very logical, since the IDEA is to reduce damage from virus activities .

Banquo reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

Are we using the same program here? AVG has updates every single day, the interface is as minimal as it needs to be. I really don't see the problem. As free programs go this is one of the best available.

Metshrine reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

People often make the mistake of assuming that because it is free that it is the best out. As you will see in the reviews. The main reason people bash commercial products is because they dont want to pay money for a product. Once a product is no longer free, it sucks in the eyes of most reviewers since they now have to pay money or do extra work to bypass its piracy protections. They start to make accusations of it being bloated, or slow, or whatever other slanderess term you can throw at a product. Free and open source products usually get a better rep simply due to that fact, they are free. Please, dont judge a product solely on it being free or not, judge it based on its functionality. For me, there is no better AV product than symantec antivirus CORPORATE EDITION (provided free through DoD). It uses a bit more memory, but what does another 10MB of ram cost me when I have a total of 3GB anyways? I have never had a single virus slip through it.

I tried out AVG, including this version, and it was in fact my primary AV solution about 2 years ago before I joined the service. It works very well, but it lacks some stuff I need, like daily downloadable updates (with the ability to change where updates are gathered from, as I get mine straight from DoD), tamper protection is a great feature, so a virus cant shut down my a/v program either (NOTE, THIS IS SYMANTEC CORPORATE, NOT THE SYSTEMWORKS SUITE THAT I USE). AVG is a great product if you want something that is free (There is no better freeware antivirus that provides as much as AVG), dont get me wrong, but if you are willing to pay for an AV, I would use symantec corporate or NOD32 (if you cant afford the first). Both of these products are equally good, its just my personal preference. But anyways, I've probably enraged some people with my post, so please, flame me away :)

To the user above who seemed to miss that I said AVG is in fact a great product but it just doesnt provide what I require, it might you and the other reviewers, but not me. And Now, a reply

I've uninstalled SAV just now to prove a point, it left NOTHING but a few minor registry entries on my system after the uninstall. If you bothered to read my review, you would see that I recommended it as a good alternative to the commercial products for people who cant afford to pay for antivirus protection or who just dont want to pay. Notice, I also mentioned NOD32. But as usual, the flamers have come. So please, bring it on :) Lets see who else fails to read the praise I did in fact give to AVG. Also, while I do agree that provides antivirus protection for free is a good idea, you seem to think that all companies should be giving a free version of their product to cover up for 90% of the end users who are uneducated about proper file handling habits. What would make more sense is to attempt to educate those users so they would be less likely to open something that wouldnt be safe. Those that open files from anyone, on an email clearly marked as spam, or those that install software that is known to distribute virii or contain spyware should be educated rather than forcing companies to provide software for free. In an ideal world, yes, free software for all users would be great, but it just doesnt work that way.

gkar reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

The main reason I began using AVG years ago was that it was free. Then I discovered it was one of the few that did not require Internet Explorer to be installed for it to run (unlike almost every other AV program) because I use programs that strip out Internet Explorer (98Lite, XPLite, Nlite). On this basis alone I purchased the Pro version and support their efforts. To the best of my knowlege I have never had a virus while running AVG over the years. They answer emails, regular updates, low resource usage, no need to have I/E installed, free, what more can you ask? (Don't know where the guy below comes up with system hog)

gawd21 reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

Avast is much better and offers a free version. AVG misses way to much and Avast gets most if not all.

jpk236 reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

I've never had problems with AVG, and this latest version is no exception. I find the GUI, although displeasing to the eye, to be very efficient and functional. I see no signs of AVG being a system hog; perhaps set your full scan to occur during the night when you're not using your computer. I find its detection rate to far surpass many AV equivalents. AVG will continuingly receive a 5/5 from me, as in my eye, they are leading the market.

Mark Gillespie reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

Free, but that's all it's got going for it. It's ugly, a system hog, and it's detection rate is less than stellar.

There are many better free AV programs, there is no place for this one in a crowded free AV market. My recomendation? AVast! (www.avast.com) Much better detection rate, not a system hog, and less ugly..

WhiteZero reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

AVG Always runs smooth for me.

ZJAM reviewed v7.336 on Jul 12, 2005

it should have entered it automatically so im not sure what woulda been there but i just used the last beta key for AVG + Firewall which is 70BETA-TH0RX0-PK-C01-X00-SXD0T-P8Q-LBL8 and it works :)

Slug_Coordinator reviewed v7.336 on Jul 11, 2005

Could you at least provide the KEY CODE for this?
This Free Version does not want to use the previous key code.

So is it to much to ask for the Code?

Update this is not the FREE edition I just did some checking so who ever that posted this needs to check his information. It is the Professional with the FIREWALL that is why my Free Code would not work with it.

People need to check what they post because this can cause problems the License for this version expires in 31st of this month.

So if you have 7.0.323 not his bogus or wrong version. Again this is not the FREE version.

SC

randiroo76073 reviewed v7.336 on Jul 11, 2005

Paul White, I have been using AVG for aprox 4 yrs on 98 & 98se, it has nver caused me any problems, so the problem must be with your computer

indoguys reviewed v7.336 on Jul 11, 2005

I'm using this software now for a couple of years and quite happy with it. I tried several programs like Norton and Mc. however these are far to bulky and taking away a lot of system resources on my PC which are funest in a video editting environment. This one is just running not interfering with anything else or slowing down my pc. The GUI is maybe simple but why should I have a facny one if it does the job? ANd that's all about it ofcourse, protecting me without bells and wizzles.

I give it a 5.

Mountain_Man reviewed v7.336 on Jul 11, 2005

AVG seems like an okay antivirus considering its free but i have a few issues with it. first off, the gui is simply awful and the options are sparse, the detection rates are less then stellar, and lastly if u right-click a file to scan it, u cant clean/delete it unless u run a full system scan. as a free AV, i greatly prefer avast, but thats only my opinion.
-anonymous

Notreallyhere reviewed v7.323 on Jun 22, 2005

I love this program, it has been protecting my computer for Months now and has everything I need. A few times, though, on another computer, it left only the choice to "ignore" a known threat when the warning popped up.

paul-white reviewed v7.323 on Jun 7, 2005

Don't try to use this program with Windows 98 because like me you may see no end of problems that AVG will insist are Microsoft problems and not theirs. I have recieved many VXD errors resulting in a total crash and an unusable PC. Diabling my sound card helped for a while but even Excel and Opera caused blue screen errors when started while AVG was installed. AVG support blame Microsoft but have yet to explain why no such errors were ever experienced while Norton AV was installed. I don't believe that AVG is compatible with Windows 98 and Grisoft should admit that. However they contine to take money from Windows 98 users who like me may not actually experience any problems until they update the program with the daily updates. While AVG is not installed I have a stable PC, with AVG installed it is virtually unusable so it seems I now have to buy a new PC and operating system just to use AVG! It may well catch viruses that other programs do not catch but what is the point if you are unable to even start your PC as has been the case here. Sadly, a very good program let down my claims of its usability on an operating system that may have seen better days but is still in use. Grisoft, please sort this out, does AVG run on Windows 98 or doesn't it? Other anti-virus programs run without error, AVG doesn't...

pflowers reviewed v7.323 on Jun 2, 2005

I have been using AVG Free for several years. It has kept 4 computers virus free and uses minimal resources. Great program.

Chanzes reviewed v7.323 on Jun 1, 2005

I've been using AVG Free Edition for many years in different versions, and never had problems with viruses. Is pretty slim, too.

bellgamin reviewed v7.323 on Jun 1, 2005

AVG is a hair better-than-average for viruses, but weak for script viruses, trojans & other malware. A recent review...
http://www.av-comparatives.org/
Click comparatives
Click On-demand comparative for Feb 2005

fourte3n reviewed v7.323 on May 31, 2005

I think that this is an excellent program. I personally use nod32 but would never stop short of making a recommendation for AVG.

My only gripe.... ugly GUI, but at teh end of teh day, that doesnt stop the program doing it's job.

BIL reviewed v7.323 on May 31, 2005

AVG works great for me. I have Norton on my other computer and it is a lot slower to scan than AVG. AVG has caught and fixed what few problems I've had. On the other hand our IT guys told me the Norton installed computer (with automatic corporate updates) needed a thorough cleaning. I think I'll stick with AVG for my home computer.

Mark Gillespie reviewed v7.323 on May 31, 2005

Slow scan engine, detection rate only average, clunky interface. The only plus point, is that it's free.

There are other better free AV programs out there (Avast! for example).

slickandy reviewed v7.322 on May 21, 2005

I used to be a big fan of AVG... until all of our PCs got infected with an Agobot variant (which was some 3 months old at the time, and all PCs with latest definitions installed).

I'd now recommend looking at NOD32 - regarded by most to have the best detection rates.

However, if you're too broke to afford software, AVG is going to be a better bet than running nothing at all. Just make sure you know what processes should be running and what startup items are legit!

ZenWarrior reviewed v7.322 on May 19, 2005

AVG has kept four of my computers entirely protected and virus-free for three years now. All factors considered, only a fool would give their monies to Norton or others for decidedly lesser (or at best equal) products, and concurrently support pure corporate greed considering even AVG's free version trumps their fee-based products. (And given that, send AVG's author a few bucks, will ya?)

RWW reviewed v7.322 on May 19, 2005

I started using AVG just after it came out and it has never faltered. Norton makes good software but evidentally for everyone else. when I use it something always goes wrong or it interferes with another program, etc.

czekar reviewed v7.322 on May 19, 2005

Great free AV tool. Although, if NOD32 was free I would switch to it in a second.

Metshrine reviewed v7.322 on May 19, 2005

Not a bad AV, but not the best either. The scan engine takes longer than NOD32 to scan the same number of files on my hd's.

To malcolmsuperstar, you are wrong about the US Government agencies using AVG. They exclusively use symantec anti-virus corporate edition, mcafee (far less, used only in very limited environments) and now they are trying out trend micro. Symantec antivirus corp is far more prevelant on the DoD networks. I have NEVER seen avg installed on any of our machines, or on the machines we scan. So please, get your facts straight before you make bold claims like that ;-)

Adrian79 reviewed v7.322 on May 19, 2005

ok, although i now use the best AV known to mankind for ALL reasons (NOD32), AVG was/is second place champion...I LOVE AVG..really the best...use it, if you dont like it..then the ONLY other choice is NOD32..and i actually feel like buying a license!! lol..really I will ;)

hugh750 reviewed v7.322 on May 19, 2005

I've Been Using Avg Anti Virus Since Version 5,
And It Works Wonderfully,And It Does All The Same Things That Norton Anti Virus Does But Takes Less System Resources.

Nikkie reviewed v7.0.319a512 on May 3, 2005

it seems to detect a few things but doesnt do much in the fixing department .

bugmenot reviewed v7.0.319a512 on Apr 29, 2005

Very Nice :)

jdeh reviewed v7.308 on Apr 29, 2005

I used the free version for a long time and it worked fine. Also tried AVAST but found it annoying with their notifications. Also tried NORTON but it degraded my performance seriously. Also McAfee which for some forgotten reason(s) I discarded.

Free is nice but when it comes to PC protection I do not compromise. For a modest investment I purchased AVG 7.0 with full support, auto updates and all the good stuff that comes with a paid subscription.

After all, what is your time worth? It is NOT free, is it? The time you save being well protected more than offsets the time you will waste recovering from a virus or spyware infection.

Usually requires several hours to either un-infect your PC or more time even to re-install XP or whatever and re-install all of your goodies on top of that.

Don't know about you people, but my time is worth a whole lot more than the cost of the software to protect it.

Nuff said on that.

JDEH (AKA Bo Bo Bolinski).

bourgeoisdude reviewed v7.0.319a512 on Apr 25, 2005

I love AVG. I've used the free version on my home PC since version 5.0 on my Windows 95 computer. It has the best detection rate of any free AV program (yes that includes Sophos, as great as they believe themselves to be I've run tests with specific viruses a while back, Sophos missed one AVG picked up with the same release date of the virus definitions file. If I recall Sophos missed one of those SDBOT trojans...could be wrong). Anyway, having said that...

...I am disappointed in the firewall. For one, a firewall really isn't needed now that SP2 is out. ZoneAlarm or BlackIce are sufficient firewall programs, though a "physical" firewall is what large networks really need. Also, AVG's firewall is less than perfect, opposed to the near perfect AV engine. This is a beta so I'll wait till the full version before rating too low...

BlackDragon64 reviewed v7.308 on Apr 20, 2005

OK. I believe some clarification is in order.
In answer to malcolmsuperstar's comments concerning me:
I DO know quite a bit, and not just to show off.
Computers are my bread and butter.
I DO like AVG7 Free. In fact after my last review, they corrected whatever it was that caused my problems.
Furthermore, (and I am now adding alexweber15 in on this), I REPEAT I KNOW what I am doing.
Had either of you actually read AND UNDERSTOOD the post, I am referring to the release versions NOT BETAs. And secondly if YOU HAD READ AND UNDERSTOOD, I had wiped the machine in question, and installed ONLY WinXP Pro. EVERYTHING WORKED PERFECTLY.
I was referring to my VERY BAD experience with an AV that everyone seems to bow down to, which is Avast. As soon as I installed just that 1 program, then ALL, and I MEAN ALL removable media drives CEASED TO BE ACCESSIBLE from Windows Explorer.
It showed the drive letter, but just gave INVALID FUNCTIOn when ANY of the drives in question were clicked on.
Now, as why I added (briefly) AVG7 Free to this list was at one point RIGHT AFTER one of their UPDATES then my USB Zip drive ceased being accessible. I completely removed AVG7Free, and it started working.
Now, I know that most people aren't happy with Symantec, and McAfee BUT, and I stress BUT, when I used their products they NEVER killed off any of my drives like that.

themafia_69 reviewed v7.308 on Mar 9, 2005

Best antivirus around, ive used them all, and this is the fastest and lightest on your computer, so it doesnt eat resources like others!

ezh reviewed v7.308 on Mar 3, 2005

http://www.virus.gr/engl...lt.asp?id=67&mnu=67

Very good results!

Kaspersky is the best.

Adrian79 reviewed v7.308 on Mar 2, 2005

HEY avg is great...i dont use it anymore it's been almost 6months...NOD32 FOREVER!!!! eset owns AV

VictorAnderson reviewed v7.308 on Mar 2, 2005

I have this running on a couple of my friends machines. I give it a 5 because it does what it says and hey - it IS free.
Now - is it the best anti-virus software package out there? No. Does it use the least resources of them? No. Does it work just fine and cost nothing? YEP.
As a side note, I see a lot of sqabling regarding this product. For those of you willing to pay for something, the best thing I've seen (and what I use) is Norton Anti-Virus Corporate Edition 9. It takes the smallest footproint of all of them, uses the least resources, best performance etc. etc. Thing is you have to have a USA corporation to buy it, and it doesnt come cheap - the minimum order requires license for 10 workstations. For me it was worth blowing the $ on because I'm in the biz.

Slug_Coordinator reviewed v7.308 on Mar 2, 2005

AVG has never done me wrong. I have gotten over 200+ people to switch to it from work to the Radio Station message board I am a moderator of.

Nothing but positive feed back no problems and it is also is ICSA certified which is the same standards of McAfee and Norton.

Except it runs faster and have in fact worked when others don't.

In fact it is the only Anti Virus Product now after 12 years of working in I.T. that I trust.

SC

malcolmsuperstar reviewed v7.300 on Jan 11, 2005

BlackDragon64 i understand your fustration with this program and as any program for beta testing. Your problem exist with your incompetency and ignorance. as to the 20 years experience, i can only see you think your a mister know it all in front of your co-workers when everyone at your workplace is somewhat clueless. This is an awesome program and is use by all the IT out there including your Ip Internet Provider for their servers and routers. You have no clue what your talking about this program By Grisoft.

Bell, Verizon, At&t, Shaw, Rogers, Global Mobility and all American & Canadian Government agencies uses AVG anti-virus.

if your unhappy as some products do not satisfy everyone, use AVAST 4.5 as this as a great platform as AVG but not as quick because of its restriction to a stronger script formula in explorer that resist browser hijacking.

Ps i test all softwares from various beta forums including BetaNews. I can say this program is a perfect 9 from a 10

quote from BlackDragon64;
ALL removable media drives magically became accessible again. PROVING without a doubt it was indeed the program doing it on its own.

Actually BlackDragon64, whenever a change in hardware or registry occurs in Windows Xp, Xp tries to rectify itself and sets application priorities.
whenever a major conflict or DLL. mismanagement occurs, Xp halts conflict applications exe. including all drivers inf. or registry DLL files associated until a manual change occurs, then it does a reassessment and fixes/repairs itself. In most cases, its the user who improperly install a program alike and didn't change priority or didn't disable a program that runs alike to the program that is being installed. Thus is said, this only applies to programs that are windows Xp Compatible

BlackDragon64\before bitting off someone tongue off, know what your talking about Buddy. Your next post, may not be taken seriously.

To roj, i don't know you, but i want to say:

you wrote a great review on here and observation.

BlackDragon64, i was wondering when you go to support sites, especially when enquiring about beta software, when entering software forums like AVG, did you leave a question or message to any of your enquiries or problems? it sounds like you want a quick answer, but remember. All support sites of any kind get many thousands of stupid questions that people don't take the time to understand their software. I'm not saying you have a stupid question, i'm saying that any software developper cannot answer everyones questions since it is every second to someone who is new.

BlackDragon64 reviewed v7.300 on Jan 4, 2005

To roj:
WRONG ANSWER DUDE!
I have over 20 years of PC experience. All I did was install 1 product at a time. And voila it locks the removable media drives. I would then do a clean reinstall of the OS (WinXP Pro) and then try the the next program.
So when I say Avast, AVG7Free, and ZoneAlarm Security Suite lock something, the bloody well lock something. The makers of these software obviously dont do a thorough enough beta or they ignore those who have older hardware, or something. So far the ONLY program I have tried that works fine is AntiVIR Personal Edition.
As for your vaunted wonderful support from Avast? they didn't even try to help. they just said check the forums. I did. No one there even had a clue either.

And just an FYI, I do mean older equipment :)
AMD K62-450Mhz 288Mb RAM
Voodoo3 2000 16Mb video card
SoundBlaster AWE

I think you can see now. I dont lock anything myself. ONLY the mentioned programs did that ON THEIR OWN. All I did was install, reboot, and BAM!. No USB Zip Drive, NO CDROM drive, NO CD-RW, oh and NO floppy drive access. The system stated categorically they no longer were accessible.

Oh, and did I mention? Before doing a full reinstall of the OS, i uninstalled the offending AV prog, anf guess what? ALL removable media drives magically became accessible again. PROVING without a doubt it was indeed the program doing it on its own.

MonBidoux reviewed v7.300 on Jan 4, 2005

Don't usually like to be too critical about a program but, had AVG Pro 7 before and it slowed my laptop too much.

Went to AVAST and it is dynamite!

Mark Gillespie reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 25, 2004

slow, poor detection rate, and a interface that came from the ark.

There are many more better AV programs, even free ones, perhaps the best free one is Avast (www.awast.com)

bourgeoisdude reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 25, 2004

I don't care about the GUI--I prefer a Windows 98 look personally; no uneeded bloat. I also tested this AV alongside others, and this one, Panda AV, PC-Cillan, and Kaspersky AV detect all the viruses I've thrown at them, while symantec (coorporate), mcafee, and a few others missed some, even with updated virus definitions. Panda is slower than mollases, especially the new one, but has great protection nonetheless. AVG has great protection and it doesn't hog your resources like symantec, panda, and mcafee do. I love avg, have looked for better ones since avg 5.0 in 1998, but still haven't found one.

JOEWARE reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 24, 2004

I like AVG I think it's one of the best freeware antivirus available. But the only problem w/ AVG is the horrible Windows 95 looking GUI. Grisoft really really needs to improve this.

rotjong reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 24, 2004

Has anyone else noticed that this version still identifies itself as 7.0.296 even though it isn't the same as the original 7.0.296?

BlackDragon64 reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 24, 2004

As to PipeWrench's comment about NOT needing support for an AV program... WRONG!
I installed AVG7 Free and it worked fine, for a while, then after 1 update to the program, it locked out my USB Zip Drive completely.
And because of the fact Grisoft doesn't deem it as needed (aka it costs them less money) I had no choice but to remove AVG7Free. Oh, and guess what? After it got removed, my Zip drive was fully functional again. They are not alone in causing havoc on my machine. Your precious Avast locked out ALL of my removable media drives (Zip, floppy, CDR, and burner). As did the AV component of ZoneAlarm Security Suite. So, I am now using AntiVir Personal Edition. And it works perfectly without some funky virtual driver causing total havoc.

sfo reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 24, 2004

It's a good freebie, but avast! home edition (also free), seems much better and has a better GUI IMHO

Primis reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 23, 2004

I ran AVG 6 Free for a long time and while it was good, it was somewhat clunky and slow. At that time I would have only given it a 4.

HOWEVER... AVG 7 now performs a MUCH faster scan. I have a huge C: and AVG 6 used to take 3 hours to scan it. AVG 7 now only takes about an hour to scan it with same setup and options selected.

A combo of running AVG 7 while also running TrendMicro Housecall every so often is an unbeatable free combo. AVG 7 gets a 5.

Pipewrench reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 23, 2004

Great Antivirus app. Probably the best freebie out there.

To the person who posted below my post:
Why do you need support for an Antivirus program. It's not like it's a really hard application to run or use. Come on... You must be joking.

roj reviewed v7.0 Build 298 on Dec 23, 2004

No support. Avast! 4 Home provides excellent support and continual program as well as database updates. As to Windows 9x support, who cares. That's a seven year old obsolete disaster and should long have been abandoned by any self-respecting vendor. I used to support AVG but switched to Avast! 4 Free and never looked back.

mahesh_n_77 reviewed v7.0 Build 296 on Dec 11, 2004

Been using AVG Free since version 6.0, is keeping on going nicely. PS It is also updating the DOS/Win98 scanner also when some ppl don't give a thought to it.

Nicholas440 reviewed v7.0 Build 296 on Dec 11, 2004

AVG is one of the best Anti Virus scanners you will find. I does an excellent job, and best of all they offer it FREE of charge. AVG free version also gives you scheduling, email scanning, resident shield protection and more. It has features that you will find on other anti virus programs that you pay for. I rate it a 5 because its fast and if it finds any suspicious file it will let you know. You wont find a better free program that does what AVG does. Try it, and see if its for you.

zofar reviewed v7.0 Build 296 on Dec 10, 2004

I have Athlon XP 2600+ and 1 gig ram. AVG6 is slightly faster than AVG7. But AVG7 has better email scanner and much improved interface.
Both 6 & 7 are noticeably faster than Norton 2004 or 2005. Now my computer flys when compared what it used to be with Norton 2004.

Thumbs up!

unger71 reviewed v7.0 Build 296 on Dec 10, 2004

I used v6 freeware .The Best.Nice features.
V7 nice features. No more .Freeze,slow machine Amd xp 2600 1G ram. **** AVG and find something else .
Antivir is Good ,but not many features

bigspud reviewed v7.0 Build 289 on Nov 17, 2004

i used v6 free for years, now forced to update to v7 free.
v7 free is bloatware, uses double the mem as v6.
very clumsy interface in v7.
switched to AntiVir Personal Edition.free.

SuperVegeta reviewed v7.0 Build 289 on Nov 11, 2004

Is a simple and effective antivirus, plus is free. Finally the new free version is ready

mahesh_n_77 reviewed v7.0 Build 289 on Nov 11, 2004

Gave it 4 out of 5, will give 5 when its cleaning also becomes top-notch. Its' scanning and detecting are great, though.

Hey aplamer, It's not a beta, it is the *release* version, go to free.grisoft.com and read please.

Thank you.

Mark Gillespie reviewed v7.0 Build 289 on Nov 11, 2004

Ugly, Slow, Poor detection rate.

On the plus side, it's free.

However, there are plenty of better free AV Scanners around. Avast for example, which has a much slicker interface, better detection rate, and is also free. (www.avast.com)

Slug_Coordinator reviewed v7.0 Build 289 on Nov 10, 2004

fanbanlo It's not repeate not a TRIAL! This is a beta as stated only the PROFESSIONAL TRIAL is a TRIAL not PERSONAL! You need to read closely there is a link for the BETA on their site and then it will expire shortly and they will have a new Personal version. After many years of using an old scan engine they are updating it.

I am running it and have always been happy with AVG.

SC

SFAMonkey reviewed v7.0 Build 289 on Nov 10, 2004

Great program.
I would have to say nod32 is better, but if you don't have money avg just a great job. Gets a five. I think they could fix up the icons throught.

apalmer reviewed v7.0 Build 279 Beta on Oct 31, 2004

It's not a trial version, it's a *beta* version! That's what this site is all about.

From the AVG site: "This Beta version of AVG Free Edition will expire 11/30/2004. By this time, the final version of this product will be available for your free download."

fanbanlo reviewed v7.0 Build 279 Beta on Oct 28, 2004

warning: this is Trial version, free for 30 days only!

tom3311 reviewed v7.0 Build 279 Beta on Oct 27, 2004

I've used AVG software for more than 4 years now and have continually found it to fully protect my system from all virus issues. Numerous times it has discovered and either cleaned or quarantined trojans and other virus. Plus it has recognized and removed email based virus many times (love the spam...NOT!). As a professional desktop support tech for a major telecom company, I found this program to work far better than some of the major competitors (Mc---, Nor---, etc.) and use less processor resources running in the background. Version 7 is great! Since running the earlier beta it has found and removed three trojans that I had buried in some old archived files, as well as cleaning up a couple of email based virus. For the price...and the fact that it WORKS... This software is my top recommendation to everyone I talk to that is looking for antivirus software!

IsoNick reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 23, 2004

Together with Windows XP SP2 this program fulfill my needs. And best of all, it's free. I can only recommend it.

Saad_alshawwa reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 18, 2004

simply it is an antivirus , but it still doesnt detect everything "virri DB is up2date" and it still needs work to be done.

NOD32 2.x /F-PROT 3.15x /Kaspersky 5.x are way better.

desertrat reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 15, 2004

Dropper.Funweb.A
Virus causes AVG to crash.

AVG Free Version detects Dropper.Funweb.A as a virus.
Box pops up "Automatic healing please wait". 10 minutes later, nothing.
System will not respond to anything and I have to shut down and restart manually.

If there was also a real virus I would be out of luck.
Other antivirus programs do not even detect this thing.
What can be done?

Picked up the "virus" at cursormania.com

Ron

From AVG tech help:
The virus has been found in Temporary Internet Files folder, in the
cache of Internet Exporer. The easiest way how to remove this virus
is to empty Internet Explorer cache.
Please run Internet Explorer, select menu Tools -> Internet Options.
Approximately in the middle of the dialog window is button "Delete
files...". Press this button, check the "Delete all offline content"
option and press OK.
This operation will remove all viruses located in Temporary Internet
Files.

IT WORKS.

Ron

Maverick_16 reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 15, 2004

This is a new engine/app and grisoft ARE managing this beta and following up on feedback/bugs. Beta News should add a note to the desc to point out that the serial number is to be requested from grisoft and maybe post a link to that web page ( http://free.grisoft.com/...hp/doc/16/lng/us/tpl/v5 ). It's easy to get and they respond immediately.
- current users maybe confused with the new interface... but in minute or so it all becomes intuitive (at least for me:)
- feedback is only limited to bugs but no way to post your view about the gui and other functionalities.
- ran avg6.x complete test before installing this beta and came up clean. Installed avg7beta and ran complete test and found (Downloader.Harnig.W) trojan horsee in telnet.exe.tmp.... how come avg6 didn't get it though it uses the same database?

In general, one of the best antivir i have tested and i'm still loyal and appreciative.

Good on yous GIRSOFT.

asctony reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 14, 2004

Downloaded, then tried to install. Could not install because I do not have a license number? I already am using AVG 6.0 Freeware. Why put it as Beta Freeware and then require a license number?

blackcherry reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 14, 2004

horrible UI, and despite what they lead you to believe, it's not all that good at detecting virii at all.

harrisben reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 14, 2004

It would be nice if they could point out how to get a new serial since my old one doesn't seem to work anymore.

fourte3n reviewed v7.0 Build 269 Beta on Sep 14, 2004

Has a long way to come yet... it's only plus is it's free. It just doesn't stand up against kaspersky or nod (two of the industries best) time after time im replacing avg with a better 'proven' antivirus and im finding viruses.

and the GUI is very poor. a simple logo and icon upgrade will do this prob wonders.

phiber0ptik reviewed v6.0 Build 754 on Sep 9, 2004

http://www.virusbtn.com/...ives/products.xml?table
and my opinion about AVG Free Edition... works just great, gj Grisoft. 5 points when they release the professional version for free, if that will ever happen :P (I want more features init tbh)

VikingBlade reviewed v6.0 Build 754 on Sep 8, 2004

Unless your computer is fairly old, there are much better free alternatives with detection in Avast and Bitdefender. (As well as the 1 year free EZ eTrust, and Panda Plat. 7 (if survey is taken).

bourgeoisdude reviewed v6.0 Build 754 on Sep 8, 2004

This program is the best free real-time protection Anti-virus program in existence, for several reasons:

1. It updates more than once a week FROM INSIDE THE PROGRAM unlike THE two most popular AV programs you buy at the store (yes dj_jorjinho, all updates are incremental as of September of 2003).

2. It contains definitions for old viruses and trojans such as IMISERV.A made in 2001. This is important because IMISERV.A recently re-surfaced over the internet as a downloader trojan, etc.

3. It has not caused any stability issues on my system and I have used this since early 2000 on Windows 95a windows 98se, Windows 2000 SP2/3/4, Windows XP/ XP SP1/SP1a/SP2 RC2 and SP2 final.

As far as the system information tab in the standard interface reporting Pentium cpu, etc. (quote from deviantATTILA: "...Additionally, AVG's system info detects my CPU as Intel Pentium, when actually, I have and AMD Athlon. It detects my OS as Windows 2000 Professional, when actually, I have Windows XP Professional SP2.") It hasn't been updated since the very first of 2000--don't know why...

DACWILSOL reviewed v6.0 Build 754 on Sep 8, 2004

Try avast 4 home edition, a much better anti-virus program. http://www.avast.com/

bubbadew reviewed v6.0 Build 754 on Sep 8, 2004

avg70free_269a355

First release of the new generation of AVG Free Edition
Dear fan of AVG Anti-Virus!

It is our pleasure to introduce the first BETA release of the completely new generation of AVG Free Edition. Register now and try the new version of the famous product. You can become a part of the group of beta-testers who have direct influence to the development of the new product and you can add your value for millions of future users. See what's new in this new generation of popular AVG Free Edition.

http://free.grisoft.com/...hp/doc/16/lng/us/tpl/v5

woooooooooohoooooooooooooooooo

deviantATTILA reviewed v6.0 Build 754 on Sep 8, 2004

Odd, I ran the latest in program update, and it states I have 6.0.755. Why is the FileForum database referring me to 6.0.754? Additionally, AVG's system info detects my CPU as Intel Pentium, when actually, I have and AMD Athlon. It detects my OS as Windows 2000 Professional, when actually, I have Windows XP Professional SP2. Not very encouraging, especially if they want me to trust their virus detection features. I still currently use it, because it's small and free, but there's really nothing stopping me from switching to Norton, aVast, or any of the other great antivirus programs.

dj_jorjinho reviewed v6.0 Build 732 on Aug 31, 2004

Does This AV have incremental download updates?

gkar reviewed v6.0 Build 732 on Aug 3, 2004

Still my Top Choice for AV. I really appreciate the fact that you don't have to have Internet Explorer installed to make it work like Norton AV or most of the others. This program works great, is unobtrusive, regularly updated and Free! I give it 10 Stars **********

PC Rat reviewed v6.0 Build 732 on Jul 31, 2004

Well, you never know that your virus protection didn't work until you get a virus !

That said, this AV proggie ~is~ fast and free.

Symantec-Norton used to be great until the company got greedy with annual definition update renewals.
AVG is a whole lot faster than NAV, and it was hard getting used to AVG's quickness compared to NAV. ( Is it ~really~ checking the file when it gets done that quick ? )

The Computer Rodent

abear27 reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jul 8, 2004

The free version of AVG is perfect for anyone that needs basic virus protection.

In my experience; It has less of an impact on system resources and speed than Norton AntiVirus and McAfee products do, and provides as good (if not better) protection than the previously mentioned commercial products.

lion7718 reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jun 27, 2004

Yes you need a password to use..but it is still Free.

Black-Wolf reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jun 25, 2004

Serial# For Everyone!
AVG-1-15230013-AAF

del69a reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jun 25, 2004

Beware the e-mail trap.

Serial number needed to use this program

Floodland reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jun 25, 2004

This is the 1st option to recomend to people that want to USE their PCs (small footprint, efective). Though, you have to configure it, as defaults sucks pretty much.
Detection is almost perfect, if you update the software on regulary basis.
Is a great product, and the best: Is FREE!

FinnDeLux reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jun 24, 2004

del69a, I don't know what "email trap" you're talking about. I've never had any sort communication from Grisoft in the the year and a half I've been using their product.
Care to elaborate?

mjm01010101 reviewed v6.0 Build 709 on Jun 24, 2004

I have this installed at 5-user small business and a few friends. No problems, some of the defaults for the install, like appending footers to e-mail's, and scanning EVERY DAY, are a little strange, but it's kept them virus free for 7 months now. There was a point in time in April where it would not receive any updates for a week, so I knock this down to 4.

I have other clients that have consistently complained about Symantec's 2003 and 2004 versions of Antivirus, one system was even taken out by SAV with no known viruses.

ecarlson reviewed v6.0 Build 698 on Jun 13, 2004

It's been working great for me for well over a year, and the virusbulletin ratings, which another user pointed to, give it 100% in its 2 most recent tests.

They only noted minor issues in the Feb 2004 test. Quote: "Once the tests had been re-run, it was only a few false positives that blotted the product's performance and prevented AVG from earning a VB 100%"

Better false positives than missed viruses.

virtorio reviewed v6.0 Build 698 on Jun 12, 2004

Almost as bad as the viruses themselfs. Just look at this poor detection rating (http://www.virusbulletin...es/products.xml?avg.xml). If you want good virus protection go pay for one such as Kaspersky Anti-Virus or NOD32.

gkar reviewed v6.0 Build 698 on Jun 12, 2004

What makes this program nice for me is the fact it does not require Internet Explorer to run (Avast, Norton....)Thank you Grisoft for making an alternative that is free from MS BS.

viserov reviewed v6.0 Build 698 on Jun 12, 2004

Haven't any problems with virii getting past this, but the interface and settings are horrid and limited.

GolfDude reviewed v6.0 Build 698 on Jun 11, 2004

it crashed my machine after i installed it b/c a virus infected the anti virus and killed my entire CPU

slipkbomb reviewed v6.0 Build 653 on Apr 10, 2004

haha doesnt get my trojan files!..muhuhahah.. be careful man..if its free it means it doesnt really catch everything so watch out there High Speed!!

Morsel reviewed v6.0 Build 653 on Apr 8, 2004

For a free AV it pulls the trick just great. Been using this program for years now and never had issues with it.

weed reviewed v6.0 Build 653 on Apr 7, 2004

I will still give this program a 5***** rating, even though the update sight is under DOS attack, probably from "virusexpert", LOL =). I have never had a virus while using this and everyone I recommend it to are happy as it had found countless infections on their machines. Thank you Grisoft!

dalecosp reviewed v6.0 Build 607 on Mar 11, 2004

This has been a fine piece of software. We have recommended it to clients for almost two years, maybe longer. It is, however, becoming rather old technology, and this may account for the tales of failures I'm reading in this forum.

Installation is easy, and it runs well. The UI is well-designed and fairly easy to navigate and understnad. When infected, you will know it right away. However, I have noticed that a few protected machines have "inexplicably" been infected with viruses in recent months; most generally when this happens, the reason is dated definitions, but I've seen a box or two with definitions aged 3-7 days infected; it's possible (even seems likely) that the updating team is a tad behind the big boys.

Part of the reason for this is probably because the Free Edition has been superseded in Grisoft's "portfolio" by version 7, which AFAICT is not free. For this reason, I see that the usefulness of this software in today's Internet security environment is extremely short-lived; we will be looking into another freeware program, if possible, to recommend to our clients in the near future. Such is the way of things.

We have also noticed connection difficulties with the "update" server; in addition to becoming the target of attacks as their software has become more well known, it's likely that their bandwidth is saturated most of the day with downloads and DDOS attacks from various virii. Just a guess, though ... today, we're 50% on updating; yesterday, we went 0 for 5....

netstarman reviewed v6.0 Build 607 on Mar 4, 2004

Not to bad of a virus program but i think Avast is much better free anti virus program. Might as well try it out. Im using it already.

VirusExpert reviewed v6.0 Build 607 on Mar 4, 2004

McAfee/NAI, Avast, and Symantec/Norton both have an outlook plugin that scans all IMAP and POP3 email before it downloaded. I'm not sure what you mean by a program that finally scans IMAP. It's about time this program caught up with the rest. I do love free software, but say away from this one.. there are much better free programs that acutally work.

msickles reviewed v6.0 Build 607 on Mar 3, 2004

Wow, well there is finally a program that does a full AV check on IMAP message stores. Norton, McAfee, and most others just let IMAP messages go through--not this prog.

Free, free, free!

onetouch reviewed v6.0 Build 607 on Mar 3, 2004

I'm not going to skew the ratings, but personaly, I dont care for AVG all that much. It is free, but has caused problems every time I've installed it. I'll still give it a 5 because it's free, and does actually find stuff.

tommyb709 reviewed v6.0 Build 607 on Mar 3, 2004

I am a computer consultant. I just came from a client's home who had the bagel.j virus. They were running AVG free. Their definitions were Feb 18th, which may account for the problem, as Symantec says that this virus was discovered Mar 2nd. (BTW, their AVG would not update at all today. I had to manually download the update and install. I had another client yesterday who also had a virus get through AVG,[mydoom.f] and it updated only after several attempts. Is the AVG free update server DOS'd?) The email scanner passed the message without discovering a virus. The client was fooled into clicking on the attachment and triggered the virus, and knew immediately. She began scanning with AVG, which found instances of the virus, identified it as bagel.j, but did not stop the viral process, so new files continued to be generated. I removed the infection with Stinger.
Upon researching AVG's site, they say that the only email client supported by the free edition is Outlook. Period. Those of you running Outlook Express or Mozilla, have you ever had AVG find a virus in your email? I would give this a better rating if I were sure that the real-time scanning works with OE and Mozilla. It does find everything when manual scanning.

viper_crazy reviewed v6.0 Build 558 on Feb 12, 2004

This is the best FREE anti virus out there. Unlike others, im not going to tell all those who give bad reviews to take a powder, but its is my opinion that it is the best. You barely even know its running in the background, you can schedule updates everyday, it scans and has a real time file protection. I must say, the only other virus software that is just as good, is Norton Anti-Virus Corporate Edition. NAV 2001-2004 tax your system way to heavily, but AVG does not. I like how they SEEMED to follow NAV Corporate Edition (better cuz its FREE) so you don't even know its actually doing its job most of the time, unlike NAV Corporate Edition's sisters NAV 2001-2004.

I Highly recamend this program. Oh and guys, theres no point in trying to lay rest to others bad reviews...they though that way when they wrote it, and chances are they will think that way after you write your little "mouth off."

denali reviewed v6.0 Build 558 on Jan 6, 2004

bsr500: I wasn't asking for technical support. I wanted to report a bug. There is a difference and I think that if you are an ESL student, you should go back to your studies.

veeoh reviewed v6.0 Build 558 on Jan 6, 2004

Tridus:- Why would and anti-virus stop you connecting to the internet - get a grip and stop talking rubbish.

Tridus reviewed v6.0 Build 558 on Jan 5, 2004

The last time I installed this, I couldn't connect to the Internet anymore.

bsr500 reviewed v6.0 Build 558 on Jan 5, 2004

denali: It clearly says "No tech support" with the free version, learn to read. Anyway, this is the best free AV (and IMO best in all) out there. They keep really frequent updates, the scanner is very good at detecting viruses and good at removing them. I have used it on all my machines and have recommended it to friends that dont want to pay for an AV, and will continue to do so. Keep up the good work grisoft!!

bbhermit reviewed v6.0 Build 557 on Jan 1, 2004

The register button did nothing, so I had to use the link to their homepage in order to register. In the previous update, the install would start up ok, but then it would slip into msn messenger install, which was in the same folder. Otherwise, a good program. Infrequent updates though. I also use Nortons, and Anti-Vir, as you can't be too careful on the net.

reidyn reviewed v6.0 Build 557 on Dec 31, 2003

I'm surprised at the block of poor ratings preceding mine. Having been annoyed at my long-time favorite Norton Antivirus's decision to go with a product activation scheme that has already been reported to fail at times and leave the user unprotected, I looked for an alternative. I tried this and the other free ones and found this to be an excellent replacement for NAV. Not quite as pretty or easy to use, but every bit as functional (minus the programmable scheduling that is disabled in the free version). Even better, in certain respects, as this software didn't require me to reboot the computer and then download another round of software updates five or six times in a row after first installing it like NAV always did. In fact, once it is installed, I haven't yet had it ask me to reboot after downloading an update as NAV does now and then. For those who don't realize it, even on the free version you can turn off the e-mail tagging for both inbound and outbound mail so that it won't say "Certified virus-free by AVG". I am aware that everyone has a favorite of any kind of software, but I really can't understand the 1 or 2 star ratings for this software. Your favorite software might have some feature or quality that you find lacking in the others, but does that really make the others a 1 star alternative? Does it really have to be a "my favorite is great, everything else is total crap" kind of world where people cannot maintain a reasonable sense of objectivity?

Programmer2004 reviewed v6.0 Build 557 on Dec 30, 2003

This program has a problem. It causes video cards to crash and a few other weird things to happen. I have 4 computers here that had it installed, and all suffered from the same symptoms. As far as scanning and detecting virii, it seemed ok. So if your screen starts blinking or washing out or any other unexplained video related problems, suspect this program. Mcafee is the best and no bloat.

uNdisputed reviewed v6.0 Build 557 on Dec 30, 2003

well ..a simple message mates program ..comon..lol
deleted cause av wanted to..it`s not virus......:))))))))))):_
does 1 have to rate it 1 star..too bad there`sno option for a minus 5

VirusExpert reviewed v6.0 Build 556 on Dec 27, 2003

bsr500, feel free to give NAV any rating you like, just give reasons for the rating. My only point to make here was the inconsistancy of this program. I love that it's free, it does work OK, but not great. I don't hate it, I just feel that there are better alternatives than this one. It's nothing personal, I don't know why so many people take is personal. I don't care that people love this program, I glad you do.. I'm just giving you the information that I have collected.

IGx89 reviewed v6.0 Build 556 on Dec 27, 2003

In big, red letters on the download page: "IT CAN NOT BE INSTALLED IN ANY NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT!"

It looks good, but I'm not going to disconnect my computer from my LAN and/or internet just to use it!

bsr500 reviewed v6.0 Build 556 on Dec 27, 2003

The best virus scan I have seen, from my experience better then all the paid ones....

BTW: For every 1 negative review "VirusExpert" gives avg im going to give NAV 10.

uNdisputed reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 26, 2003

FREE no strings attached AV programme.
i`m happy guy`s...
it`s good , do try it
thank`s for the good work:)

spitzz reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 25, 2003

First off users who vote twice like the so called virusexpert (who's rantings seem to indicate otherwise) should be banned from reviewing.

I have used AVG for over a year now with good results. I'd recommend it to any home user but especially those using cable or broadband. Most of the time you hardly know it is there and the updates have always functioned flawlessly.

It is a refreshing change to use software that unlike NAV does not take control over every area of your computer.

5 stars here without a doubt.
Regards Pete

L06@N reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 25, 2003

I've been using this since Inoculate-IT left the FREE AV world. It's been running great for me on all the machines I've loadd it on (3 personal/work) and good for atleast 10 buddies...
Keep up the good work, and it's all I expect and mroe from the FREE edition (considering the company is in it to make money, also)....

paulm reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 24, 2003

Unlike some other so called reviewers, I'm not going to mouth off bull@#it opinions about everything else other than the programme in question....
This Grisoft AVG 6.0xx free AV softeare is excellent. Unlike NAV 2001,2002,2003 and most probably 2004, as well as McCafee, it's small, fast and doesn't tax your system to any real extent. The updates are regular and small. Well done Grisoft, and thankyou for a FREE no strings attached AV programme.

weed reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 24, 2003

If everyone stopped using IE and Outlook (Express) and Address Book, yeah we would all be better off, it has nothing to do with anything but that. Bug/virus/trojan makers use those security prone programs to their advantage. I use Opera browser, Phoenix Mail and 98Lite to elmimnate the Microsoft stuff. Everyone can't do the same as others have their own skill levels. Don't blame Grisoft.

VirusExpert reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 24, 2003

I love you guys.. I don't mean to make any defensive. I don't hate this software, I just don't trust it. This is based on real world experience with the software. I also love free and open source software. I use Mozilla, Thunderbird, and Open Office. I acutally don't work for any software companies.... I just think people under estimate the importance of secrutiy software. If they did, we would not have massive virus outbreaks. I'm not sure that I have a chip on my shoulder, but thanks for looking. My point is just that there are much better programs if you don't feel you need to pay the developers for all their hard work. Please don't hate me, I have used this software for a while and it just does not do a good job in the real world.

-VirusExpert

jrepin reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 24, 2003

Excellent antivirus software. It is simple to use and it is very nice it is free.

bsr500 reviewed v6.0 Build 555 on Dec 24, 2003

VirusExpert, You obviously must work for another AV company, otherwise you would not say something like that..

This program is better then norton in lots of ways, It uses less resources from when I compared them. It has a feature that norton does not have, you can monitor scan progress by MB's scaned. It has nothing to do with being free or not, acually software SHOULD be FREE!!! And I bet everyone has more free programs on there machine then paid ones.

Now no more BS small talk about people being cheap just because they are smart enough to save from buying one when they can get it free.

zik reviewed v6.0 Build 552 on Dec 16, 2003

I rate avg 5 stars mainly for having a freeware version, i agree with the last comment about poor people, there are places where buying computer software isn't an option.
Must be too *blind* or arrogant to think about an utopia world where everybody is happy and have money.

lordcyber reviewed v6.0 Build 552 on Dec 16, 2003

VirusExpert, You obviously don't live in an area where people are Poor. Just because you can get onto the internet doesn't mean that you are paying for it, around my area it is not uncommon for more than one person to be using a single dial up account at the same time at different houses. It's called having a friend or family member who can afford the internet and is willing to share their account. and just because they have a "computer" doesn't make them wealthy. If that was the case they all would have modern computers instead of the ancient junkers that the majority of them do have.

This software does a good job for the price "free".

Give it a rest, and I promise to do the same.

VirusExpert reviewed v6.0 Build 552 on Dec 16, 2003

I agree.. free is free.. but if you can't "afford" 10 bucks a year.. you don't have internet access or email, so I agree that this product would work fine. If you do have internet access and get email.. PAY THE MONEY for a decent product. If you are reading this post than YOU CAN "afford" a real AV program.

weed reviewed v6.0 Build 552 on Dec 16, 2003

A big thanks to Grisoft and others who perform a public service by distributing freeware products that are good quality like AVG is and update them regularly. AAA+++

Fats Terminal reviewed v6.0 Build 552 on Dec 16, 2003

It's a good AV for normal users who don't download any pirate software from Kazaa, web sites, etc. Others should stick with something a little more comprehensive like Kaspersky, Norton or FSecure. It's very fast and takes very little resources.

Dwarden reviewed v6.0 Build 552 on Dec 15, 2003

AVG is fine, it's ICSA certified, but i already went way where combining Avast4.1 for desktop and NOD2 for server (because they better and faster). And to that person saying ZoneAlarm is best free personal firewall, i think You are wrong, Kerio Personal Firewall is more effective and secure.

lordcyber reviewed v6.0 Build 550 on Dec 12, 2003

""If you read a review a bit down, it says the EZ Armor firewall is just ZoneAlarm... first, its not, its proprietary, but even if it was, ZoneAlarm is the best free standalone firewall out there, so that shouldn't matter. And scanning slower than AVG? Correct, since it also REMOVES the damn viruses."

Cad, if it isn't a rebranded version of the free Zonealarm why does it look 100% identical to zonealarm other than the zonealarm icon's etc being changed?

And I have used AVG to remove more viruses than you probably have ever seen. It works fine, and DEFINATELY scans faster than EZarmor. Now having said that, I again reiterate that I have nothing against EZarmor, but Free is Free. Being free for 1 year and then having to pay for it is another. I will stick with recommending AVG to anyone I know who doesn't have the cash to pay for their antivirus software. Because if they can't afford it this year, then most likely they won't be able to afford it in a years time.

This purpose of reviewing this software is to talk about this software, not someone else's product. If you don't like it, that's fine. don't use it. but unless you can provide specific examples of viruses that it fails to remove, don't run it into the ground with statements like it scans faster because it doesn't remove the viruses,etc.

VirusExpert reviewed v6.0 Build 550 on Dec 11, 2003

Canderous: I'm glad you agree with my comments.. but you kept giving it 5 starts ;-)

. .

Version Reviewed: 6.0 Build 550
Reviewed by: canderous
Date: December 10th, 2003 5:43 PM

Oy. That is a nasty mistake. The below review of mine actually should have 2 stars, not five. Bleh.

Rating: *****

canderous reviewed v6.0 Build 550 on Dec 10, 2003

If you read a review a bit down, it says the EZ Armor firewall is just ZoneAlarm... first, its not, its proprietary, but even if it was, ZoneAlarm is the best free standalone firewall out there, so that shouldn't matter. And scanning slower than AVG? Correct, since it also REMOVES the damn viruses.

illuvatar reviewed v6.0 Build 550 on Dec 10, 2003

This is a great programme and it's getting better all the time. On recent tests by virusbulletin it gets a VB100% award: http://www.virusbulletin...chives/tests.xml?200311

It's good at catching viruses and even a newbie can handle it. Although some people here clearly think an antivirus should be a firewall and spyware blocker as well (eg. norton), I oppose this idea of integration (stop bloat now!). Want to remove spyware? Just use ad-aware or spybot (both are free!) Want to keep out intruders why not use kerio or outpost (my god, is everything for free here?)

Anyway, people who constantly get viruses and spyware, just shouldn't be on the internet. But then again, 90% of the internet population would drain away and I wouldn't be able to download as much fun stuff from people who share their entire HD "by accident" ;-)

cees2000 reviewed v6.0 Build 550 on Dec 10, 2003

it's simply the best free av program there is. I agree that avast is great too, but does it run on Windows .NET Server?
Nope! And AVG DOES!

VirusExpert reviewed v6.0 Build 548 on Dec 7, 2003

I agree it's good for the price, but there are much better programs for free. Avast and CA are both MUCH better programs.

http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft

http://www.avast.com

lordcyber reviewed v6.0 Build 548 on Dec 7, 2003

an excellent program for the price. Does it remove spyware like others have complained about? No, but then again neither does Norton Antivirus 2004 unless you pony up some extra money for that service. This combined with Spybot Search and Destroy, and Spyware Blaster's immunize feature makes for a virus and spyware free system. Just my 2 cents on the subject.

scodan reviewed v6.0 Build 548 on Dec 7, 2003

Should be enough protection for people who don't use Internet Explorer, who have layered security in general, who don't download and install questionable software, and who practice good computing sense. Ironically, though, that's the type of user who happens to be *least* likely to use AVG. The free-or-die users of AVG tend to be the one who wonder why they have 500 porn popups per minute, and why their system crashes 48 times per day. The people who know better realize you get what you pay for. OK, I'll lay it on the line for you: AVG works fine against the *most common* threats, but if you ever come across anything else, you'll wish you'd opened your wallet.

VikingStorm reviewed v6.0 Build 548 on Dec 6, 2003

Decent, they have a pretty bad track record at VB100%. Avast is still a better free antivirus IMO.

Tahlyssa reviewed v7.0.rc4 on Jun 22, 2003

AVG is the Best Anti Virus for Real Time Scanning when you are a Poweruser going through more then 5 gig a month, it detects when other's can't, Quarantine if it can't remove and if AVG can't get rid of a virus, then only microtrends, housecall can, this IS the Best.

Adamant reviewed v7.0.rc4 on Jun 9, 2003

AVG is awesome! These bad reviews are mistaken as AVG DOES have heuristic analysis, updates virus database every day, and has scheduled hard disk analysis. Ditch your Norton bloatware and go with this excellent program. The free version is so good, I even went and bought the server version for our servers. I have not had a single infection in almost two-years - the time span I've been using AVG.

Thanks Grisoft!!!

timshel reviewed v7.0.rc4 on Jun 4, 2003

By the way this file posted is for the pro version of AVG which is valid for a free test period only. I don't know if AVG free version will be continued when the pro 7.0 version is released. Hopefully it will... or else will have to switch over to some other freeware Avast maybe...(Innoculate IT -->AVG-->avast??)

Roadblock reviewed v7.0.rc4 on Jun 4, 2003

I don't know what Scorced Earth is referring to either, To my knowlege, AVG has had an option to use Heuristics to recognize viruses for as long as I can remember, and I have been using this software for 2 years now, ever since I heard Chris Pirillo of Tech TV name it as the best free antivirus program available. It has never failed me in 2 years of use. The only problem I see is that they say they will be doing away with the free version in the near future. Even so, to me it would be worth paying for. Small, light on resources, updates frequently, and bottom line, gets the job done.

Dwarden reviewed v6.0.484 on Jun 2, 2003

FOrgot to mention that failture in VB award is also when false alarm is triggered ...

Scorched Earth reviewed v6.0.481 on May 28, 2003

Not too great from my own personal experiences. It'll catch a few, but because of its latency in updating virus definitions, you will be left hanging without protection for longer than with any other AV. It's not too awful, but I wouldn't use it as it lacks heuristic scanning. Not an acceptable virus scanner, IMO. Just a paper tiger AV for people who like freebies.

unger71 reviewed v6.0.474 on Apr 23, 2003

Does this run on a Win2000????????
Machine wont start.No guard installed.No exten***
Tried it too times
.I used to run program in Win98

Carlospr reviewed v6.0.474 on Apr 22, 2003

I'm using AVG for a long time and no problem at all! Great software!!

GhostMan reviewed v6.0.435 on Jan 4, 2003

I have used AVG for 1 year and it works. However, they have a horrible track record when it comes to scanning. If you want a freeware virus scanner, try any of the alternatives because they simply have better scanners. I would suggest Avast! 4 Home Edition. You really need to pay for a virus scanner to get the best protection. Go get Norton Antivirus if you need real protection.

weed reviewed v6.0.434 on Dec 31, 2002

How can anyone complain about a freeware virus scanner with free updates, low resource usage and free updates for life? Not Me! Kudos to Grisoft! ***** Stars!

tom3311 reviewed v6.0.434 on Dec 29, 2002

I've been using AVG for about 2-years and have found it to work as well, if not better than the McAfee Virus program my company uses. I have been hit by viruses on a couple of occasions and each time AVG found, identified, and either cleaned or isolated the infected files... what more can you ask for? I highly recommend this program over all virus protection programs I've used (McAfee, Norton...).

MrPuddles reviewed v6.0.434 on Dec 29, 2002

Nice program for freeware, but it has problems detecting viruses that are in the wild. I've used it for a year now, but it still doesn't detect as many viruses as other scanners (NOD32, Kaspersky, Norton). AVG has only recieved 1 VB100 award for their scanner and failed 18 times.
http://www.virusbtn.com/...es/products.xml?avg.xml

burgerbaron reviewed v6.0.426 on Dec 5, 2002

I have ued this program for years but it now has a known bug in it that will mess up the windows installer.I run Xp.You can find this info over at the msft forums and avg has been informed of the problem..

RAT reviewed v6.0.426 on Dec 4, 2002

Kicks ass! :) Attention "The Bat"-Users: This cool app has got a plug-in for TB! that's cool.

Grizzlybear reviewed v6.0.423 on Dec 3, 2002

This program is IMHO one of the most reliable available for free.there is really no reason,not to use it despite other opinions.I use it now for more than a year and never got a virus.Also it takes not too many resources like NAV and the resident shield acts very fast.....

JEdwardP reviewed v6.0.422 on Nov 21, 2002

It's not quite as fast as the now-defunct Inoculate-IT Personal Edition was, but it has what's important in an anti-virus app, in being reliable, independently certified, easy to configure, and updated frequently enough. When you can get all that free, I see no reason--especially for the home user--not to use it.

archemy reviewed v6.0.410 on Nov 2, 2002

This is the best Anti-virus out there , beleive me I tried them all, none of them compares to it, its FREE but that's not the best part, it updates almost every week, even twice sometimes and it's low on resources and has a good start up time and it works, it saved me a couple times from viruses

Floodland reviewed v6.0.410 on Nov 2, 2002

Best antivirus for general use, don't miss this one. Auto-update, little resource usage, good protection, excelent support and FREE.
6 stars if possible

krayon reviewed v6.0.410 on Nov 2, 2002

This is better than any I have ever paid for.

Freya reviewed v6.0.389 on Sep 20, 2002

I used McAfee for years until I found this. I've been using it for the past year on three machines and have found it better and easier to use than McAfee.

rocky500 reviewed v6.0.386 on Sep 10, 2002

Dosen't get any better than this program for free!
Forget the big bloated resource sucking others.