AVG 9.0 Anti-Virus Free Review Discussion

By: Charles P. Jefferies

Introduction

AVG 9.0 promises protection and performance improvements as well as a better user experience over the previous version. Does it work as advertised? See how it fared in our testing.

Read the full content of this Article: AVG 9.0 Anti-Virus Free Review

Related Articles:

• Symantec Norton Antivirus 2010 Review
• 2009 Antivirus Software Home Buyers Guide
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Review

 

"Even though AVG Free is free, it can still compare to paid solutions."

My thoughts exactly. Hey it's no kaspersky but at least I'm not paying for it.

 

I like Avira better. I had AVG and it was a disaster for my single cored laptop. Made everything painfully slow when running a scan on the background, and it took when not doing anything else, over 4 hours to do a full scan, and considering I only have 80GB of info in my laptop, that is slow.

 

Never heard of Avira, but I'll check it out.

 

Good review Chaz. So now that you've tested both AVG 9 and MSE, what's your top pick?

 

really good review. If you use firefox you don't need to install the toolbar. AVG installs a firefox addon which adds link scanning capabilities. I really liked it and compared to avira it does not nag you all the time to buy the pro version. The new avira version always displays a nag screen to encourage you to buy the pro version during an update.

So for free I think nothing can beat AVG

 

I'm also curious as to how those two stack up to Avira...

 

Well I'll stick with my "proactive" paid Avira. I don't like how AVG doesn't bother to remove the virus's until a few minutes after they were downloaded. That's too long for me. Another proactive feature, the link scanner, also kind of fails. No one wants to install a toolbar, and I sure don't. But for free, you can't complain I suppose.

 

I personally prefer Microsoft since it has the protection I want - just the 'essentials' as the name implies; AVG has a bit more. I like Microsoft's interface more as well but that's a minor factor . . . I can't remember the last time I actually opened up my AV software's program interface; there's no need to.

On all my systems I use ESET NOD32.

You can try those test virus files I linked to in the article ("test description"). See how fast Avira reacts. I'll see if I can do an official review of Avira.

 

I used to use NOD32, I thought it was very good.
Um, hey Chaz, which test file did you use? I see 4 different ones (8 actually).

 

I use the top four ones for my testing. Right-click > Save File As.

Be careful though . . . there is a disclaimer on the site.

 

Aw it's ok, I have full faith in Avira. I'll test them out now and report back.

Edit: WOW. That sure didn't take long. As soon as I hit "save link as" in Chrome, Avira warned me they were virus's, and I hit ignore and canceled the download. That's the kind of "proactive" I love <3.

I assume it was the webguard that did it. But thanks for the links Chaz.

 

In the Cons section of the review, the abililty to use LinkScanner does not require installing the toolbar. (This should probably be removed from the Cons section of the article)

 

Another thumbs up for Avira Antivir here.

I've used all the free antivirus solutions for extended periods at some point. Started back when Bitdefender was free, moved to AVG, then Avast!, and finally Avira. Most of the others had more bells and whistles. But Antivir had a much better detection rate at the time, finding stuff the others never did. It also seemed to use less cpu power and memory. Looking at av-compariatives.org and virus bulletin, Antivir consistent ranks near the top for detection rates for a long period of time. That's why I haven't switched to anything else for years.

 

I will be reviewing Avira so expect to see something on that within the next two-three weeks.

 

Thanks!! I use it and I really like it.

 

I know a lot of people will be looking forward to that Chaz.

 

Hm i LOVE Avast!

No one here uses that? Very good stuff man. The UI takes some time to get use to.

 

I use Avast Home Edition too, the free one.

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Hopefully you can do a review on it. Thank you...

 

The new Avast 5 betas are really nice.

 

Another suggestion do a review on Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0 please

 

Hm....i have 4.8, would you say its worth the update?

 

Yeah I'd say it's worth the update. Though the interface is no longer customizable, it looks really nice. The graphs it has for the real-time shields are a nice touch.

 

It was the webguard that did it. You cant tell that a file contains a virus unless you scan it first. And to scan it, it needs to be downloaded.

BTW, Avira has a free version --- how is it ?

 

My favorite (though now I'm using MSE).

 

hey, i know this is paid vs free but which one is better? avg9.0 or eset nod32 4.0?

 

Thanks a lot for that, im downloading now

 

I like Kaspersky most then any other anti virus soft wares...

 

I totally agree with this review. This Anti Virus is awesome, and I have used it for 2 years

But eehm, the LinkScanner works without the toolbar

 

Yes...works on my IE as well. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to work when I'm using Google Chrome .