AVG AntiVirus Free

The Internet makes it possible to do mostly anything, like listening to music, watching videos, playing games and more, but it comes with a price. The threat of malware, spyware, viruses, Trojans and so on is constantly increasing and people with malicious intents will try to get your system infected for various reasons. With AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition you can protect yourself from all unwanted and dangerous programs, free of charge.

The setup kit and the installed software do not take up too much disk space. The setup process is easy, but you will have to wait while the program is being installed, which may take several minutes. Once it is done, AVG will be launched automatically and you can bring up its interface, by double clicking its system tray icon.

Besides the antivirus, AVG offers other features, including a firewall, link scanner, email and identity protection and more. They can be activated, deactivated and configured on the Overview page, which can be accessed, like all other sections, by clicking one of the tabs, on the left side of the interface. Each feature is represented by an icon and if you click one, the function's settings will be displayed on the same area of the window.

Regardless of what function you select on the Overview page, the options you will find can be used without too much effort. With radio buttons or check boxes, you can enable or disable a feature and adjust its behavior. The antivirus will scan any files as they are copied, saved or opened and it can be set to prompt you before removing threats, scan for tracking cookies and you can also manage an exceptions list. The link scanner includes a search, surf and an online shield, which will protect your system from malicious web sites. The email protection feature will scan incoming and outgoing messages and it will mark the unwanted ones as spam.

In the software's Firewall section, you can enable or disable the firewall or switch to emergency mode, which will block all Internet traffic. You can also activate a game mode which will automatically allow or deny a game's access to the Internet. Besides protecting your system against malicious software, AVG will also analyze it for registry errors, disk fragmentation, broken shortcuts and junk files. After selecting this feature, in the Overview page, you just need to click a button in the lower right corner of the interface. The program will analyze all the aforementioned aspects, in logical order, after which you may click a button to fix any found issues.

You can start scanning immediately by clicking the second tab, on the left part of the window, or click the next tab to find options for a full scan or to scan specific folders on the hard drive or removable memory devices. It is also possible to schedule scans, in the same section. While AVG is running, you will find a small window on your screen, similar to the Windows desktop gadgets. It contains options for starting a scan and updating the software, shortcuts for Facebook, Twitter and the PC analyzer feature, as well as an online search function. If the window gets in your way, you can simply close it, like any other window.