Overview

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition has always been a popular free antivirus for many users as long as they only use the program for home use or for computers with non-commercial purposes.

The program is one of the most popular free antivirus systems at present because of its high likelihood of detecting and removing discreet worms and viruses.

Installation

The installer itself is a measly 5mb client but it still downloads the main program which is a whopping 150mb. Compared to many other antivirus programs, this is considered rather large but the installation process was rather seamless with little hands on required from the user.

The installer gives you the option of installing an AVG toolbar in your browsers however, you can uncheck this option if you do not wish to have it installed.

Interface

The GUI of the AVG antivirus program looks professional and eye-pleasing. It is user-friendly and easy to navigate in because there are three tabs on the left side of the window – Overview, Scan now and Update now.

Clicking the Overview tab will populate the window with many buttons covering the major components of the program such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, link scanner, resident shield, e-mail scanner, update manager, license, anti-rootkit, PC analyzer, and identity protection. Compared to other programs that have these components set up on the toolbar buttons, the present setup of AVG is far more convenient making it suitable for beginners.

Pros

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 has all you need from an effective anti-virus – complete virus scans, virus protection, spyware protection, e-mail scanning, real-time protection, regular virus definition updates among others. Furthermore, you can schedule scans in days and times you find convenient.

Cons

AVG has had the reputation of having intrusive and annoying pop up windows that advertise their paid versions but this edition has none. The main antivirus window though has a small section that shows banners ads advertising the paid versions.

Aside from this, one other downside of the program is that it does not have all features of the paid version. However, the essentials of an anti-virus program are already included.

AVG also has many Windows processes under its name consuming more memory than other antivirus programs.

Alternatives

Avast! Free Antivirus is among the top free antivirus programs along with AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. It has almost the same features in terms of virus protection but offers none for web-based infiltrations such as e-mail attachments or personal identity security.

Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus is another program worth noting although scanning is a bit slower.

Conclusion

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 is highly recommended if you are looking for an effective and free program that takes care of you virus protection needs. Among all free anti-virus software, it offers the most protection with little intrusion while advertising its paid versions.