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Free antivirus apps part 1: AVG

Cyril Roger

Cyril Roger

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Today we bring you the first in a five part series, where we will test out five different free antivirus applications. All too often users get bullied into buying an expensive antivirus that either works bad or ends up being completely useless, overlooking free alternatives. Most of these free antivirus applications have greatly improved over time and often offer as much as their trial counterparts. Names like AVG or Avast! are already lauded in the community as secure free solutions for users. We decided to give a test run to 5 free antivirus applications, AVG, Avast! Home, Clamwin, Active Virus Shield, and Antivir, testing the CPU usage, length of virus scan, files scanned and special features included in each program. At the end of our series we’ll tell you which one we preferred but meanwhile feel free to leave a comment and tell us what you love or hate about each of the free antivirus applications.

avg1.pngWe start off the series with AVG Anti-Virus System Free Edition. This solid antivirus application has been around for years and was recently reviewed here on insideTonic. AVG fared moderately well in our tests. It used up around 30 MB of system RAM, which is normal for such a program. A full scan took us exactly 1:04:51, which we found a bit on the lengthy side, but AVG did scan a total of 113,393 files including network places and shared documents. We didn’t launch the email scanner because it integrates with Outlook and automatically monitors emails as you receive them. Contrary to other antivirus applications AVG will automatically heal infected files instead of giving you a choice of quarantine or deletion. The program features a scheduler which is automatically set at 8 AM every morning.

AVG test results:

  • Uses up 30 MB of memory
  • Full scan time: 1:04:51
  • Scanned objects: 113,393
  • Email scanner integrated in Outlook
  • Scheduler automatically set at 08 AM
  • Automatically heals infected files
Cyril Roger

Cyril Roger

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