As
technology advances, more and more people are actually very dependent
on computers. No matter personal or work related, it often involves
personal information or classified data.
Internet is another great
help in our life, like a forest full of resources. But people should
never forget, there are dangers lurking around the internet just like
beast in the forest, we call them viruses.
One of the more famous
Anti Virus Software is non other than Norton. It not only provides a
Virus Protection, but also Internet Security and Firewall. But the
biggest draw back is it’s yearly subscription fee and the fact that it is a Hog on system resources.
But for people
whom are unwilling to pay, there’s also many well-known free anti-virus
utilities which will do the job and are also well rounded in security.
Often friends will ask ‘What’s the best free Anti-Virus Software on the internet?’.
This answer really comes down to personal preference.
Let us start the ball rolling in the quest for Best Free Anti Virus Software.
This post, we will cover what is arguably the most effective and popular free anti-virus utility: Grisoft’s AVG Free Edition.
Like
many other Anti-Virus Software, Installation is straight forward. But
do make sure there is a free license included when installing.
During installation you will be prompted to choose to if you would like include the Toolbar.
This
comes back to personal preference, I never like to install any toolbar
as it makes my browser messy but AVG advises more web threats can be
avoided when using it.
Internet Explorer and Firefox have
already include good Phishing protection, so by having another toolbar
might be just an addition.
Here’s some detailed information from their site.
After a successful installation, a wizard begins to prompt for personal preference or setting for the utility.
But one most important step is to get the latest updates for the virus database.
Other settings includes scheduling daily scan and register your software with AVG.
You can go through the wizard or simply skip the process entirely as these settings can still be change later.
All settings and components can be access from the User Interface.
AVG Free Edition includes more than just anti-virus protection.
Other components include:
Anti-Spyware - Protects against malicious software applications
Email Scanner - Integrates with Outlook to scan email messages and attachments for Viruses and Spyware
Resident Shield - Real-time protection against viruses and malicious spyware
One unique point of AVG is it enables you to control the speed of Full system Scans.
The
faster the scan the more CPU processing power required, so if you wish
to continue using the computer while the scan is running choose a lower
scan speed.
This is also where you can also pause, start, or resume a scan.
There are also a surprising amount of settings and options for you to customize how AVG works.
Like all other Anti-Virus Software, Pop up notifications are shown on the Taskbar.
All
email messages will be scanned and this will be verified by a message
at the bottom of each email. Also, similar to other Anti-Virus
Software, AVG integrates into Windows Explorer so you can scan
individual files by right clicking.
Conclusion
AVG
is so popular for a reason: the user interface is attractive and quite
easy to use and there’s also a bunch of options available to allow you
to customize the behavior to your liking.
It also offers a lot of
components and options that are only available in the professional
version of other utilities, at the great price of free.
If you
have used AVG for a while please comment and let us know your thoughts
and opinions, or any recommended settings that you use.
Download AVG Free Edition For Windows
Tags: antivirus, avg
