The previous version of AVG’s free antivirus package won a Highly Commended award in our Reliability and Service Awards 2007 as voted by PC Authority readers, and this new version benefits from the clean, blue design that debuted last month in the commercial AVG Internet Security Suite.

As with its paid-for cousin, all the modules are accessed from one console. You get the same antivirus and antispyware components as in the full security suite, making AVG Free a competent if not record-breaking virus detector. When we tested it against some current malware, it identified 22 out of 28 threats, while the A-Listed Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7 spotted 24.

Naturally, the free version doesn’t have all the commercial product’s features. You don’t get any sort of firewall, nor the anti-spam module, though the package does integrate with your email client to stop mail-based attacks. It also includes the new LinkScanner feature, which the company acquired last year when it bought out Exploit Prevention Labs.

This browser plug-in integrates with Google, Yahoo and MSN, automatically scanning the pages returned as search results and highlighting potentially dangerous links before you click on them. You can also optionally have your results sent anonymously back to AVG, to help expand its database.

AVG warns you should still surf cautiously, though, as this free edition lacks the commercial package’s sandboxing feature that tests out unknown code in a secure environment. It also comes with no technical support, and – in the package’s only conspicuous piece of pushiness – the optional web toolbar includes a Yahoo search box which can’t be hidden, and a greyed out “Active Surf-Shield” button that tries to upsell you to the full package.

This is easy to forgive in a free download. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8 is less intrusive than its free competitor Avira Antivir and more usable than it was previously. And in LinkScanner it offers a genuinely valuable new feature.