FIRST LOOK: AVG Anti-Virus 8.0

Staff writers | May 22, 2008 7:29 PM
AVG | http://www.avg.com.au
First Look
RRP: $66.5 (time of review)
Overall Rating: 
User Rating: 
(from 1 reviews)
We've had a quick play with the new version - and we like what we see. Definitely one to stick in your PC toolkit for 2008.
Installation of the new is simple and quick, with the majority of settings being pre-configured. One of the major new features is anti-spyware, and anti-root-kit protection, and the software will even scan Internet links as you are browsing, to detect any potential security flaws before you actually click to view the page. We tested this feature with Google search results and found that AVG would scan the link and page in the search results to detect if there was a potential security threat. AVG would then show a rating for that particular content. You could then view what had triggered a particular rating and decide for yourself whether or not to visit the web site.

The page and link scanning was unobtrusive and from what we can tell, adds no apparent lag to viewing pages—this feature is particularly useful for end-users who may be worried that clicking on the "wrong thing" may harm their computer.
The streamlined user interface makes it easy to change settings, though we were disappointed in the settings to see that the coverage for scanning instant messages only included ICQ and MSN (with no Yahoo, GoogleTalk, etc.).

The scheduling options for periodic scanning of your computer, updating the virus database, etc. are a notch above other products we have looked at and offer the flexibility to setup multiple schedules based on folder locations. You may setup a scan of your download folder, for example, for every 4 hours but only scan your entire computer once, at the end of the day.

As always, AVG's underlying virus scanning engine was quick to pick up viruses, finding and cleaning two within the first few minutes of scanning a local USB hard drive. Updating virus definitions is also quick.

For home users, the free version may be all you need but if you are serious about security, then the commercial edition or even just an upgrade to this version is definitely worth the money.

The only major issue we've had with AVG in the past is the firewall in the full Internet Security suite, which we found used too many resources. We'll look at that once we do our in-depth test, but for the moment, our first impressions of the anti-virus product are positive.