AVG Antivirus, 2 User 2011, 2 Year Subscription (PC)

Product Description

Manufacturer's Description

AVG Anti-Virus 2011: Exceptional protection that won't get in your way.

AVG Anti-Virus 2011 provides real-time protection against today's most sophisticated threats. This means you can surf, search, chat, download and exchange files with confidence. It'll even stop you from visiting harmful sites and will keep you safe on social networks.

• Surf and search knowing you are fully protected
• Download and share files risk free
• Make your social networks safer
• Keep tough threats out

Features:

People-Powered Protection

AVG's global community is 110 million people strong and growing. Each day they provide AVG with 1.5 billion potential threats to evaluate. From this, we identify and remove over 100 million threats every single day. All in near real time.

Superior Protection

• AVG LinkScanner® provides full web protection by actively checking web pages in real time before you visit them. It alerts you if the site is untrustworthy and shows website safety ratings in your search engine results.
• AVG Social Networking Protection keeps you safe by checking the links in messages you post on sites like Facebook. Works automatically in real time - no setup required.
• AVG Protective Cloud Technology is an early warning system that identifies and stops new threats. The cloud, combined with the power of our community, blocks threats before they reach you. It also reduces false positives.

Smarter Scanning

• AVG Smart Scanning runs in high priority mode when you are away from your computer and switches to low-priority mode when you return. Scans run 3x faster because we don't waste time checking files we know are safe.

Download, Share Files and Chat Safely

• AVG Online Shield™ allows you to download, share and exchange files without risk. You're also protected when using ICQ, MSN and Yahoo! Instant Messenger.

System Requirements:

Minimum system requirements:

Recommended system requirements:

Compatibility:

MS Windows XP and XP Pro (32/64 bit)MS Windows Vista (32/64 bit)MS Windows 7 (32/64 bit)

Additional Information:

Why AVG Anti-Virus 2011?

We believe everyone has the right to be protected. That's why our technology is easy to install, simple to use, and protects you in near real time from the very latest threats. It's fast and is rated 1 in threat detection by independent testing labs. ¹

SURFING, SEARCHING AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

AVG LinkScanner® [ENHANCED] | Shows safety ratings in search engine results and checks web pages in real time

AVG Social Networking Protection [New and UNIQUE to AVG] | Protects you and your friends on social networks

EMAILING, CHATTING, DOWNLADING AND GAMING

AVG Email Scanner [ENHANCED] | Protects you from dangerous email attachments

AVG Online Shield™ | Check files before you download them and ensures online chat links are safe

Game Mode | Keeps you safe without interrupting your gameplay or movies

PERFORMANCE

System Tools [ENHANCED] | Monitors your PC and allows you to freely turn off applications that are run during start-up

AVG Smart Scanning [NEW] | Works while you play and doesn’t waste time scanning files we know are safe

SUPPORT AND UPDATES

Technical Support | Our experts are available 24/7 to help when you need it

Free Priority Updates and Version Upgrades | Ensures you are protected from the latest threats

Auto-fix Button [New] | One click to resolve common issues that could reduce your protection

CORE PROTECTION

AVG Community Protection Network [New] | Shares the latest threat information with the community to make sure everyone receives the best protection

AVG Protective Clould Technology [New] | Uses multiple scanning engines and behavioural detection to identify new threats

AVG Anti-Virus, AVG Anti-Spyware, AVG Resident Shield and AVG Smart Anti-Rootkit [ENHANCED] | 100% Detection makes sure you can’t receive or unintentionally spread even the toughest viruses and spyware

¹AVG Internet Security was rated Number 1 in threat detection by AV-Test Org May-August 2010

All AVG products give you:

• Protection that's relevant to the way you use your computer and the Internet:
• Banking and shopping, surfing and searching, chatting and emailing, or downloading files and social networking – AVG has a protection product that's right for you
• Protection that's trusted by over 110 million people around the world
• Protection that's hassle-free and doesn't get in your way
• Protection that's fueled by a global network of highly-experienced researchers
• Protection that's backed by round-the-clock expert support

Box Contains

PC CD Rom

By : AVG Technologies Ltd.
Price : £34.95

Product Details

• Delivery Destinations: Visit the Delivery Destinations Help page to see where this item can be delivered.
• ASIN: B00422MREO
• Release Date: 10 Nov 2010
  

 

AVG Antivirus, 2 User 2011, 2 Year Subscription (PC)

 

Product Features

• AVG Link Scanner-Shows safety ratings in search engine results, checks web pages in real-time
• Social Networking Protection (New ; Unique to AVG) protects you, your friends on social networks
• AVG Email Scanner: Protects you from dangerous email attachments
• Game Mode = keeps you safe without interrupting your gameplay or movies
• Technical support- experts available 24/7 to help when you need it

Costumer Reviews

I have been a massive an of AVG for many years now, telling everyone that would listen to ignore the big boys and get this antivirus program for free. Of course, its understandable that the publishers would want to also advertise the paid-for version, which might very well be of benefit to many users, and I remember one year it was practically given away for free - all you had to do was subscribe to a mailing list and you got the 'paid for' version free or a year.

But I digress. At some point, AVG ballooned from a 3MB download to an 'installer package' that sucked 150MB from the internet. At the same time, what was once the tightest, gimmick free, and fastest suite on the net became bloated, and slow. Very slow.

Sadly, many other sites have given 'bargepole' status to this product. I find 2011 the worst version yet, and worse still had a nightmare trying to uninstall - were it not for my above average PC skills, I would still be stuck with a half-installed version now. Lets just say it involved regedit to totally remove. Perhaps in allegorical terms I have mellowed from 'angry activist' to 'neo-con' - but my money is now on Microsoft Security Essentials! The biggest irony is that the team behind AVG were once very much in the same camp.

To put the review in context, I'd describe myself as an advanced user. The review was done on a mid 2011 Apple iMac running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit via Boot camp (as in real machine) with 8Gb of RAM. Windows is a fresh install with no AV on and just the Chrome browser and COD:MW2 installed.

I've used AVG extensively in the past. For a free product it was beyond good - it had a tiny foot print and did it's job well blocking any malware and doing a good job with protection whilst being quick and free! The last version I used was AVG 9.

This version of AVG comes in a nice retail box, I popped in the CD and did a quick install, upon entering the supplied licence key though you are told that this is a sales key and you need to go online to register. Seems pointless and a waste of time but I'm sure there is a reason behind this..

Once you get past this, you have the standard install options, with something new called AVG2011 Gadgets - more on this later. You next have the option to install the AVG toolbar - I didn't do this as I prefer a minimal approach to my browser.

After installation, I got a pop up balloon telling me the virus definitions were out of date, which was fair enough but would have preferred it to autoupdate after install like Malware Bytes and most other AV products do.

Remember the temp licence number mentioned earlier? well upon updating the AV the temp sales key is replaced with a full one. you can copy to the clipboard and then click register. You then have to fill in your mail address etc to get a message that you are now fully registered. then you click okay to restart the application. This is the year 2011 so quite why we have to have such a pointless, click happy installation/registration is beyond me!

After finally getting the suite installed, the interface is neatly laid out - you have AV, anti Spyware, Linkscanner, anti root kit, Update Manager, email scanner, online shield, ID protection, resident shield, licence and PC Anaysler options from the front screen. (It also did a background update and wanted to reboot the system).

The first scan used around 50% available RAM and upto 48% CPU usage, but seemed to be quite painless without much slow down on the system. Far more worrying was the 13 processes in task manager, as well as a couple of other SVCHOST threads running - this is most likely due to the different modules but seemed very excessive.

The actual scan took 16 mins 7 seconds for 1045563 files which is pretty impressive.

I fired up IE to test how web threats were handled - the website blocker is useful. I searched for the term "warez" knowing there is some potential malware there and it blocked 4 of the 10 sites with a clear warning so stopping you from going to a potentially bad site by mistake. This would be very useful for casual or inexperienced users and certainly stop some of the malware out there.

The PC analyzer seems the usual kind of autofix utility that shows registry errors, broken shortcuts, etc and is worth it as an addition but nothing fancy that CCleaner or simliar don't do any better.

The resident and online shields block any potential baddies from copying over.

The Gadgets that I mentioned earlier seems to have no purpose other than to quickly update or launch a scan. It can also take you to the AVG twitter feed or facebook page. I turned it off.

Good points for this software

The online and resident shields are both very good

Ideal for new or casual users

Good interface

Price is good for £27

Very quick and unobtrusive scans

Bad points

Pointless registration procedure

The price for £27 is for one year subscription. I personally loath subscriptions and prefer a one off fee.

There is a free version of AVG that has most of the good bits in it - does the extra components justify paying for it?

Gadgets

AVG 2011 is a nice product, once it's up and running, it detects and prevents nasty things from harming your PC, files, and identity and I would strongly recommend the product for novice users, but anyone that knows their way around Windows may benefit more from the free version.

 

AVG Antivirus, 2 User 2011, 2 Year Subscription (PC)