All You Should Know about AVG AntiVirus

AVG Technologies, a division of Avast, created the antivirus software line known as AVG AntiVirus (formerly known as AVG, an acronym for Anti-Virus Guard). It works with Windows, macOS, and Android.

For Windows, Mac, and Android devices, AVG offers AVG AntiVirus Free, AVG AntiVirus for Mac, and AVG AntiVirus for Android, respectively. They are all freemium goods: They are cost-free to download, install, use, and update, but a premium subscription must be purchased for technical help.

In January 2019, AVG discontinued developing new features for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Virus definitions are still available for earlier versions, but newer versions need Windows 7 or later.

AVG stands out from the competition in the antivirus protection industry by offering several features that other firms charge extra for. Its most affordable premium offering is a full antivirus solution, and its free antivirus plan is fairly thorough. 

The link between AVG AntiVirus and Avast, which purchased it in 2016, is the first thing to understand. Although the two solutions are still separate, they are now both based on Avast's detection network, giving them the exact same security rating. The user interface and the functionality available at various membership tiers are where the primary distinctions lie.

We put AVG through practical testing to see how well it protects your devices, as well as bringing in some supporting studies. Before reaching a conclusion, our evaluation of AVG AntiVirus examines its free and paid features, pricing policy, usability, level of protection, and tech support.

Before we get started, there's a warning regarding AVG that we just cannot ignore. Avast has been selling its users' surfing information to advertisers, including AVG users, according to a report from January 2020.

The Avast subsidiary firm Jumpshot, which sold the data, was suspended shortly after the reports surfaced, but this doesn't mean that data harvesting is no longer being done.

Despite these issues, we'll still review AVG because we wanted you to be able to make an educated decision. We advise staying away from Avast, AVG, and all of Avast's other products until it is established that Avast has altered its ways.

Features of AVG AntiVirus

Most of the standard features found in contemporary antivirus and Internet security programs are present in AVG, including routine scans, email scanning (including the addition of notification footers to emails), the ability to repair some virus-infected files, and a quarantine area (virus vault) where infected files are stored.

LinkScanner

Most AVG products use the patent-pending LinkScanner technology, which was purchased from Exploit Prevention Labs and offers real-time updated defense against exploits and drive-by downloads. Search-Shield, a safe search feature that assigns safety ratings next to each link in Google, Yahoo!, and MSN search results, and Active Surf-Shield, a safe surfing feature that instantly examines a website's content to determine whether it is secure before opening, are both included in LinkScanner. Due to issues with site analytics, LinkScanner is a contentious part (see "LinkScanner concerns" below).

Concerns with LinkScanner

The LinkScanner safe search tool of AVG 8.0 has been demonstrated to enhance traffic to websites that rank highly in search engine results pages. Website usage logs revealed inaccurate and exaggerated site visitor counts because LinkScanner masks the scans as coming from an Internet Explorer 6 browser when it prescans each site included in the search results.

Pre-scanning every link in search results also increased the amount of data that websites transferred, resulting in increased bandwidth usage for website owners and sluggish performance for users. The issue of excessive bandwidth utilization was left unresolved when AVG first said that site administrators would be able to filter the LinkScanner traffic out of their site statistics. The rise in traffic has little impact on pay-per-click marketing.

AVG Online Protection

AVG Online Shield is a function created to examine files and guarantee their security. Additionally, AVG Online Shield guarantees the security of file transfers over VoIP and instant messaging services.

In response to complaints, AVG declared that starting on July 9, 2008, "Search-Shield will no longer scan each search result online for new exploits, which was causing the spikes that webmasters addressed with us". Instead, a new build will be released on that day that applies a local blacklist before prefetching and scanning only the links that the user has clicked on.

History of AVG AntiVirus

The name AVG is derived from Grisoft's initial offering, Anti-Virus Guard, which was introduced in the Czech Republic in 1992. In Germany and the UK, the first AVG licenses were sold in 1997. In the US, AVG debuted in 1998.

AVG's product line was made more well-known thanks to the AVG Free Edition. As a result of AVG Technologies' acquisition of the anti-spyware company ewido Networks in 2006, the AVG security suite now includes anti-spyware.

Exploit Prevention Labs (XPLLinkScanner )'s safe search and browse technology was acquired by AVG Technologies in December 2007 and included in the AVG 8.0 security product line, which was released in March 2008. AVG Technologies purchased Sana Security, a maker of identity theft prevention software, in January 2009. In March 2009, this program was included to the AVG security product line.

More than 100 million of the company's more than 200 million active consumers use its goods and services on mobile devices, according to AVG Technologies. Avast announced a deal to buy AVG for $1.3 billion on July 7, 2016.

Pricing of AVG AntiVirus

AVG is attempting to make pricing and planning as simple to understand as possible just by taking a quick look at their product comparison website.

Beyond AVG AntiVirus Free, there are only two options available: Internet Security, which costs $70 annually for one device and $90 annually for ten devices, and Ultimate, which is the same plan with one additional product and costs $120 annually (on unlimited devices).

AVG TuneUp alone costs $50 for Windows and $80 for Mac every year. The annual pricing of AVG's Secure VPN is $90. The rest is all free. Given that AVG chooses to list benefits that are more difficult to quantify, the one criticism of the way it is presented is that it is difficult to actually see a lineup of which features are included with various products.

Affordableness is a key selling point shared by AVG Antivirus and its parent firm Avast. Its free versions include functions that other antivirus providers encrypt behind paywalls, and its premium features are more affordable than those offered by rivals.

The most recent versions still support this assertion. On any machine, AVG Free is a powerful protection suite. Its comprehensive computer scan combines a threat detection and performance scan to find malicious software everywhere it's most likely to be present. In addition, it removes problematic browser extensions.

It's fantastic to see performance scanning here because while real-time protection for web browsing and file downloads is quite normal with free antivirus protection, it isn't. The file shredder and password manager, two utilities that are often paywalled but are included with the secure browser, are among of the nicest additions.

The first tier of AVG's premium protection is a full package that can compete with any other tier of similar protection across the board. You should be aware of how comprehensive your coverage is at its Internet Security level, given that the higher level merely adds a different product and extra subscriptions.

There are still a few items lacking, such as a password vault, and a separate VPN download is required. That in particular seems like a curious item to leave out and, over time, causes unneeded confusion for many users, given how many free VPNs are being offered for all kinds of devices.