AVG Free Antivirus Download

Antivirus, anti-virus, or AV software is computer software used to prevent, detect and remove malicious computer viruses. Most software described as antivirus also works against other types of malware, such as malicious Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), browser hijackers, ransomware, keyloggers, backdoors, rootkits, trojan horses, worms, malicious LSPs, dialers, fraud tools, adware and spyware.Computer security, including protection from social engineering techniques, is commonly offered in products and services of antivirus software companies. This page discusses the software used for the prevention, detection, and removal of malware threats, rather than computer security implemented by software methods.

The brand AVG comes from Grisoft's first product, "Anti-Virus Guard", launched in 1992 in Czechoslovakia. In 1997, the first AVG licenses were sold in Germany and UK. AVG was introduced in the U.S. in 1998.

The AVG Free Edition helped raise awareness of the AVG product line.

In 2006, the AVG security package grew to include anti-spyware, as AVG Technologies acquired ewido Networks, an anti-spyware group. That same year, Microsoft announced that AVG components would be available directly within the Windows Vista operating system.

AVG Technologies acquired Exploit Prevention Labs (XPL) in December 2007, and incorporated that company's LinkScanner safe search and surf technology into the AVG 8.0 security product range released in March 2008.

In January 2009, AVG Technologies acquired Sana Security, a developer of identity theft prevention software. This software was incorporated into the AVG security product range released in March 2009.

According to AVG Technologies, over 106 million users have AVG Anti-Virus protection, including users of the Free Edition.

AVG Technologies provides a number of products from the AVG range, suitable for Windows 2000 onwards. In addition to this, AVG Technologies also provides Linux, FreeBSD, and most recently Mac OS X versions of the software. AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 is available in free and commercial editions. AVG 9.0 has identity theft protection through a partnership with Intersections Inc., AVG 9.0 also adds white listing, behavioral protection and cloud operations to their signature-based blocking. The software adds the Resident Shield, firewall, and identity protection modules. The LinkScanner component has been improved to cut phishing threats further. Version 9 was the last version compatible with Windows 2000.

For desktop protection of PC's running Windows, the AVG solutions include:

·                    AVG Internet Security is a full suite which brings together the AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, LinkScanner, Anti-Rootkit, Web Shield, Security Toolbar, Firewall, Anti-Spam, Identity Protection and System Tools protection components.

·                    AVG Identity Protection provides protection against identity theft and unknown malware threats using behavioral monitoring.

·                    AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall provides the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, LinkScanner, Anti-Rootkit, Web Shield, Security Toolbar and Firewall protection components.

·                    AVG Anti-spyware was a rebranded version of ewido Anti-Spyware,that was integrated into AVG Anti-Virus as of version 8.0. A free version was also available, having now been merged into AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

·                    AVG Anti-Rootkit was a free anti-Rootkit program that was discontinued as of late 2006. Like AVG Anti-Spyware, it has now been merged into AVG Anti-Virus

·                    AVGADMIN is a remote administration tool, which allows the software to be managed centrally on networks.^{[citation needed]}

·                    AVG Anti-Virus provides the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, LinkScanner, Anti-Rootkit, Web Shield, and Security Toolbar protection components.

·                    AVG Search a search engine by AVG which provides less risk in internet searching.

·                                Like other security products,^{[citation needed]} AVG disables Windows Defender.

·                    AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition provides basic, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware protection, plus the full AVG LinkScanner safe search and surf technology. There are some limitations with AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition compared to the commercial versions of AVG products and other free antivirus. These limitations include:

·                                Less protection – AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition provides the same anti-virus and anti-spyware scanning engine as the commercial product; however, it lacked anti-rootkit protection until 2010. The older 7.5 Free Edition is perfectly capable of finding and disabling rootkits based on signatures, but cannot scan for rootkit-like activity. The 8.5 version of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition version lacks any anti-rootkit capability. While there is no official protection for files from messaging sources, the Resident Shield component automatically scans files before they are opened or copied.

·                                Infrequent updates – AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition receives updates via a lower priority service. Priority updating via high-speed servers is only available for the commercial versions of AVG products.

·                                No telephone or e-mail technical support – There is no telephone or e-mail technical support provided by AVG for users of AVG Free Edition products anywhere in the world. AVG Free Edition users have access to support via the self-help AVG Free Forum.

·                                Less customization – Scheduling options in AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition are very limited (only one scheduled update per day). However, the AVG Resident Shield configuration allows exclusions. The on-demand/scheduled scanner allows advanced testing options such as heuristics and reporting of password-protected archives reporting. Process priority for on-demand/scheduled scans can be dynamically adjusted over three different configurations.

·                                No server support – AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition cannot be installed on server operating systems (such as Windows Server 2003), nor can it be used for the scanning of network drives. Note, the newer AVG 2011 free edition can be installed on Server operating systems like Windows Server R2.

·                                AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is only licensed for home and non-commercial use on a single computer.

Download