Avast has one of the most popular antivirus apps around, due in part to offering a free version, and it's one that performs respectably. The company acquired its rival AVG in September of 2016, and now both use Avast's malware scanning engine, but their distinct personalities remain. Here are the highlights of Avast's latest release. Pros Easy to use: Avast has four main protection components: File Shield, Behavior Shield, Web Shield, and Mail Shield.

If, for example, you use webmail and/or you find that Avast's Web Shield interferes with your web browsing, you can disable both relevant protection layers, while keeping the others active. Now, ordinarily, an antivirus app will keep warning you to turn these features back on. But if you really don't need them enabled, you can tell Avast that you want to ignore those warnings, and it won't bother you about those settings again. Solid protection: According to independent labs, such as AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, Avast Free isn't quite as sharp as industry leaders like Trend Micro or Bitdefender, but it's arguably the best protection you'll find that comes without a price tag. Aggressively low pricing: If you do decide to order Avast Pro, you can do so from within the app, and Avast offers a one-year subscription for a reasonable $15, which is about half of its street price. If you change your mind, Avast offers a 60-day trial of Avast Internet Security, which was priced at $20 a year. Pro purports to add enhancements to online banking security and 'a test space for checking suspicious apps.'

Download AVG AntiVirus Free for. Free Download Safe download. AVG AntiVirus Free. AVG AntiVirus Free is the free version of AVG's anti-virus software.

This latter function appears to be a sandbox, in which you can open an app and investigate its behavior without risking an infection. Relatively muted sales pitch: Free antivirus apps have a reputation for being pretty pushy about paying for a subscription, but Avast is on the low-key end of the spectrum (and it has been for a number of years). There are a couple upgrade buttons on the main console, and a number of features (a firewall, URL safety verifier, and 'Webcam Shield,' among others) that redirect you to an order screen when you click on them, but nothing felt particularly tricky, and the sales pitch doesn't make ironclad claims about what the program can do. Data collection transparency: Avast tells you right off the bat that it wants to gather anonymized usage data, some of which may be used to help fund development, but you can disable this function in the Privacy settings. Though it would be nice if it explained what 'certain' information it wanted to gather. Cons Some settings could use more explanation: Avast's settings menus have a number of icons marked with an exclamation point that you can click on for further details. But the description for CyberCapture doesn't sound substantially different from what a virus scanner already does: It 'analyzes unrecognized files, defends and warns you about new threats, and helps keep your system secure.'

And Hardened Mode is there 'to further lock down the security of this computer.' But in what way? Subscription offers can get confusing: The $15 offer is available via the upgrade buttons on the main console, but it's not an option when you click on one of the features that has a padlock on it. There, you get two different offers: $20 a year for or $30 a year for.

But if you, say, click on the padlocked 'Sensitive Data Shield' icon, you only see the Avast Internet Security offer, and it has a different list of advertised features. Bottom Line While there are some quirks in the interface, Avast is a respectable and respectful antivirus app overall, and the paid version is notably budget-friendly. From Lightweight, state-of-the-art protection that won't slow down your PC. Avast Free Antivirus has been redesigned to be easier to use while staying light on your PC. It offers proprietary, cutting-edge CyberCapture technology that finds and stops unknown files, as well as improved Wi-Fi Inspector which can identify even more weak points in your router.

It also features SafeZone, the world's most secure browser, and an enhanced Game Mode which turns off background checks and updates to maximize your gaming experience. Reply by Avast Team on February 9, 2018 Hi quick235 -- we're concerned about this and would like to do everything we can to help. Did you contact our support team directly at any time? They can help you with any billing concerned and make things right for you. Here's the link to contact our support team: You can also email us directly at avast-team@avast.com at any time, and we'll be happy to assist. Thanks for your patience and we look forward to getting things straightened out.

AVG Antivirus Free is an antimalware security suite that includes an active file and email scanner, plus Web browsing protection. Avast Software (AVG's main competitor) bought AVG Technologies in October 2016, but the two brands and product lines remain separate. Pros Highly customizable behavior: It doesn't look like it at first glance, but AVG Antivirus Free offers a variety of sliders and checkboxes to let you tweak its scanning behavior. Click the Menu button and select Settings to see all your options. They are categorized and nested intuitively, and you can create backups of your settings (it would also be nice to have an option to reset everything to defaults). Helpful explanations of jargon: A lot of settings have an 'i' icon you can put your mouse pointer on to display a small pop-up window with more information. If that's not enough, there's a context-sensitive?

Button in the upper right that will take you to an AVG webpage with more detailed information about what the setting does. Ideally, this extra layer of info would be available offline, but such a feature is unfortunately rare among antivirus apps. Historically above-average malware detection: According to the tests performed in the past by independent labs such as AV-Test and AV Comparatives, AVG has performed moderately better than one would expect from a free malware scanner. Cons Upsell-oriented interface: Antivirus companies prefer paying customers, and they are sometimes more aggressive about converting free users than we'd like. When you double-click the AVG icon in the Windows system tray, it doesn't take you to the antivirus interface. Instead, it displays AVG Zen, which advertises three tools not included in the AVG Antivirus Free package: PC Tuneup, HMA Pro VPN, and Web Tuneup. There's a button on the far left to access your antivirus, but the following window divides your tools into Basic Protection and Full Protection, the latter of which is not included.

Then there's a section below with more product offers. Full Protection includes a software firewall, file encryption, and a mechanism to detect when an imposter website is trying to trick you into giving it your credit card info; that package costs $70 per year. It does not include the VPN (virtual private network) or the tuneup tools; those are bundled with AVG Ultimate, which costs $100 per year. Alternatively, you can get the PC Tuneup tool separately for $50 per year, the VPN for $100 per year, and the Web Tuneup tool for free.

These are all substantially higher prices than you'll see for Norton, McAfee, and other competing security suites, which makes the upsells that much more disagreeable. Not to mention that PC Tuneup's functionality is largely replicated by CCleaner (, ), which you can get for free. Free Download Youtube Video Downloader Software For Windows 8 more. Bottom Line AVG offers a fine degree of control and competently explains its various functions, but user appeal is diminished by a sales-driven interface. [Correction: A previous version of this review stated that Avast's malware scanner produced a false positive, which turned out to be incorrect upon further investigation. This changes the review score from 3 stars to 3.5 stars.]. From Three reasons to use AVG AntiVirus FREE: Millions trust it to protect them, it consistently earns top ranks among the world's best antivirus products, and it gives you some of the best security features around for free.

Our essential antivirus installs in just moments, and then protects you forever - without slowing you down. With AVG AntiVirus FREE on your side, you're protected on two layers: • Computer Protection: Our real-time protection helps keep your computer free of viruses, spyware, ransomware, rootkits, Trojans, and other nasty malware. It also uses advanced artificial intelligence and real-time analysis to stop even the newest threats from reaching you. • Web&Email Protection: We block any unsafe links, downloads, and email attachments you run into so you can enjoy your online life without worries. Best of all, anytime an AVG user encounters an unknown threat, we quickly analyze it, create a cure, and then push it out to our millions of users so everyone is better protected. You don't have to lift a finger. You're covered there, too.

We push security updates and new features to you automatically, so you're always up-to-date. Anyone looking for a refreshingly simple antivirus that still packs a powerful punch and won't slow you down can't go wrong with AVG AntiVirus FREE. Download it now to see why AVG is the preferred choice for millions of people worldwide.