AVG Anti-Virus 2012 Review

AVG is one of the leading antivirus companies in the world.  They’ve been developing anti-malware programs for just about as long as malware existed. Founded in 1991, AVG’s strong performance has continued with AVG Anti-Virus 2012, and the product remains one of the best-performing anti-virus programs on the market today.

AVG is known for its comprehensive protection. Much like other leading solutions on the market, it creates this protection by forcing malware to pass through layers of filters. These filters are updated constantly based on information from AVG’s home server, and your computer is always keeping up with the newest threats. By the time AVG has finished scanning your computer, any viruses that you had should be totally eliminated from your system.

For that reason, AVG Anti-Virus has consistently placed among the highest performing software in its category. If you want easy, effective and affordable protection against some of the most dangerous viruses out there, then you need this program.

Features, features, features

AVG Anti-Virus is loaded with features. Some of them are more useful than others, and there are plenty of tools that you will probably never use. AVG Resident Shield, for example, prevents you from accidentally accessing infected files, which is most definitely a good thing.

AVG Social Networking Protection takes a similar approach, and automatically scans links on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites before you can click on them. An AVG safety rating will even show up in search engines, allowing you to judge the worthiness of a link long before you actually click on it.

Interestingly enough, AVG Anti-Virus also includes protection for your gaming profiles. So, if you’re playing MMOs like World of Warcraft, AVG will silently protect your personal information against hackers. This is a priceless feature for anybody who’s invested several hundred hours into an MMO character, and with MMO hackers becoming more and more prolific every day, this sort of protection has never been more valuable.

Whether you use them all or not, AVG’s many features will ensure that your computer remains protected in all sorts of different ways. And, if you have any questions about the effectiveness of these features, or about any aspect of AVG Anti-Virus, you can browse through AVG’s comprehensive in-program help menu.

Performance

If you’ve used AVG Anti-Virus in the past, then you may have noticed slightly longer startup times for your computer. The 2012 edition is no different. While it is a slight improvement over previous instalments, our test computer still took a bit longer then we’d like to load.

Compared to some of the other high-end solutions available, AVG also has a relatively heavy performance impact on your system.  While this edition promises to use less memory and processing power than other editions, it can still impact your performance in a noticeable and annoying way. If you have a fairly new or powerful computer, this likely won’t be a problem; however, for those on older systems, there are plenty of other – better – options that will have less of an impact on your performance.

However, this doesn’t really detract from AVG’s main strength, which is offering top-quality antivirus protection at an affordable price. If you’re willing to sacrifice a little bit of performance to ensure that your computer remains protected, then you can’t do much better than AVG Anti-Virus 2012.

Key Features

• One of the best antivirus programs on the market
• Tons of useful and innovative features that provide well-rounded security for your PC
• Larger installation size than many antivirus programs and relatively high performance requirements  

Pros

• The usual high-quality protection from AVG
• Constant automatic updates to ensure your computer is keeping up with the latest threats
• Fair price
• Lots of cool features
• Faster scan times than many other leading programs without sacrificing effectiveness

Cons

• Some issues with false positives
• Drags down your computer’s performance and increases startup times

The Verdict

AVG Anti-Virus is one of the top 5 antivirus programs on the market. It has comprehensive, effective protection against malware and viruses and is offered at a fair price. The free, regular updates ensure that your computer is always protected, while the extra features protect all areas of your computer, including social media, instant messaging, web searches, and more. If you want total protection for your computer, then you’ve got it with AVG Anti-Virus 2012.