AVG 9.0 security software review

Will this keep you safe online?

AVG 9.0 security software. Software, Security software, Viruses And Malware, AVG, AVG9 0

Reviewer: Paul Lester
Review Date: 5 November 2009
Manufacturer: AVG Technologies
Price as reviewed: £from free to £39.99
Latest price: compare

Our score

7/10

Full Review

AVG has been one of the most popular free antivirus tools for many a year, and updates its software for 2010 with the new AVG 9. We’ll kick off by summarising the different versions of the software, which still includes a free version for those who already have a firewall or other security on their system. This includes all the basic tools you need but omits a web shield, anti-rootkit protection, a game mode and technical support, which is all found on the £27.99 standard edition. This version is also available with a firewall for £35.99, though stepping up to the most comprehensive "Internet Security" option would be sensible at this stage, as for £39.99 you get system tune-up tools, anti-spam and identity protection thrown in.

The first thing users of previous versions will notice is that there aren’t a lot of obvious changes here, and though the interface is slightly cleaner, it retains the multi-component layout and stripped down menus that has become synonymous with the software. Most improvements have come in the form of tweaks and enhancements, improving the firewall, phishing protection, anti-spam and in speeding up scans.

This area has seen a distinct improvement in recent times, but it’s worth highlighting that AVG has never been the quickest so it still lags quite seriously behind some of the competition. During our tests it achieved a standard scan time of around 4 minutes, and this doesn’t speed up much during subsequent repeats. By contrast, the excellent Norton AntiVirus 2010 initially took 1 minute to scan the same test system, with subsequent scans dropping to just 10 seconds.

AVG is fairly light on resources and a straightforward approach does make it easy to get to grips with, which should appeal to less experienced users. The firewall has also been improved to allow the software to better make decisions automatically, so you’re not often bugged for confirmation of actions during operation.

AVG has also done pretty well in terms of independent certification recently and though the results aren’t in yet on version 9, we’re confident it is capable of maintaining this standard.

Official Windows 7 compatibility just about rounds off the improvements here, so it seem as though AVG is happy to offer some fairly standard tweaks and enhancements to placate existing users and upgraders rather than attempt to drag in any new business. The free version still has obvious appeal and it’s still one of the best around in this light, but none of "pay" packages are cheap or revolutionary enough to compete against faster, sleeker and more comprehensive software from rivals such as Norton and BitDefender.

Verdict

AVG has tweaked its software to bring it in line with new threats and improve efficiency, but it still lags behind many rivals in terms of scan times and doesn’t really bring enough to the table to encourage new users to ditch their existing internet security in its favour.

Full tags

Software, Security software, Viruses And Malware, AVG, AVG9

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Comments

AVG 7.x was great. AVG 8.x went down the wrong path of trying to be all things and too nannying. I ditched my paid for version in frustration. I then used safe browsing and had no anti-virus which worked well. In the last week I have installed Microsoft Security Essentials to bring back real-time scanning. It's free and works very well. I see no use for AVG in the market now. Posted by Chris, UK
This update was my worst experience with any product in over 7 years. I have used AVG for several years on 2 computers and 2 laptops in my household. To get this (supposed) upgrade to work on 1 of the laptops, I had to boot into safe mode and uninstall AVG completely. Now it is trying to optimize not only the laptop, but my external drive backup and the 2 desktops. "Optimization" has now been running over an hour.

I won't go into the thinly veiled attempts to get me to click on the "30-day trial", or to add another toolbar I don't need, or to re-set my browser to Yahoo.

Why is it that good products go crappy after a few years? Probably the influence of some MBA somewhere.

I've already started to look for a replacement. A simple upgrade should not be this difficult unless your name is Microsoft. Posted by David, USA
David, don't be so hard on AVG. Someone put a lot of work into the download website layout, intervening setup screens and those "veiled attempts". The real question is is version 9 is any good at what it is supposed to do.

Although I do agree that the user should have a say in what gets scanned before the Optimizer starts.

Remember that it is free and you can only wonder what the paying customers have in store for them. Posted by Steve, United States
I paid for my AVG 9.0 upgrade.

My PC now crashes 4 or 5 times a day.

I also had to re-enter my licence key twice to activate the system.

Crap. Posted by Richard, UK
It's hard to tell which of AVG's products you're writing about. The free one, the paid AV one that doesn't have a firewall, the paid one that does, or the Internet Security product? They all have different levels of protection. Though all come with LinkScanner. Posted by Craig Kensek, US
I agree with Chris. My computer would not start up after the upgrade, and would only restart after a System Restore. That gave me back the shortcut to AVG 8.5 but in fact that won't work now. I'll try the suggestion to use Microsoft Security Essentials. Posted by Graham, UK
Steve, after spending a week trying to solve problems on this families 4 machines (all with versions of XP), I was forced to dump AVG 9. On all 4 machines. It (among other things) corrupted explorer.exe, locked-up on shutdown, blocked Outlook, and interfered with Firefox. In every case, removing AVG 9 solved the problem. I loaded AVG from the web site and 2 full downloads from 2 different sites. More work should have been put into the actual program then "the download website layout, intervening setup screens and those "veiled attempts". The answer to the "real question" is that version 9 is not any good at what it is supposed to do, and that is - let the machine run. We've gone back to Avast. All 4 machines have displayed a significant speedup in booting and shutdown times. Avast also found a malware file that AVG 8.5 missed. Posted by David, USA
I am in Korea and have wasted a total of 8 hours trying to get my computer I used to teach from back to its normal self. My computer was freezing up and I had to keep rebooting it. I tried to uninstall but there's no feature for it and had to use some other process removers to get one of it processes out of my system.
Don't waste time on this one. I'm surprised by what the reviewers here and at download,com are saying about this when its evident the users are having a difficult time. Posted by Lee, Korea
I'm afraid I have to agree with the negative comments posted above. I've never had a problem with AVG free before and used to recommend it to anyone who'd listen, but version 9 did all of the things mentioned by other users - freezing applications such as Word, Canon's Zoom BrowserExe, Picasa, and causing serious slowdown of Firefox. I uninstalled it and everything seems to be fine again. I know it's free, and thanks to AVG for all the previous free versions, but this one is not good. The lesson learned is to read the reviews first, I guess. Posted by dimwits, United Kingdom