Claire’s Random Thoughts

This is post 2/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

I picked AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, even though it’s not open source, because it’s free and has protected my computer for the past few years. Since this great program has served me for years, I figured I could return the favor by promoting the program for anyone hasn’t heard of it yet. For personal use, I would consider this the best security suite, and many people seem to agree with me, because it’s currently the most frequently downloaded program from download.com. If you are currently a paid subscriber of any security software, such as McAfee or Norton, AVG Free Edition may be an effective and cost efficient alternative.

Looking back at my post yesterday, you can probably see that I prefer software with a bundle of features rather than a separate program for every function. AVG does a good job with bundling security features into one package anti-virus, anti-spyware, email scanning, and an option of real-time protection (when I currently have disabled, because it is annoying when you are trying to install anything that can potentially modify a registry file). If you look at this page to compare the free and paid editions of AVG, you will see that the free edition already has most of the essential features.

The only feature that is not in the free edition that I would use regularly is a firewall. However, this minor drawback is not enough to deter me from choosing this security suite over other ones, paid or free. If anyone decides to use AVG Free Edition and needs a firewall, it is fairly easy to search for a free one from download.com, but I have no single favorite recommendation at the moment.

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