Grisoft AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Professional Edition was the least-expensive option of the eight programs we tested in our "Virus Stoppers" antivirus roundup, and its 91 percent overall malware detection rate puts it in the middle of the pack in that critical category. The software's last-place proactive protection performance, clunky interface, and lack of U.S. phone support, however, dropped it to seventh place in our rankings.
AVG did a fine job in the disinfection tests, reversing more than 80 percent of changes made by malware. It was the only program that removed all malware files and reversed both changes to the Hosts network settings file, though like every other app it missed some less-important Registry changes.
But in proactive protection tests, which use one-month-old signature files to detect new malware, AVG ranked last. It failed to detect about two out of every three malware samples.
Also, the program puts the user in charge of too many decisions that require too much know-how. To schedule a scan, for example, you have to wade through a "test manager" and figure out the differences between a complete test, a detailed test, a detailed user test, or a simple user test. Grisoft plans to revamp the interface, but we found this one hard to manage.
Grisoft's AVG integrates nicely with Eudora and Microsoft Outlook to quarantine suspect e-mail messages, and scans all programs' e-mail traffic over POP3 and SMTP protocols. However, it was only one of two programs (Trend Micro's AntiVirus plus Anti-Spyware 2007 being the other) that don't scan Web traffic, and it also doesn't directly support any specific IM clients.
Grisoft offers a free version that lacks antispyware protection and has a limited ability to schedule scans. The paid Professional version is $30, and renewal costs only a scant $15 per year thereafter.
We tested the Vista version of Grisoft AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Professional Edition for our "Virus Stoppers" roundup. An XP version of the software is also available.
Ryan Naraine