AVG has been shown to be one of the greatest free virus removal programs available to this date. Whether you are shopping around for a retail version of antivirus or you know what you are doing around a computer and think you can be trusted with the free version, AVG performs well against the competition. You should still exercise caution when browsing the internet. AVG cannot prevent every virus from getting on your computer. Even though AVG is ranked fairly well against the competition, that doesn’t mean it is amazing and will prevent everything. In the following article, I will discuss why we feel AVG is among the best free virus removal programs, and what makes people want to pay for the retail version.

To begin with, AVG is less resource intensive than many other anti virus software. What I mean by resource intensive is that it takes a lot of computer processor memory in order to run many of the Antivirus programs. For example, McAfee takes 5 times more hard drive space to install than AVG. It states that it requires the same amount of RAM however I feel that it actually uses far more. I was not able to find any information on how much CPU McAfee requires but AVG requires a Pentium with 300MHz so its not much and would be very hard to beat. Norton requires: 300 MHz or faster processor, 256 MB of RAM (**512 MB RAM recommended and required if you use the recovery tool), and 150 MB of available hard disk space. When running AVG, it is very difficult to tell any difference in performance of your computer even if you happen to be playing a game, which requires many of your computers resources. This is one reason I recommend it to anyone.

Second, when it comes to detecting viruses, AVG is among the best. Can you believe that AVG has a 93% detection rate? The free version has a little lower and the retail version a little higher but this is the average. Even with the difference, I have had the free version of AVG find numerous things that McAfee and Norton Antivirus missed.

Third and probably most important, ITS FREE! AVG Free is an excellent product and will out perform most antivirus that you would buy in a store. That is why the retail version of AVG is AMAZING. If you know what you are doing with computers and feel pretty safe using one you will be okay using AVG Free with Spybot or some other Spyware remover, however if you are not so comfortable with using a computer and worried about not being safe; I would recommend buying the retail version and keeping it updated. This is just to make sure you are safe. Always remember, its cheaper to pay for an antivirus than to lose all your cash to a hacker!

Finally, there are a number of programs that AVG is not compatible with. I just want to list those out here so if you have these on your computer you either need to not install AVG or remove the other program in order for it to work correctly. Webroot Spysweeper, ICQ toolbar, Session Manager 0.6.1.13 add-on, StumbleUpon Toolbar, System Protect, Dell Network Assistant, and Contafiscal 2000 are not compatible with various parts of AVG and having both on the same machine should be avoided.

In closing, AVG is great software for the price since it is free and I will always highly recommend it, unless something better shows up for the price. It is lighter than any other antivirus, detects more viruses than other software, it’s FREE, and there are very few programs that it has an issue with. If you are in the market for a great edition to your computer security arsenal then I highly recommend AVG Free. If you don’t consider yourself computer savvy and want to keep your money in your bank account and not share your passwords with everyone else I would recommend buying the retail version of AVG antivirus.