AVG Internet Security 2012 (2012.0.1809) – Full Review

The Rating Scale Breakdown:

• 0  – 0.5 – Abysmal
• 1 – 1.5 – Terrible
• 2 – 2.5 – Poor
• 3 – 3.5 – Average
• 4 – 4.5 – Great
• 5.0 – Excellent

• Undetermined – Too soon to tell or lacking evidence to provide a solid answer
• Not Tested - Has yet to be requested or there is some limitations to prevent accurate test results

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Price: $49.49 USD

A. Installation AVG – 4.0 “Great“ – Slower then AVG claims.

B. Un-installing AVG – 3.5 “Average“ – A little faster then AVG 2011

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C. Stability Of Program – 5.0 “Excellent” – We have received absolutely no e-mails about the lack of stability.

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D. Has AVG Free Been Compromised By Hackers Or Virus – 5.0 “Excellent” – AVG Internet Security 2012 has not been compromised or disabled.

E. Speed of Scan – 5.0 “Excellent“ – Very quick on most computers. Also now you can decide how much memory you want to take up during each system scan.

F. Does AVG Free Do Automatic Updates By Itself Without Issue – 5.0 “Excellent“ – Yes, and this time around there seems to be no stalling and or hanging. When we manually update AVG. As we have seen in older versions of AVG.

G. Internet Browser Cookie Detection Rate And Removal Test – 2.5 “Poor“ - Getting better. But you are way better off with SUPERAntiSpyware or CCleaner to remove your Internet cookies.

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1. Anti-Virus Detection Rate Test -

1A. Windows XP - 4.0 “Great“

1B. Windows Vista – 4.0 “Great“

1C. Windows 7 – 4.0 “Great“

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2. Anti-Spyware – 2.0 “Poor“ – AVG still seems to miss very common and not so common spyware/adware. You are much better off with SUPERAntiSpyware or Spybot as your adware, spyware, malware protection.

3. One Click Fix – 4.5 “Great“ – I really like this idea. But I am not a fan of the idea that if I wanted to de-activated a service. Such as the Link Scanner that AVG should still show my PC as not being fully protected.

4. Anti-Spam - 3.0 “Average“ - Tough to setup and GMail has better spam mail protection. 

5. FireWall - 3.5 “ Average“ — Not the best Firewall I’ve tested. But it does do what it is suppose to most of the time.

6. Link Scanner - 4.5 “Great“ - Can be very very useful to some.

7. AVG Security ToolBar – 3.5 “Average“ - Not a big fan of any toolbars. But at least this time around it seems to not crash my browser.

8. AVG SideBar Gadget – 3.5 “Average” – Less functional then most other sidebar gadgets and or widgets. But it can be very useful for quick AVG interactions.

9. Residential Shield Test – 3.5 “Average“ – I find that AVIRA and or AVAST still seems to grab the virus way before AVG does.

10. Family Safety - 4.5 “Great“ - Cost $19.99 CAD per year for 3 PC’s to activate this just newly added option. But it covers unlimited profiles. So you can have just one or two kids or 11 kids and your good. Provided it is only used up to 3 PC’s.

11. LiveKive - Not Tested – This option has just been added to AVG Dashboard. But it cost money to activate. -See below for cost to activate said option-

*Cost $49.99 CAD for 25 GB of storage per year.

*Cost $79.99 CAD for Unlimited  storage per year.

12. E-Mail Scanner - 3.5 “Average“ - It’s ok, But I find it is way more difficult to set-up then it needs to be.

13. Update Manager – 5.0 “Excellent“ – No issues here at all. And it even updates faster then past AVG versions.

14. Online Shield - 4.0 “Great“ – Still not really sure how really effective this option is.

15. Anti-Root Kit – 4.5 “Great“ – Very hit and miss. But can be very useful if there is a reason to believe you may have a deep rooted virus. Never hurts to run this every few weeks just to be on the safe side. And AVG has it as a completely separate dedicated scan option as well (Which makes it way quicker to run and it uses much less system resources.)

16. System Tools – 3.5 “Average” – Great idea but very poorly done. Now the information is there but it is very very hard to decipher even for the more Computer Savvy of us.

17. Identity Protection -  4.5 “Great” - A very useful feature that lets you know when you maybe at risk for identity theft and or other important information maybe at risk. Such as with Peer 2 Peer file sharing programs, certain add-ons and some toolbars.

18. PC Analyzer – 0.5 “Abysmal” – If you don’t mind that you only can fix your errors for free once then great. But if you are like me and you probably feel this options is both somewhat misleading and out right bait to buy this extremely expensive add-on. Then you are probably with me on my conclusion.

** On a side note I fully expected with the paid version of AVG Internet Security 2011. That the PC Analyzer would be an included as a usable option.

19. AVG Support - 1.0 “Terrible” – Even with e-mail support and phone support. AVG remains as one of the worst main stream software companies for help with their paid versions of their software. And yet again this is very disappointing and sad thing to report as AVG is in the top 3 Anti-Virus solutions out there.

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My Final Verdict Part 1: There has not been any overwhelming improvements in this new build of AVG Internet Security 2012. But the main changes appears to be the new UI (User Interface) and that for what ever reason AVG decided to hide all of its features. In its “Tools tab” under “Advanced Settings”.

My Final Verdict Part 2: I’m not really sure why AVG feels the need to hide the vast majority of its good features. Instead of having it all visible and active via the main user interface. Now I understand certain features by default should be non-active. But why so many important features need to be activated by hand. Seems some what bewildering to me. When the bulk of the features are so important and often are the main reasons you spent nearly $50 dollars in the first place.

**It’s almost as if AVG wants you to browse their huge advanced setting list. Just for the purpose of making the user feel like computer expert. When in reality most users won’t know what the hell to do with all the options. That are barely even explained in the first place. Unless of course you enjoy opening up a PDF user manual.

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My Overall Score: 101/135

74.8% = B -

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Here are 2 links to download the 30 day trailware version of AVG Internet Security 2012:

1. http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-internet-security (AVG Main Site)

2. http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Internet-Security-2012/3000-2239_4-10710160.html?tag=mncol;2 (Via download.com/Cnet)

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Return To The Main Reviews Page

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Till The Next Review,

Remy “Se7en”

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