AVG Internet Security 9.0

AVG's most p[b][color=green]opular product is its free antivirus, but the company also
makes two enhanced security suites that are geared for users who don't
mind paying for additional protection--as long as it's worthwhile. AVG
Anti-Virus 9 introduces a few new features, claiming faster scan times,
faster boot times, and other under-the-hood improvements.

Users who've used AVG 8 will find the interface nearly identical, and
generally it's easy to use. From the main window, though, you must
double-click to get further information on any feature, whether virus
scanning, firewall protection, or updating. We'd like to see this
streamlined, since there's no reason to click on any of them without
wanting more details; it is a spare interface, otherwise. You'll find a
full-blown scheduling utility for automating tasks and checking for new
definitions as often as you'd like. Other perks include technical
support and the ability to run on multiple operating systems. Should a
virus create serious system problems, AVG creates a rescue disk to scan
your computer in MS-DOS mode. The program doesn't obviously tax your
system when scanning or when running in the background. There's also a
new identity-theft assistance service, available for free and provided
by a third party.

In empirical testing, scan times were slower than expected, and the new
firewall database proved to have autoapproval problems with some
well-known programs. It also detected some image files as threats, when
two other scans decided they weren't--we decided these were false
positives. AVG might not be the fastest or the most effective available
security option, but it still gets the job done and you're better off
with it.