free avg download AVG AntiVirus Free. AVG Antivirus free is one of the most popular antivirus programs on the market. The company is moving from annual releases to rolling releases: as long as you have a subscription, you'll have the latest version of their software. Rolling releases: In the past, buying a copy of AVG would get you regular antivirus updates, but features would not change until you bought the following year's version. Now you can always have the newest version of AVG. It's free: Although it's release method has changed, you can still get a version that costs no money -- though there are a few strings attached (more on that in the Cons section below). Modular installation: AVG has separate components that can monitor your desktop email client and your Web browser for threats, and you can choose to not install both of these, if you have other software that covers these bases already. Installer gotchas: If you don't intervene by using a "custom" installation, the installer will put you on a 30-day trial of one of the company's paid products instead of installing AVG Antivirus Free. And it will change your Web browser's homepage and default search engine to Bing.com. PC Analyzer has issues: AVG Antivirus features a PC Analyzer, which checks for registry errors, junk files and broken shortcuts that can be deleted, and disk defragmentation. The problem is, you're not supposed to defrag a solid-state drive, but PC Analyzer did not appear to notice what type of drive it was. The analyzer is also all-or-nothing; you can't skip the defrag or the registry cleaner and just delete junk files and shortcuts, for example. Bottom Line. According to independent testing labs such as AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, AVG uses a solid antivirus engine. But the hoops you have to jump through in the installer and the technical error in the PC Analyzer have an impact on trust and confidence in the product. My AVG Is Slow at Startup. AVG helps protect your computer from viruses, worms and other malware threats by examining every application that runs. As AVG reports, this type of scanning activity does not usually slow your system down. If you experience slow start-ups, poor system performance or other issues that cause your computer to run slowly, you may have a problem you can fix yourself without contacting technical support. Your System May Be Struggling. When Windows launches, it starts AVG along with other programs and services that the operating system needs to run. If your computer has limited resources, such as hard drive space and memory, it can take longer for AVG to start. While it's possible to install the program if your computer meets the minimum system requirements, AVG recommends running the program on a computer that meets its recommended requirements that are higher than the minimum requirements. You can view AVG requirements on the company's system requirements webpage. Keep Your Protection Current. You can often resolve problems by ensuring that your computer is running the latest version of a software program. AVG asks customers to upgrade to the latest version if they're using an older one. AVG's Upgrade page provides a download link that you can follow to obtain the latest AVG version for free (link in Resources). Perform this task first, and you may fix your slow start-up problem and help your computer run faster. More Doesn’t Always Mean Better. You may think that running several anti-virus programs at once increases your protection, but AVG recommends using one security program to protect your computer. Otherwise, you may experience slow processing. Security apps that conflict with AVG include Norton, Avast and Microsoft Security Essentials. If you try to install AVG and an existing antivirus program on a computer that has a conflicting security program, the installation program warns you. If you install conflicting software after you install AVG, you may still experience problems that go beyond slow processing. For instance, AVG may find it difficult to detect viruses, and you could experience Internet connection issues. Slowness Can Be Helpful. You may notice experience slow startups if you recently installed AVG. In fact, it can take 10 minutes or more for the program to perform its initial scan when you first install the program. However, you won’t have to worry about this slowdown in the future because this scan only occurs once. AVG automatic updates help keep your computer secure, but they can also slow your computer when they occur. If you see an animation in your system tray, you'll know that AVG is updating. Things may also slow down when the application runs a system test. Open AVG and click "Reports" when you’d like to see a report that shows the updates and tests that the software has performed. The Most Lightweight Antivirus For An Old PC Or Weak Laptop. It is criminal negligence to have a Windows PC without an antivirus installed. Well, it isn't, but it should be, at the very least. Even if we have a computer with limited capabilities or is quite old, we can install a lightweight antivirus which doesn't use much of the system's resources. In this guide, we have tested the best free, lightweight antivirus apps for old or low-end systems, for adequate safety without any annoying delays or freezes. Unblock any international website, browse anonymously, and download movies and Mp3 with complete safety with CyberGhost, just for $2.75 per month: Table of Contents. Do I need a lightweight antivirus? Most users see the antivirus as a burden for the PC. Some find it a "necessary burden." Others will skip it altogether, believing they will be safe if they are "careful." However, the "resource-hog" antivirus is mostly a myth, at this point. Most award-winning antivirus suites have minimal resource usage, as confirmed by official benchmarks. They should perform fine in most older systems. Panda Dome. Support: Windows 10, 8 / 8.1, 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP (SP3 or newer version), Mac, Linux, Android, iOS Size: 139 MB. Panda Dome is the successor of the well-known Panda Cloud Antivirus. It is considered one of the best antivirus in the AVTest labs, and we can download it from here. This free and lightweight antivirus uses the power of cloud computing to scan and remove viruses from our computer in real time. Furthermore, it offers a multilingual interface, for ease of use. Panda dome can protect our USB devices from virus infection, by scanning them when connected to the PC. Also, it provides an optional free VPN to secure our sensitive transactions with a 150MB daily limit. Finally, the lightweight antivirus includes the useful Rescue Kit, which creates a rescue unit in a USB flash drive. Hence, we can use it to remove malware on an infected computer which won't boot into the OS. Pros. Efficient malware detection in real time. We can create a rescue unit in a USB drive. USB device protection. Use of cloud computing technology. High rating from the AV test labs. Supports multilingual interface. Low impact on OS speed. Cons. We can only get technical support in the paid version. Comodo Cloud Antivirus. Support: Windows 7/8/10, Vista / XP SP2 32-bit / 64-bit, Linux, Mac Size: 96 MB. We have been using Comodo for a while in our personal systems, and we can confirm that it is a lightweight antivirus which does what it promises. It successfully tracks and isolates any threat on time, without slowing down our low-specification PC. This software is also considered one of the best antiviruses in the AVTest labs benchmarks. Comodo Cloud Antivirus has a particularly small installation size, less than 100MB. It also uses the company's cloud service, which makes it perfect for small storage laptops. We can download it from here. Comodo employs a combination of methods to secure our PC. One noteworthy technology is the auto-sandbox, which performs a behavior analysis for the immediate protection of our computer from unknown and well-known malware. When we install a potentially suspicious application, we will receive a warning at first. If we proceed, then Comodo will open it into a protective green frame. That means that we can run it without harming our computer. This functionality is the same that we can get with a separate app such as Sandboxie. Secure shopping is a similar function, which isolates the browser into the sandbox so that we can perform our sensitive bank transactions safely. Of course, it's not as secure as the use of a VPN, but it's better than nothing. The lightweight antivirus offers real-time protection by scanning our files with the Comodo cloud-based servers. Those servers contain the most recent blacklists for viruses and other threats. Lastly, Comodo offers Rescue Disk. It's a free and straightforward tool when Windows doesn't start, and it checks for viruses from its autonomous interface. If we had to pick one disadvantage for Comodo, that would be the extreme protection. While that sounds like a good thing, the app will isolate all applications that it won't already recognize as registered in the service, and will also provide excessive alerts. Pros. Excellent malware detection in real time Virtual desktop with an easy interface We can create a rescue disk for emergency It has a convenient widget on the desktop High rating from the AV test labs Zero impact on system resources.