Security protection against spyware, adware and other malicious programs.
AVG Internet Security 8.0 has many new features including Linkscanner technology, which AVG Technologies acquired with its recent purchase of Exploit Prevention Labs. Overall, the product falls flat as an Internet security suite.
Missing from the suite is adequate antiphishing protection beyond e-mail blocking. AVG Internet Security 8.0 flags malicious Web sites, however, unlike the standalone version of Linkscanner there is no additional information provided about a threat. We also found the AVG suite to be resource heavy and produced false positives.
AVG installs Yahoo as the default search engine in up to two locations within your Internet browser, depending upon your installation choices. We were able to download and install AVG Internet Security 8.0 on a Dell XPS machine running Windows XP SP2 with no difficulty and without rebooting. If you are upgrading from a previous version of AVG, you must uninstall that version first before installing version 8.0.
AVG provides a fully functional 30-day trial. There are searchable FAQs on AVG's Web site with a handful of useful questions and answers. There is also a downloadable 172-page PDF users' manual that lacks a comprehensive index. AVG also doesn't provide telephone technical support or a free online user's forum.