AVG Security Software is a range of antivirus and internet security software for the Microsoft Windows and Linux computing platforms by Grisoft.

AVG Anti-Virus & Internet Security Protection

History

The brand name for Grisoft's Security Software is AVG, which comes from their first product, Anti-Virus Guard. Grisoft is a privately held Czech company formed in 1991 by Jan Gritzbach and Tomas Hofer.

In early September 2005, a large stake in the company was bought by Intel Corporation.

On April 19, 2006, ewido Networks became a part of the Grisoft group.

On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced that AVG Security products would be available directly from the Windows Security Center in Windows Vista.

Since June 7, 2006, the AVG software has also been used as an optional component of GFI Mail Security, produced by GFI Software.

On December 5, 2007, Grisoft announced the acquisition of Exploit Prevention Labs, developer of the LinkScanner safe surfing technology.

Versions for Windows clients

Grisoft provides a number of products from the AVG range, suitable for Windows 98 onwards. In addition to this, Grisoft also provides a Linux version of the software.

AVG Anti-Virus is available in both a free and commercial editions. Commercial editions are also available with an integrated firewall.

In addition to anti-virus software offerings, Grisoft also provides Anti-Spyware (free and commercial editions), Anti-Malware software (commercial editions only), a Rescue CD allowing the user to scan and remove viruses and spyware that may be stopping a PC from booting (commercial edition only) and a free Anti-Rootkit tool.

Grisoft also provides the AVG Internet Security suite (commercial edition only) which includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and firewall protection.

All versions of the AVG products are compatible with the 64-bit edition of Windows. All editions run on Windows Vista.

All standard versions of the AVG software are available on a trial basis. Each trial allows all users (including businesses and institutions) a 30-day trial period. After this time a fee is required, which yields a key that unlocks the program for continued use.

Versions for servers

Grisoft also sells AVG antivirus solutions for web/file servers or email servers running either Linux or Windows.

AVG for Linux/FreeBSD

With Version 7.5, Grisoft is providing a solution for FreeBSD for the first time. Grisoft has incorporated spam detection in addition to virus detection for Linux/FreeBSD software.

Features

AVG features most of the common functions available in modern antivirus programs, including periodic scans, scans of sent and received emails (including adding footers to the emails signifying this), the ability to "heal" some virus-infected files, and a "virus vault" in which infected files are held.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

According to Grisoft, over 60 million users have AVG Anti-Virus protection, including users of the Free Edition.

The AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is similar to the AVG Anti-Virus Professional Edition product, but does not have all the features. It lacks the fine-grained control over how scans are conducted. The free editions are not compatible with Linux/FreeBSD. In addition, the free versions do not receive technical support from Grisoft, and English is the only available language.

Grisoft announced that support for AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition version 7.1 ended on February 18, 2007. Users were required to upgrade to AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition version 7.5. Users were encouraged to move to the commercial version of AVG, particularly the AVG Anti-Malware and AVG Internet Security products, as they protect against spyware as well as viruses.

Resource requirements

One feature of AVG is its conservative resource requirements and does not slow it down noticeably. Resource use is low; the AVG Anti-Virus Professional Edition requires 16 MB of RAM and 20 MB of space on the hard drive. AVG Internet Security, however, requires 256 MB of RAM.

AVG Anti-Spyware

On April 19, 2006, it was announced that Grisoft had acquired the German Anti-Malware company ewido Networks. ewido Anti-Spyware was later renamed to AVG Anti-Spyware Professional Edition. A freeware version, AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition, is available for private non-commercial use only and with lower speed updates.

AVGADMIN

AVGADMIN is a remote administration tool, which allows the software to be managed centrally on networks.