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Reviewed & Rated REVIEWS

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE Free third-party antivirus software often

AVG ANTIVIRUS FOR involves a trade-off. You receive only basic
protection—a term that means different
MAC: A GOOD FREE things to different companies—as well
OPTION as semi-regular “encouragement” to
BY IAN PAUL
upgrade to a paid suite.
AVG AntiVirus Free for Mac (go.
macworld.com/avgm) offers very basic
protection, but isn’t too terrible about
encouraging upgrades. The suite protects
against viruses, secures your desktop email,
your web browsing, and that’s it. Those are
the essentials, however, which go a long
way toward keeping your computer safe.
AVG’s protection is top notch. AV-Test
looked at it in December, and it had a 100

IMAGE: AVG JULY 2020 MACWORLD 25

MACUSER REVIEW: AVG A NTIV IR U S FOR M AC
AVG AntiVirus Free for Mac when you first start the app.
percent protection rate from 145 samples.
AVG for Windows had the same score
from AV-Test’s 0-day, web and email
threats, as well as the widespread and
prevalent malware test.
AV Comparatives’ most recent Mac test
was in June 2019. AVG for Mac also got
100 percent among 585 Mac samples,
and 100 percent against 500 Windows
samples in the same test.
In our own spot tests, AVG did fine. It
had no trouble blocking web-based
threats, as well as a number of malware
samples from the Objective See library.
26 MACWORLD JULY 2020
INTERFACE AND FEATURES
When you first start up AVG Free for Mac
you get a window with four tiles, two of
which are labeled Basic Protection and the
other two are Full Protection. The latter are
for paid subscribers only and include
ransomware protection, phishing protection,
and a Wi-Fi inspector for monitoring all the
devices on your home network.
Under the basic protection the two tiles
are labeled Computer and Web & Email.
Computer includes a file shield that
automatically scans any new files added to
your computer, and then the quarantine
shows any detected malicious files. Web another name for a quick scan and looks at
protection includes the ability to block web- the most common places where malware
based attacks and unsafe downloads, and hides. The Deep Scan is just that, and File
then there’s the email shield for desktop email Scan lets you pick specific files or folders to
programs that scans for unsafe attachments. scan. There’s no option to drag and drop a
The tiles interface isn’t really necessary file or folder for scanning, though you can
for just the basic features. When you go into right-click any file and choose Scan With
each section all you see are sliders that turn AVG from the context menu.
the aforementioned features on or off. Within the Preferences window there
The top of the main dashboard isn’t much to tweak, but the Scanning tab
includes the typical green, yellow, and is worth looking at. Here, you can set AVG
red warning system. When something’s to automatically scan external drives and
wrong with your system or something shared folders, as well as automatically
needs your attention, you’ll see it easily scan Time Machine backups.
here. If everything’s all good, the For anyone who needs it, Preferences
dashboard reads “You have basic → Exceptions tells AVG not to scan specific
protection” lest you forget you haven’t files or folders, which is handy if you deal
yet upgraded to AVG’s premium features. with large media files that have little
The lower part of the primary screen is chance of being corrupted.
reserved for scanning.
The lower left indicates
when your last scan
happened, the lower
right indicates if
the virus definitions are
up to date, and in the
center is the Scan Mac
button. There are also
three dots, which show
the three types of
scans you can do: Mac
Scan, Deep Scan, and
File Scan. The
Mac Scan is just AVG’s Deep Scan for Mac.

JULY 2020 MACWORLD 27

MACUSER REVIEW: AVG A NTIV IR U S FOR M AC
AVG’s scanning settings for Mac.
BOTTOM LINE
It costs nothing and protection
is top notch, what more could
you ask for? Well, you might
want ransomware protection,
and the phishing protection is
also important—especially if
you’re prone to click on links
you shouldn’t in email, social
media, or a chat window.
Upgrading to AVG Internet
Security costs $30 for a
year, $57.36 for two years,
or $82.44 for three. Those
28 MACWORLD JULY 2020
are new customer prices that will
inevitably go up once you
mmmm reach the end of your first
AVG AntiVirus for subscription period.
Mac For those who don’t want to
pay extra, AVG isn’t too
PROS
• Very good antivirus
protection. bothersome with its upgrade
• Protects against
web-based threats.
offers, though you can’t miss
CONS them when you look at the
• No ransomware or phishing primary window. If you’re
protection.
PRICE looking for solid protection with
Free basic antivirus features, then
AVG AntiVirus for Mac is a
COMPANY
AVG
good choice. ■
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