AVG Antivirus review

Virus & Spyware Protection: 72% 

AVG's overall virus and malware protection performed well in some of our tests but missed the mark in others. 

For our first set of tests, we heavily infected our testing PCs with a host of malware, including trojans, viruses, rogueware, etc, then ran a full-system scan with AVG AntiVirus 2016. 

AVG did a good job, detecting and removing the majority of embedded threats. Unfortunately, our browsers were still hijacked by foreign adware, and there were still a lot of leftover desktop icons, despite their being rendered inactive by AVG, leaving the impression that malware remained even though all that was left were the harmless icons. 

When we looked for any malware lurking in the background, consistently we found nothing, which was impressive. 

AVG's real-time protection fared well, too. For our tests, we installed a clean and updated version of AVG, then tried to download and install a wide array of malware samples. 

Malware files were instantly blocked or flagged for removal by AVG. The adware that did get through was cleaned up after a reboot, when nearly everything was removed leaving our testing PCs good as new. 

Now for the concerning point: antiphishing. During our tests, we sampled a wide range of live, active phishing sites to see how well an antivirus software will do. AVG didn't block any of them. Not one. 

In fact, we thought this had to be an error, and double- and triple- checked on different test PCs to make sure AVG was configured correctly. It was. AVG just failed to detect or block any phishing sites. 

We even went one step further and tested some older phishing links that all antivirus software should easily detect. Not AVG AntiVirus. Failed again. 

So, while we're happy to see antiphishing included in a basic antivirus software, and normally we'd award bonus points for having it, in this case we have to remove points because of the false sense of security given. 


Resource Usage: 82% 

Last year AVG was the champ in the resource use department. This year, AVG uses a more than it did last year and in fact more than some competition. On balance it's still within acceptable range. 

When running idle, AVG ran nearly silent in the background. When running a full-system scan, AVG used about 14% of our computer resources on average. It may be a bit higher than we'd like to see, especially from the reigning champ of resource use, but it's still acceptable. 

Boot-up time was a few seconds slower than the competition but shouldn't pose a problem for most people. 


User Interface: 89% 

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AVG's user interface is easy enough to use. Green and red colors clearly indicate which sections are active and protected, and which are not. 

Each major section is clearly identified with easy to read buttons for easy access. 

There are a decent number of advanced options for more detailed control for those who need it, and they do a fairly good job of presenting the options without making them overwhelming. 

Overall, it's a well-executed interface. McAfee would be well-served to study AVG's interface.

AMD Teases Radeon RX 480: Launching June 29th For $199

Kicking off at this moment is AMD’s Computex 2016 keynote. The company has multiple announcements scheduled this evening, but we’re going to jump right into an area that has been of extreme interest for many of our readers: GPUs.

Ahead of this evening’s event, AMD sent out an email to the press teasing the first of their discrete Polaris architecture based cards. Called the Radeon RX 480, AMD has unveiled much of the product’s specifications, but also its price and availability. When the card hits the streets on June 29th, it will be starting at the crucial mainstream battleground price point of $199.

First off, the RX 480 will include 36 CUs. If we assume 64 stream processors to a CU – the GCN standard – then this brings us to 2304 SPs. AMD has not named the specific Polaris GPU being used here, but given the CU count I believe it’s reasonable to assume that this is a Polaris 10 SKU, as I’ve already seen Polaris 11 and it’s a very small chip better suited for notebooks.

AMD also revealed that the card would offer over 5 TFLOPs of compute performance. Given what we know about the CU count, this allows us to estimate the GPU clockspeed. This puts the lower bound of the GPU clockspeed at 1.08GHz and an upper bound (6 TFLOPs) at 1.3GHz, which would be in the range of 10-30% higher clocked than comparable Radeon 300 series cards.

In terms of raw numbers this puts the RX 480 just shy of the current Radeon R9 390. However it also doesn’t take into account the fact that one of the major focuses for Polaris will be in improving architectural efficiency. I would certainly expect that even at the lower end of clockspeed estimates, RX 480 could pull ahead of the R9 390, in which case we’re looking at a part that would deliver performance between the R9 390 and R9 390X, with final clockspeeds and architectural efficiency settling just how close to R9 390X the new card gets.

On the memory front the card is equipped with 8Gbps GDDR5, running along a 256-bit memory bus. This is the typical bus width for AMD x80-series cards, and the high clocked 8Gbps GDDR5 means that we’re looking at a total of 256GB/sec of memory bandwidth to feed the RX 480’s GPU. AMD’s partners will be offering both 4GB and 8GB cards, and for the purposes of this teaser I assume that pricing information will be for the 4GB card, with 8GB serving as a premium option.

Finally, AMD has also revealed the TDP for the RX 480, stating that it will be a 150W card. As Polaris is built on 14nm FinFET, we’re seeing first-hand the benefits of finally making the long-awaited jump off of 28nm, as this means we’re looking at Radeon R9 390 series performance in a card that, on paper, consumes only a bit more than half the power. This also puts the RX 480 right in the sweet spot for mainstream cards, as 150W has traditionally struck a good balance between performance and power consumption that allows for a fast card that doesn’t require aggressive cooling, and is more compatible with OEM computer vendor case & cooling designs.

Cementing its place as a mainstream card, the RX 480 pricing will start at $199. This is an aggressive and heavily fought over price point that has traditionally defined the mainstream segment, attracting buyers who want great 1080p gaming performance that sub-$150 value cards can’t offer, without moving up to more expensive (and power hungry) $300+ cards. In this sense the RX 480 is a direct replacement for the R9 380, AMD’s Tonga-based card that hit the market roughly a year ago at the same price. Going by the raw numbers alone, RX 480 would be 40% (or more) faster than the R9 380.

Meanwhile I won’t speculate too much on the competitive market from a teaser, but it’s worth noting that this is nearly half the price of NVIDIA’s currently cheapest Pascal card, the GeForce GTX 1070. Interestingly both cards have the same 150W TDP, but looking at the throughput figures it does not look like RX 480 is meant to offer quite as high performance as NVIDIA’s card.

What’s New in the Latest Windows 10 Insider Preview

Windows 10’s next big update, dubbed the “Anniversary Update”, comes out this summer. Here’s what’s been announced so far, along with a few goodies we’ve discovered in the first, second, third, and fourth Insider Preview builds.

While Microsoft hasn’t officially announced a release date, a roadmap on Microsoft’s website promises these new features for “July 2016.” We’re guessing it’ll be released on July 29, 2016, which is the one-year anniversary of Windows 10’s release.

This post was originally written on March 30, 2016, but has since been updated with features from the Insider Previews–the latest being build 14352.

Cortana Becomes a Whole Lot Smarter

Arguably the biggest update is Cortana. Microsoft continues to expand on what Cortana can do, clearly trying to make it the most powerful assistant in an increasingly growing pool of competition (Siri, Google Now, Alexa, and the whole gang). This time around, Cortana comes to the Windows 10 lock screen, so you can invoke her at any time. And, she can push stuff to and from your mobile device, including notifications and text messages. (And remember, sinceCortana is available on Android too, that doesn’t mean you need a Windows Phone to take advantage.)

More interestingly, though, Cortana can parse even more information about stuff it thinks you might need. For example, the on-stage demo showed us that Cortana can respond to things like “Send Chuck the PowerPoint I worked on last night”, or “What toy store did I visit at Build last year?” That’s pretty crazy. Of course, if you’re more privacy-conscious, that’s crazy in all the wrong ways–but it’s a pretty tempting set of features.

Cortana can also make proactive suggestions for you. If you receive email confirmation of flight details, it’ll add them to your calendar. If you promised Chuck you’d send him that PowerPoint in an email, Cortana will know, and remind you to fulfill that commitment later on.

Furthermore, if you add an appointment to your calendar, it’ll know if that appointment overlaps with another, and ask you if you want to re-schedule one of the overlapping events. Or, if you have a meeting during lunch it’ll ask if you want to book a table, or make a to-go order, based on the apps you have available. In short, Cortana is getting more proactive, so you don’t have to be on top of your own stuff–and isn’t that what having an assistant is all about?

Windows 10 Interacts with Your Android Phone (or Windows Phone)

This isn’t finished in the Insider Preview yet, but after the Build keynote, Microsoft also announced that Cortana will now integrate with the Cortana application on your Android or Windows smartphone. You’ll just need to install the Cortana Android app and sign in with the same Microsoft account on both devices. iPhone users are out of luck, as iOS is too locked down for Microsoft to integrate with it as deeply. As of build 14328, this should be working between Windows 10 PCs and Windows Mobile 10 phones running the latest builds. It now works between Android phones and Windows 10 PCs, too–just be sure you have the latest Cortana app installed from Google Play.

Cortana can mirror all your Android phone’s notifications to your PC, giving you all your notifications in Windows 10’s Action Center. You’ll also see a notification on your PC when your smartphone has low battery power, so you’ll know when to charge it. Cortana will offer a “find my phone” feature that can remotely geolocate your phone on a map or ring it if you lose it in nearby. Ask Cortana for “directions to [place]” on your PC, and you’ll see those same directions on your phone. These are just the current features, too, so you can expect Microsoft to add more.

Cortana will also support something called “Messaging Everywhere,” although it wasn’t yet enabled when build 14316 was released. Receive an SMS message on your phone and it’ll pop up on your Windows 10 PC. You can respond from your computer and the message will be sent through your phone. The various features are already integrated into the Messaging app on Windows 10.

More Desktop Apps and Games Come to the Windows Store

The Windows Store is caught in a tough place right now. We want it to get more desktop apps and games, but we don’t want them limited by the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). Microsoft is trying to fix that disconnect in the Anniversary Update.

Regular desktop apps are finally coming to the Windows Store–at least, as long as developers “convert” them to the UWP. This allows for the easy discovery and installation of the Windows Store, but supposedly comes without all the limitations UWP apps traditionally have. We still aren’t quite sure what this means, and which apps might be candidates for a clean conversion without limitations, but it’s an intriguing proposition.

Microsoft will soon release a tool that allows anyone to convert any desktop application on their computer to a sandboxed UWP application. The tool will watch the desktop application run and create a sandboxed application with the appropriate permissions. Developers can use this to convert their own apps for uploading to the Windows Store. You could use it to convert an old desktop application to a UWP application and sideload the application, installing it from outside the Store, if you wanted to.

Games are a big part of this. We’ve already seen that games bought from the Windows Store are missing certain features, like SLI and crossfire support, or the ability to toggle Vsync and borderless full screen. Microsoft says they’re addressing these issues, adding the ability to disable Vsync, better support for multiple GPUs, and more–including support for modding, overlays, and G-Sync and Freesync. That’s in addition to the UWP-exclusive features they have, like live tile support and notifications. Microsoft also says they’ll soon support bundles and season passes in the Windows Store. But only time will tell if games get feature parity with their regular desktop counterparts.

Windows 10 Gets a Dark Theme (and More Theme Options)

When Windows 10 was released, it included a hidden dark theme you could enable by changing a registry setting or by pressing a secret keyboard shortcut in the Store app. You could also change your theme in the Edge browser–but just for Edge. This theme was incomplete. With the Anniversary Update, you can now choose between light and dark modes in Settings > Personalization > Colors. Its designed for Windows Store apps, but not every app will listen to this setting and obey it–some apps, especially those from third-party developers, control their own theme settings. This also means File Explorer will remain as blindingly white as ever.

There’s also now a separate “Show color on title bar” option here, allowing you to only apply your color of choice to the window titlebars and continue using a black Start menu, taskbar, and action center.

Microsoft Edge Finally Supports Browser Extensions

Microsoft Edge was originally supposed to launch with browser extensions when Windows 10 was released, but it didn’t happen. This is a big reason MIcrosoft Edge felt so half-baked and lost so many users. With the Anniversary Update, Edge will finally support browser extensions.

Edge uses Chrome-style extensions, and Microsoft will provide a tool that helps developers quickly convert Chrome extensions to Edge extensions. (Firefox is also moving to Chrome-style extensions, too.) These Edge extensions are already available in the Windows Store, which is where you’ll install them. Extensions are currently available for the Reddit Enhancement Suite, Microsoft Translator, Pinterest, OneNote, Adblock, Adblock Plus, and LastPass.

Edge Gets Click-to-Play Flash, Pinned Tabs, Web Notifications, and Swipe Navigation

Setting the Flash plug-in to click-to-play can help you avoid Flash’s security holes and battery-draining behavior. Edge currently doesn’t offer much control over Flash, with only a single browser-wide “Use Adobe Flash Player” option in its settings.

Microsoft has announced that, with the Anniversary Update, Edge will automatically pause Flash content that isn’t integral to the page and you’ll have to click it to play. Games and videos on web pages should work normally, but Flash advertisements won’t automatically play. Google Chrome already made this change, so Edge is following in Chrome’s footsteps here, too. This isn’t in the Insider Preview just yet, but hopefully it will be soon.