AVG is a good quality free antivirus and antimalware product.
You can download it from here:
- http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus
- http://free.avg.com/gb-en/download-avg-anti-virus-free
- http://free.avg.com/in-en/download.prd-afh (includes Standalone Installer)
Q: How can it be so good if it’s free?
A: The AVG business model depends on two things:
- Maximum Market Penetration
- Up-selling -> Converting AVG Free Users to Paying Customers
Maximum Market Penetration:
AVG Free is an excellent antivirus and antispyware program. It has a good reputation and it’s free, so it spreads by word of mouth.
Converting AVG Free Users to Paying Customers:
Every so often, they send out an alert to AVG Free Users – this is the latest:
Clicking on Update Your Free Protection takes you through to the page below where you are offered an upgrade to the free version but the Up-sell continues http://www.avg.com/gb-en/upgrade-free-2011-lp-trial?cmpid=upg-2011f-grid
From time to time, they will increase the pressure by implying that your existing version of AVG Free is about to become obsolete
: 
They will tell you that to stay protected you must upgrade from to the new version. But when you click on the Learn more and Upgrade now button it takes you to an upgrade page for the paid version. If you’ve been using AVG Free version for some time, the apparent withdrawal of the free version is a bit scary. If the choice is between having the Free version go out of date or upgrading to the paid version, many people will bite the bullet and pay So a sizeable proportion of their Free users will upgrade to the paid version, and the company makes a lot of money. The Free version is their “missionary version” – it hooks you in, makes you dependent on it, then once you’re hooked, it expires and it appears that you have to upgrade to the paid version.
The New Free Version of AVG:
What they don’t tell you here is that there is a new Free version of AVG which they have quietly released – as this is their vehicle for spreading AVG around. The new free version can be usually be found at http://www.filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus, where you can download it and avoid the Up-sell. You can also obtain it from http://free.avg.com or from http://free.avg.com/in-en/download.prd-afh (includes stand-alone installer) where they will try to dissuade you from downloading the free version and convince you to purchase the full commercial version instead When you’ve downloaded the new version, there is no need to remove the existing version. Simply start the install process, and when prompted select “Repair My Installation”
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