80 TECH ADVISOR • MAY 2021GUIDE TO PC SECURITY
protection test, it also scored a 100 per
cent, with 25 false positives. All in all, the
protection results are excellent.
For our in-house performance
tests, we saw no significant changes in
performance between the PC with and
without Norton 360 Deluxe installed.Verdict
Norton 360 is a very good suite with a
good price. If you’re looking for excellent
antivirus protection that won’t get in your
way with a good amount of features then
Norton 360 Deluxe is the suite to buy.BEST BUDGET ANTIVIRUS SUITE
AVG Internet Security
Price: £29.99 from fave.co/373Ufe8
AVG has a big advantage in the free
antivirus space since it owns both Avast
(acquired in 2016) and its home-grown
product, AVG Free. The hope is that
you’ll love the free stuff so much that
you’ll eventually upgrade to one of its
paid products.
In the case of AVG, most people
opt for its Internet Security program.
Priced just under £40 for 10 devices
for the first year, it’s one step down
from the company’s flagship product,
AVG Ultimate. Internet Security lacks a
number of Ultimate’s less crucial features.
For example, you don’t get AVG’s PC
tune-up package or free access to itsadd-on VPN. As far as tune-ups go, you
can find free programs or use Windows
10’s built-in tools to deal with common
issues such as dumping cached folders
that take up space, or monitoring
third-party software updates. The
important security features, however,
are all included in Internet Security, such
as the antivirus, firewall, and phishing
protection. AVG doesn’t include a
password manager as part of its various
security packages.
When you first open up AVG, it
offers a similar aesthetic to its corporate
counterpart, Avast. The app largely
consists of a grey background with
bright green used to highlight important
information. You’ll first see a dashboard
with a set of tiles that lets you know
which AVG security sections are active
and in good shape, as denoted by a
green ‘Protected’ label.
The latest version of this dashboard
is much better than the last time we
looked. All five components in the main
part of the screen are clickable now.
These tiles include Computer, which
covers automatic scanning of new files
added to your PC, program behaviour
analysis, ransomware protection, and a
network inspector for showing various
devices connected to your home network.
The Web & Email tile houses options
for web protection and scanning for