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.

The lower part of the primary screen is reserved for scanning. If everything’s all good the dashboard reads “You have basic protection” lest you forget you haven’t yet upgraded to AVG’s premium features. When something’s wrong with your system or something needs your attention, you’ll see it easily here. The top of the main dashboard includes the typical green, yellow, and red warning system. When you go into each section all you see are sliders that turn the aforementioned features on or off. The tiles interface isn’t really necessary for just the basic features. Web protection includes the ability to block web-based attacks and unsafe downloads, and then there’s the email shield for desktop email programs that scans for unsafe attachments. Computer includes a file shield that automatically scans any new files added to your computer, and then the quarantine shows any detected malicious files. Under the basic protection the two tiles are labeled Computer and Web & Email. 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. Two of which are labeled Basic Protection and the other two are Full Protection. When you first start-up AVG Free for Mac you get a window with four tiles. It had no trouble blocking web-based threats, as well as a number of malware samples from the Objective See library.

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