AVG Free Ver 8 available now

[antmanbee]

I will stick with Ver 7.5 and hope they don't stop support for it for a while.
I can't find an alternative with the same features. Avast looks to be a trial product too
and Avira has no email scanning. What to do if you are cheap like me and don't want to pay?

 

[Lemon law]

To antmanbee,

You ask somewhat of a disturbing question. For years and years, freeware Avast and AVG have been very similar full featured AV's in terms of detection rates. And definitely better than most other paid AV's. I assume that their business model was that enough freeware users would upgrade to their paid versions, and that would keep them funded.

Now you say that AVG is backing off on that and will make version 8 crippleware after 30 days. Pay or else lose incoming email pre scanning for viruses. So you will stay with AVG 7.5 until support stops. And then plan B is to jump to Avast if they don't do the same?

Sadly, if both AVG and Avast both do this, I see it as an end to both companies unless they can really undercut the competition. Because when the metric becomes paid, neither AVG or Avast are in the same league as Kaspersky, NOD32, or the paid version of Avira. At this point, there is no evidence that would convince a knowledgeable user
that Avast and AVG is quite in the same league as the best paid AV's. And in terms of AVG 8, its about the same as AVG7.5 in terms of detection rates. If Version 8 of AVG were remotely completive, its might work for AVG, but its not so I predict a mass migration to Avast. And if Avast stays full featured freeware, it will likely be the end of AVG.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Avast Home seemingly has had some kind of re-registering requirement for some time (I have an old PC running Win98se, and AVG Free dropped that OS, while Avast did not). If AVG Free 8's eMail scanner will quit after 30 days, it's useless to most of us, but I wasn't aware that was the case.

I'm having trouble getting the silly thing to work at all in W2K. It may be permissions, but on the PC involved, my user account has full Administrator privileges (I know, not real safe that way). So I registered for their user forum, but that didn't work, either.

 

[akhilles]

I can't be happier with AVG8. I don't use client-side email. I checked off the email scanner at install. Don't know if anyone noticed but AVG8 has a live antispyware scanner which I had been using prior to AVG8. Now they integrated antispyware. I don't need to manually update & scan for spyware. It's all done on a limited schedule.

 

[Evander]

Using Vista, Windows Defender is already installed for realtime protection, and now AVG has added this feature. Having both active seems like a waste of resources. I know how to disable Defender, but how about the AVG spyware component? Other things are easy to disable (for example, under 'overview', double click the link scanner and just uncheck the box, but the spyware component has no checkboxes to disable it). I don't know yet which one I'll keep enabled, but if I want Defender I would like to know how to disable the AVG spyware component (hopefully without AVG kicking up a fuss, turning grey and giving security warnings and such).

Also below is a tip for anyone who has multiple instances of antivirus software showing up as active in Windows Sec. Center even if they uninstalled an older antivirus software. In my case, even though Avira AntiVir was uninstalled, SEcurity Center (and the AVG installer) showed warnings that it was still active even though it wasn't. This will take care of that (copied from another website):

"Uninstalled security programs remain visible in Windows Security Center:"
In control panel click on Administrative Tools, then Services, from the list of services find Windows Management Instrumentation right click mouse and from dropdown list stop the service.

Find folder C:\windows\system32\wbem, inside this folder identify the repository folder and delete only this folder (the repository folder) from your computer.

In Administrative Tools find Windows Management Instrumentation service again, and re-start the service by right clicking mouse and pressing start from dropdown list. Restarting this service re-builds the repository folder database on your computer, which should now only contain information about your currently installed antivirus & firewall programs.

To reset the Windows Security Centre you must re-boot your computer, hopefully this will cure your problems