It's time to upgrade AVG
Read all of this stuff before downloading and installing AVG8. It has real serious issues
To go directly to the AVG Free download click here OR click here (old link). Once the page loads click on the Free version AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 - free version link (NOTE: the number after free_ may change, whatever, thats the link). This file is 46.6MB in size so it will take 6 to 10 or more hours to download, you will need to use a downloader with resume capabilities. Otherwise your session will time out and you'll have to start all over again. Thus you will not be able to download it. If you wish you can contact WEBMASTER to request a CD with the upgrade on it. (there is no charge for this, but it will take a lot longer to receive it.).
Also!
Go here for the faq section of AVG.
Also: AVG 8 is Vista compatible.
Warning!
AVG 8 isn't anywhere as good as it's previous versions. It is an example of programmers upgrading a good program into a piece of junk. It forces you to use their other components that you have absolutely no need of because your MS Operating system already has a better version. Ie; Windows Defender is better than the AVG 8 anti spyware. You will find you can not shut off the anti spyware thus forcing you to use it. You will also find the program slows up lots of processes while it checks to see if you should use it. I really don't like that. You can shut off the other components like link scanning or search result scanning to keep it from slowing you down online. Resident shield is still good to use but it will cause all sorts of slowups in your operating system. Like opening a directory, it slows you down now.
Previous versions were unintrusive and just had the anti virus running which is all you need, except the Resident shield protected your system from malware messing with you which was a good thing.
Beyond that it will cause some of your taskbar icons to not display. ALSO; on one installation in Vista it caused IE 7 to freeze and not be able to do anything except shut down the computer and restart it. In other words it acts like a Virus. Anyway, uninstalling AVG 8 fixed the problem and IE 7 works fine. So a reinstall of AVG 7.5 and update was done to put all back as it was before installing AVG 8. IE7 still works fine now.
So what to do. I'm not sure. I will be searching the internet for a Anti Virus program that is just a Anti Virus program. If I can find it I'll post a link to it here.
Your AVG 7.5 should protect you for a while and be sure to keep your Windows Defender up to date. You can have it running while you are online, or not. You choose. I have mine off, unless I do program searching or use a search engine, to protect against stuff happening when clicking the results links.
Update on AVG8 issues.
It has been discovered that AVG 8 will block URL’s that shouldn’t be blocked. Recently it was discovered after much phone contact with the server tech department hosting some of our web sites that their server DNS processer was being blocked by AVG 8. After calling them and finding out there was nothing wrong with the DNS (Domain Name Server), which seemed like it wasn’t resolving any of our domains and sub domains including their domains and sub domains but was resolving all other URL’s (domain names) on the net. Ping tests on our end indicated the DNS was working correctly and with the call it was verified that the Server was working correctly. Testing Dialup connections through different Realms revealed a inconsistency in the way names were being resolved.
So knowing there were problems with AVG8 in other areas, mentioned in the above notice, AVG8 was shut off. Walla!!!! Everything was suddenly working correctly. It seems that AVG8 was blocking all access to the sites we have on that particular server including their sites. Why???? Who knows! Link checking was shut off so it shouldn’t have been interfering with anything. It should also be noted that SMTP (sending email) wasn’t working either.
Solution. Uninstalled AVG 8 and put AVG 7.5 back in and updated it with the AVG-update-FULL-u7f524ov.bin file previously downloaded at the time of installing AVG 8. (A Boy Scout being prepared thing) It was just a basic plan to be able to return to AVG 7.5 and install all the updates for it just in case the AVG 8 program wasn’t any good. Well, it isn’t any good and now that all is as it was the icons are back and pages resolve correctly.
The only thing that can be done to stay current is to get the Microsoft Windows Live OneCare which isn’t the best solution for those who just want virus protection. OneCare does too much which will cause too many slow ups and page resolving issues of it’s own.
You may still be able to update AVG 7.5 by running your check for Updates link. OR go here >>> AVG7 updates <<< and download the update you need.
ALSO:
Info from Grisoft: AVG 7.5 will be supported until December 31, 2008. The support includes:
releases of new Virus Base updates, ensuring identical signature-based detection with AVG 8.0
releases of new program updates, fixing known or newly found problems in the program
technical and sales support for AVG 7.5 (not available for AVG 7.5 free)
Please note that if you wish to keep using AVG 7.5 after release of AVG 8.0, you need to use the correct License Number for this version. This number was provided to you upon purchase or registration of AVG and starts with '70' or '75'.
So there you have the grisoft faq info for the use of 7.5 instead of 8.0. Grisoft FAQ support of AVG 7.5
When using the program to do updates the license number shouldn't be needed as it is already in the program info.
Why isn’t there a Just Plain Anti Virus program any more?