Anyone using AVG Free ?

[Joeman]

I just installed Avg version 9.0.707 yesterday without any problems
I got it from here http://download.cnet.com/3001-2239_4...cab9376b7a8dfa ... i think. I don't recall much of the installation process since I was reinstalling much of my programs

[John E]

Thanks Joeman - but that link is actually for Avast antivirus - not AVG. I must admit, Avast looks quite good though. I might just ditch AVG and give it a try.

[Joeman]

sorry about that. i also installed avast too. this was the link http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Vi...dlPid=11014801 ... pretty sure this is where i got it this time.

i have avg, avast and spybot. if one fails, the other sometimes work.

[dglienna]

This is the newest. I haven't had any reason to NOT use it, so far. I install it on all client pc's http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

[John E]

I finally got AVG to install by going through the installation process again. After downloading a big bunch of files the installation window just disappears from my screen. But this time I launched Task Manager which revealed that the installer was still running. After (literally) 2 minutes or more, another window opened and the installation process then continued. I'm not sure what it was doing for all that time but I assume it must have been uninstalling the old version. It seems to be a poor design though, to be doing so much work without any user feedback....

[hspc]

I downloaded v9.0 from http://free.avg.com. and it work fine now.

[Arjay]

This is the newest. I haven't had any reason to NOT use it, so far. I install it on all client pc's http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

This is what I'm using and it works great.

I'm also pretty confident that I'll be able to get some customer service if I need it (unlike with AVG).

[John E]

At the risk of introducing a political note I have to admit that I tend to eschew products from Microsoft (if I can) because at a personal level I have a deep mistrust of software that insists on "phoning home". Yes, I know that this is inevitable in an antivirus product and I realise that most Windows software has taken to doing this nowadays but I think it was basically Microsoft and Symantec who started the trend.

Perhaps the worst offender is Incredimail (can't remember who makes it now). Even the paid-for version never stops pestering you with adverts, promotions and other junk that you don't want to know about. It's supposed to be a sophisticated email package but IMHO that's just a thinly veiled front. It's really just a glorified spam client.

In AVG's defence, I've only once had a problem with it (where it was reporting a false positive on a file that clearly wasn't infected). I reported it to AVG and although they never replied, it was fixed within a couple of hours.

[dglienna]

They all require daily communication with 'home', so I don't get what you mean. Forefront uses 9 different virus engines, of which any 5 run AT THE SAME TIME!

[exterminator]

Yes, I have been able to install AVG 9 but I have turned off a few of the optional features as suggested by someone on google groups when I had some issues with IE and DEP and also since my emails from Outlook had got a performance mess up. Things look better now.

Reference to the google groups post according to which I disabled the email scan options + active surfing shield, linkscanner, toolbar : http://groups.google.com/group/micro...ea8bef0c9eb080

So far it has been working good for me. I don't have the firewall from AVG as well, I am using the windows firewall with Vista.

[exterminator]

And by the way, I am planning to try out the security essentials from MS. If it don't work I can always go back to AVG 9.

[John E]

Here's an interesting twist... last week I bought my first ever Apple Mac. It's only a Mac Mini so not one of the most powerful Macs but of course, being a Mac, the OS runs without any Firewall or Antivirus (well, so I've been led to believe). I must admit I've been truly astonished at how much faster it is at internet access, compared to my previous PC. Other things aren't particularly fast - but browsing and general internet access absolutely fly along. Both machines are connected to the same router and phone line so there's no difference there. I realise now how much my PC is being throttled by having to check everything in real time for potential malware.

[Arjay]

Here's an interesting twist... last week I bought my first ever Apple Mac. It's only a Mac Mini so not one of the most powerful Macs but of course, being a Mac, the OS runs without any Firewall or Antivirus (well, so I've been led to believe). I must admit I've been truly astonished at how much faster it is at internet access, compared to my previous PC. Other things aren't particularly fast - but browsing and general internet access absolutely fly along. Both machines are connected to the same router and phone line so there's no difference there. I realise now how much my PC is being throttled by having to check everything in real time for potential malware.

Yep, that's the price that MS has to pay for having 95% of the pc market. If Apple ever gets more market share, they'll become a hacker target as well.

[John E]

Well now that I'm happy with my Mac it's time to install Windows on it!! One thing I'll definitely be looking for is an antivirus package that doesn't bring it all grinding to a halt. After experiencing the bliss of OS-X's superbly fast internet access, I really don't want to be going back to the slow, clunky crawl that was Internet Explorer and AVG.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheap (but effective) antivirus package that doesn't leave my surfing experiences slower than a drunken snail?

[dglienna]

Microsoft Security Essentials is good, small, and free