AVG 8.0.001 Issues

I recently installed AVG 8.0.100 (free) due to the fact that the older version will no longer be supported by the end of May. I was more than alarmed when its first scan identified approximately 190 active X "infections". They turned out to be SpywareBlaster's Internet Explorer Block List. If removed SpywareBlaster will indicate that IE protection has been "disabled". I hope that there is someway around this vicious cycle.

Secondly, its (perhaps overly) simplified design doesn't provide for the convenient disabling of unwelcome intrusive things like involuntary "error reporting" to Microsoft, for example.

Lastly, as far as its overall effect on browser speed concerned, it's too early to tell. Some sites seem load more quickly while others have slowed to a snail's pace.

 

I haven't noticed any impact on web browsing. Can you cite a specific website where you feel it's slowed your browsing?

Actually, I noticed signs of improved performance with version 8.0. For example, Word and Excel 2003 launch faster now.

 

I may have been a little hasty with regard to my evaluation of the new AVG's effect on browser speed although I did qualify it with "too early to tell". I will now amend the statement by saying that there has been an overall improvement. At the time that I was initially testing performance a thunderstorm had been moving into the fringes of this region. Such conditions often diminish dial-up quality.

 

After a few weeks of use I would say that I like the new product. There is one shortcoming, however, that utterly baffles me. Resident Shield creates a "Detection list" or log of encountered threats. Unfortunately, it can't be cleared. In other words, once a threat is detected and then either healed or removed the record of the threat still remains as an apparently permanent fixture on one's computer - at least until the next AVG version is introduced. I checked with their site and they admit that there is no way to either clear the list or to delete individual entries. Why on earth didn't they provide a method of doing so?

 

Additionally, they have gone to great lengths to provide users options for arranging the precious Detection list of encountered threats, as if its style or appearance is of utmost importance, but no method of clearing it. Apparently, the thought had never occurred to them.

 

Not being able to remove items from the Resident Shield detection history list does seem odd. I can not verify that aspect of AVG since I have nothing in that history yet. But, from reading some info in AVG's Help, I get the impression items can be removed from that list. Open Help, select the Index tab, and search on Resident Shield, detected files. Do you find that to be the solution?

 

Thanks, but I've already been there. The expert moderator at their site hadn't been able to discover a method either. It does indeed seem strange. If a means exists why on earth has it been made so cryptic? For that matter, why should an obscured pathway even be used?

 

That has apparently changed since you first posted.

DEADLINE FOR AVG 7.5 FREE UPDATES 31/12/2008

 

My only remaining gripe concerns update settings. While manual updating is a snap, typical of past AVG products, I simply can't comprehend the vast multitude of possible automatic update setting combinations that can be made using Update Manager settings together with those in Advanced Settings. Why have they made it so needlessly complex? In fact, Update Manager has been (mostly) in a semi-warning state since I first began using the product and I haven't yet been able to determine the reason why.

 

I removed SpywareBlaster and after that scanned with AVG free again. No warnings did appear this time.

Then Ad-Aware 2007 "froze" while scanning and had to unplug my computer and reboot it. So I removed Ad-Aware 2007 and downloaded the free Spyware Doctor software. When I scanned again with free AVG version 8, it showed near 450 results/infections. Therefore I un-installed Spyware Doctor, no items showing up again when scanning with the AVG.

SpywareBlaster AND the free Spyware Doctor are both a no-no combined with free AVG version 8.

I jumping ship and going to Avast....

 

Yet since the date that this "official" post at AVG forums was made, I'm sure I have had quite a few notifications that it will end at the end of May - no wonder everyone is confused!!

 

I simply ignore the result/infection warnings listing SpywareBlaster's IE block list. They are never implicated as being real threats anyway. I wasn't aware that AVG does something similar with Spyware Doctor.

As far as scans go, I haven't encountered any freeze-ups or other problems as even when using the overkill combination of AVG, Ad-Aware, SpwareBlaster, and COMODO. Obviously, don't attempt to run AVG and Ad-Aware scans simultaneously. Basically, it boils down to trial and error. Older computers stall more easily so what works for me may not work for others.

 

Suppose it is. Since I removed AVG 8 and installed Avast, my computer runs faster.

 

I think that most people will probably appreciate AVG 8.0.001's comprehensive protection and not have any major problems. Other than the relatively minor issues with the result/infection warnings and not being able to clear the Resident Shield detection list I personally have no other complaints. On the contrary, I like it.

I once paid good money for a "highly rated" anti-virus product that wasn't nearly as good (in my opinion) as AVG. To make matters worse, approximately two months after I had renewed the product for the second full year it couldn't be updated. I received varying error messages instead. After spending hours attempting to find out what the problem was I finally got through to someone, perhaps in India, who informed me the version that I was using had been discontinued and was no longer supported. Did they offer to refund even part of the fee that I had paid? No, they didn't. They did offer me a partial credit toward a newer and more expensive product, however, but only if I jumped through a number of time consuming hoops mandated up by their sales/accounting bureaucracy. It wasn't worth effort and I told them so, as well as a few other things. So much for my Symantec misadventure. Come to think of it, that might make an interesting title for a new thread.