Thread: AVG Free is getting on my nerves

For the last week or so, it's been sporadically popping up a dialog telling me about the new AVG 8 (which isn't free so far as I can tell). I was hoping it would only do this once or twice then take a clue when I never click on "Buy Now".

Nope. Every single morning, usually when I've just started to mellow out with a game or something - it wouldn't be such a problem if it didn't automatically minimise whatever I was doing and jump up. I hate that in a program.

The dialog is fugly too - one of those skinned-to-look-like-vista ones.

I've had a browse through the options and there's nothing I can see that will change this behaviour - fellow AVG users, am I not looking hard enough?

I'm on the verge of switching to another free anti-virus, if anyone wants to throw me some suggestions.

I don't have this problem. But I bet its your AVG Scheduler, since I have mine turned off... I always turn schedulers off when they are present. Try that.

Makes little sense to have it turned on for AVG. You still get to know when there's a new update to the core program or the virus database. This time from a simple balloon message on the taskbar. Either that or change the Update Plan B task on the scheduler to never check for updates. Don't worry, it will still tell you when there are new updates.

Oooh ok. Thanks.

There's really no need to use an anti-virus program anymore (if there ever was). Today almost almost all software is downloaded off the web from trusted sources (even pirated). Previously, software was shared from person to person --> viruses could spread. Maybe to prevent people from installing spyware etc., but if you trust everyone with admin access to your computer, you should be fine.

Abachler:

All you really need is Firefox and NoScript and a brain, has been working for me the past couple of years, no malware, no viruses, no hijackers, and i have no antivirus software, and the only firewall i have is the one in my router...

Hmm... you are begging for the quintessential question: How do you know if you don't have any software to check if you are infected?

Anyways, I dig you. However, it is very much dependent on usage and surfing habits. NopScript surely is a must. But if the family has access to your computer, or you usually take it outside and connect through wireless hotspots or the office network... you know.

javascript can be dangerous for many reasons -- like with most tools. Check google on "javascript dangers", "javascript exploits", "XSS" which is a mixture of JS and server-side scripting. "session stealing", "cookies stealing", ...

yeah, but cookie grabbing isent going to put a virus on a computer.

edit: tbh that kind of cookie grabbing doent worry me at all. I rarely do financial stuff via the internet. My cookies die when I close my browser so I generally just close and reopen it to flush them. Apparently theres ways of getting cookies as they are created over wireless, which is more disturbing, but tbh it still dosent bother me too much. At the end of the day its not like I'm rich and its the banks liability.

AVG 8 should be free on the free site. Normally when AVG releases a new version they release it for free on the free version of their site. But AVG has done so well that I would just as well buy it as use it for free. That coupled with Diskkeeper 2008 has kept my system running smooth.

There's really no need to use an anti-virus program anymore (if there ever was). Today almost almost all software is downloaded off the web from trusted sources (even pirated). Previously, software was shared from person to person --> viruses could spread. Maybe to prevent people from installing spyware etc., but if you trust everyone with admin access to your computer, you should be fine.

I don't agree that viruses are no longer a threat. In fact I find that view a bit short sighted and somewhat jumping to conclusions. They are still a very real threat. This statement almost made my jaw drop. The internet is by no means a safe place to browse even if you watch the sites you go to. I only visit programming sites and picked up 2 viruses last week. Other people at my work have claimed to pick up viruses after visiting game dev and other well known dev sites. I cannot verify or deny this claim about game dev but my viruses did show up after browsing the site. Not saying they came from there but it proves that no site is safe. The recent hacking we received ought to further solidify the fact that nothing is safe on the internet.