Still the best (even better now)

Pros: Version 8 has a cleaner interface, more configuration tools, an easier way to turn off the resident shield (for trouble shooting or to install other apps more cleanly), and it looks for WAY more threats (i.e., spyware, malware, adware, cookies, and OS changes) than in previous versions. Still pretty a pretty small program even with all the extras in this version. The big "Swiss Army Knife" commercial antivirus apps like M*****e and N****n do tons of things all-in-one but don't do any ONE thing as well as they should, namely, threatware searches. AVG is lean and mean and does it's intended job better than most.

And as far as the email scanner rumor is concerned it simply is that - a rumor - probably started by competing products. Here is a quote from AVG's website: "Important information about e-mail scanning,

Contrary to rumors circulating on the Internet, AVG Free 8.0 does not include any "trial" or "time-out" functionality. Every option provided in the program is fully functional for the life of the product." You do the math.

I am a technology consultant in business for 13 years and have been recommending AVG to my clients for more than 3 years now. Knowing what I know about other free products and the big commercial antivirus products out there, AVG is by far the best in terms of resource usage, threat detection, price (free), and update support (something often overlooked). Use something else at your peril.

Cons: 2 things - the new link scanner can slow browsing down a bit since it scans all the links on a page for potetial threats. A small price to pay for the added safety. However a few of my clients have reported that it slows them WAY down. May have something to do with a slower DSL connection or other factors like resource usage by other programs, etc. but you can turn the link scanner off if you experience this slow down.

My biggest beef is that Grisoft (now just AVG Technologies, Inc.) has made it next to impossible to find the Free version now and those who have ver 7.5 installed are getting annoying popup boxes directing them to a page to get the new "upgrade" ver 8.0 only to find no free version available there. Come on AVG, don't resort to "trickware" to get people to upgrade to the paid version. Sell it legitimately on its merrits alone. It has enough there that people should consider it!

Posted: 02-Jun-2008 02:40:28 PM