So long AVG Free

[stiltman]

OK, 3rd day in a row with the popup of their ad. This time no X in the corner to click on.

It comes off my system now.

I have 3 choices
Avast
McAfee (free via my ISP)
Trend (free via work)

It's a shame, because I was using it for the first time. Now that I know they are going to be placing constant ads, why bother?

[jagabo]

OK, 3rd day in a row with the popup of their ad. This time no X in the corner to click on.

Odd. I have AVG 7.5 and 8 installed on a few systems and only got the popup once per computer.

[stiltman]

OK, 3rd day in a row with the popup of their ad. This time no X in the corner to click on.

Odd. I have AVG 7.5 and 8 installed on a few systems and only got the popup once per computer.

7.5.524.....that was the vesion I just killed

http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/read.php?8,121923,121953

Re: Don't AVG know that Popups are the most loathed form of advertising on the Internet.
Posted by: BIG AL 43 - Moderator (IP Logged)
Date: April 27, 2008 04:42PM


This pop-up is part of an AVG Technologies sales improvement campaign & should cease after a while. I don't think it is possible to turn it off. From the AVG Technologies viewpoint, as a free user, you must accept that in the end of the day they are in business to make a profit & therefore will always be encouraging some of the over 70 million AVG users to upgrade to the paid for version.

Seems it's still during their sales promotion period.

[DarrellS]

Is it safe to say now that all the panic was over nothing? AVG was just advertising their next major update? I've always used AVG and never had any problems. Updated to 8.0 and everything's fine.

I think you're right. I just installed XP Pro and Avast popped up and said it didn't support my operating system so I decided to try AVG 8 free since everyone says it works fine. Haven't had any problems yet.

The problem is, they make it hard to find the free version and the pop-up ad took you straight to the payware download page and not the free download which caused the uproar. That and the fact that there wasn't a AVG 8 Free at the time of the pop-up redirects.

Since I uninstalled AVG 7.5 off of this computer, my other computer and my Brother's computer both stopped getting the pop-up ads. We are all connected to a wireless router.

[guns1inger]

I have never received the popup, and neither has anyone I have suggested AVG to, so perhaps it is a regional thing as well.

Regardless, I have ditched it for NOD32, as the false positives were getting too much.

Of the three you have listed above, I would probably go avast. Both McAfee and Trend (especially Trend) are huge resource users. They waste memory and chew CPU when scanning. NOD32 or Kaspersky are far more realistic in their system needs, and far better scanners in reputable tests.

[budz]

I have never received the popup, and neither has anyone I have suggested AVG to, so perhaps it is a regional thing as well.

I have never received any popup from using the free AVG and on all the other computers that I own. I've also installed them on computers that I've built for friends & family members who have also said they don't get any popups when updating. I find it so odd that some would get it and others don't. I'll install the newest version 8 sometime on the weekend and see for myself if a popup will occur.

I can't understand how some have mentioned they can't find the free AVG. It's widely available from cnet.com in the download section under most popular software.

[DarrellS]

It's widely available from cnet.com

Most people don't go to CNET to download AVG. They go to Grisoft from googling AVG Free. They are sent to CNET from Grisoft after getting to the freeware link.

[TBoneit]

I've always found the free.grisoft.com works for me when I want to download the free version. I just don't understand how people have problems finding it. It isn't hidden or made hard to find.

FWIW from the AVG site. http://free.grisoft.com/ww.awards-references

Going to google.com and entering avg free as the search string brings AVG the AVG free website to the top of the page for me.

As others have said I just don't see these pop-ups on the systems with teh free version.

[Faustus]

I've always found the free.grisoft.com works for me when I want to download the free version. I just don't understand how people have problems finding it. It isn't hidden or made hard to find.

FWIW from the AVG site. http://free.grisoft.com/ww.awards-references

Going to google.com and entering avg free as the search string brings AVG the AVG free website to the top of the page for me.

As others have said I just don't see these pop-ups on the systems with teh free version.

Its because people click without reading. They will suggest the pay version to you but if you read the page it makes perfect sense how to get the free version.

SO yes they did put a LITTLE complication there (a long while back btw) but nothing major.

[TBoneit]

Yes that clicking without reading is so common.

One of these days a Virus author will use a installer in the open that says "Clicking OK will totally trash your system after sending me all your personal data" and people will click OK and not Cancel anyway.

I've heard customers say "My girlfriend was trying to open a e-mail message and the A/V kept blocking it. So my GF turned off the A/V. 30 minutes later the computer was toast."

Another one said, just as I clicked the POP-UP saying I needed a codec to view content I realized I shouldn't have but it was already to late.

And so it goes. Internet users need to rethink their usage habits. some of the results in a search engine will be malicious, sites hosting Cracks & Keygens will most likely be be doing a drive by install of malicious content too. If you want free anything, do a little research to be sure it is real and not Malware. Software from here or other reputable forums will 99.99% be safe. Same for major download sites.

Enough of the Tirade and I shouldn't complain. Out of the computers I fixed last week for customers one had a hardware problem. Customer put in a new PCI card and fried the Mobo. Sometimes a hard drive will be bad.
Everything else is software problems these days, Usually Viruses and Malware.
I'm seeing a lot lately of the ones that are installed by a Trojan Horse and then tell you that you have a Trojan Horse Virus and want you to pay for bogus A/V software to clean it up.

[Bjs]

Well it finally struck here too, yet reading and following it takes you to the non-free version ... the free version being also v8 no longer supports os's prior to win 2000 or xp, so for those that find themselves stuck, take a look at avast's home edition.

Running the free v8 version and checking its performance, if no good, I'll be looking at avast more closely.

[Keitho]

I installed AVG Free 8.0.1 yesterday with no problems, and installed the browser toolbar (by default) to see how it would work, but I decided I didn't like the Yahoo search toolbar it added to my IE6 browser, so I uninstalled it, and then reinstalled it, this time without the toolbar option.
After installing it for the second time and updating it, I went to do a full system scan, and it took over 1 1/2 hours! With the 7.5, it was usually around 30 minutes. I think I'll try out Avast myself. I've been using AVG for several years, after giving up on Norton when it became a bloated memory hog. I'm sorry to see AVG downgraded so badly.

[Faustus]

There isn't a change people are mistaking a popup trying to get them to install 8.x free or paid for an ad is there?

[MJA]

I just worked yesterday on a laptop infected with a virus.no matter if you use Avast,or AVG both are not that good when it comes to cleaning .the one I worked on yesterday had Avast on it .the software just kept giving warnings and when u hit delete,or quarantine sec's later warning again,and again,and again. I solved the problem by removing Avast ,and downloading a free 30 day trial of NOD32 one scan with NOD32 solved the whole thing.

BOTTOM LINE .for risky users,and users who don't know how to deal with infcted PC's .both AVAST,and AVG are no good

[bourboner]

Hmm had to disable "Link Scanner" as it was constantly stalling & crashing Firefox.