AVG8 = Crap!!!

[Stereodude]

I don't know how else to say it. AVG is a complete and utter pile of crap. I just uninstalled it from this computer and will be uninstalling it from any other computer of mine that it's on later today.

The program forces you to restart after every update and is just a big fat performance hog. AVG7.5 was decent, but 8 is a travesty against humanity.

 

[Fushigi]

The update this week has required a restart, but that's the only time I've seen it on the machines I have running it.

 

[Mercutio]

I've been putting it on 1GB Celeron 1.8GHz machines along with Vista, and I haven't noticed it as being a particular performance hog.

They were doing some pretty obnoxious preloading malware scans using IE and Firefox plug-ins. Web Server admins were complaining about that and I believe they were turned off in the most recent update.

 

[Stereodude]

The update this week has required a restart, but that's the only time I've seen it on the machines I have running it.

It has forced my PC to reboot after every single update (daily), and one of them required 4 reboots in the row to get it to stop asking me to reboot. A Google search showed other people are having the same issues.

 

[Tea]

I am more than happy to consider recommending a switch. Not impressed at all by AVG 8 - it's bloated and ugly.

Anyone care to recommend an alternative product? Requirements:

* No BS - I don't have time to mess about with individual email registrations one per customer or anything of that nature

* No bloat - anything roughly similar to AVG 7.5 would be fine

* Effective - i.e., actually catches stuff

* Free - we already have an excellent pay-for anti-virus product, this one is for people who want a free one and ask us to take care of it.

 

[Stereodude]

Avira Antivir is what I switched to.

 

[LunarMist]

How can one judge the efficacy of the various free AV aps?

 

[ddrueding]

How can one judge the efficacy of the various free AV aps?

Every once in a while a research firm does a comparison. Some googling might help.

 

[CougTek]

Two quick references for Mooner :

http://www.virusbtn.com/index
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

 

[Clocker]

Avira Antivir is what I switched to.

Stereo- What do you like about it ? Care to do a mini-review?

 

[mubs]

Maybe my desktop feels more sluggish than my laptop because of AVG 8 (corporate laptop is running McAfee). I'd like to echo Tea's post.

 

[Stereodude]

Stereo- What do you like about it ? Care to do a mini-review?

It doesn't require a reboot after every update. That's what I like about it.

 

[ddrueding]

McAfee is the world's worst software, second is Norton, third is anything from Apple. AVG may not be good, but it has a long way to go for the title "world's worst"...

 

[Tea]

Steady on there Dave. What about some of the other contenders, such as Easy CD Cremator, Windows Vista, Trend Micro AV 2007, Sonic CD/DVD, Kodak Easy-share, and the list goes on. If you are going to make a top ten of the very, very worst, you are going to have a tough time keeping it dpown to just ten.

 

[mubs]

So there's nothing that's decent but free?

 

[ddrueding]

Decent but free implies open source. Open source users usually use Linux. Hence no AV.

Also, I suspect that there is actually quite a bit of daily updating and even a solid amount of innovation and research that goes into keeping an antivirus program effective.

I'm now making the case to my clients to consider whether they can afford to run Windows on all their machines. If all a user needs is Internet, E-Mail and Office stuff, it is much cheaper to build and maintain a Linux box; no AV is one of the reasons why.

 

[Will Rickards]

As a software developer, I can't see how anyone expects a piece of software that requires constant updates to be free. Even if it was open source. And I haven't looked at AVG or antivir but how do they manage to offer it for free?

 

[Stereodude]

Because they have paying customers too.

 

[LiamC]

I used AVG from v 6 through 7.5. Tried 8 and it lasted less than a day. Switched to Avira because of success rates in one of the Virus tests posted on this board.

Avira comes up with more false positives--maybe one every three weeks or so. Avira caught more than AVG. It found a couple of nasties in archives that AVG mssed. They could have been false positives though.

AVG is way faster. Whatever algorithm Avira uses, it is distinctly slower to iterate through files than AVG.

Avira's update servers are slower/more loaded than AVGs. On a slow connection, it takes longer to update.

Avira spams you with a message popup every time you do a scan. I tolerate this because it is free. YMMV.

 

[Tea]

Liam, what's Avira like from the point of view of system performance? I don't care if it's slow to scan, just so long as it doesn't make the system slow down when you are not doing a scan.

 

[Stereodude]

Avira spams you with a message popup every time you do a scan. I tolerate this because it is free. YMMV.

AVG8 did the same thing too. You must have missed it since you had it on your PC for such a short time.

FWIW, Avira seems to slow down my PC less than AVG.

 

[LiamC]

Both AVG and Avira slowed the system noticeably when I had my SATA drives configured as Legacy/IDE, but that is the nature of the ATA subsytem--disk accesses are sequential. PC-Cillin was no different.

When I configured the SATA drives as AHCI (allowing Native Command Queueing support), it was an amazing transformation. Now Avira scanning the disk has a minimal impact on system performance. BTW, I should point out that the impacts on system performance I could pinpoint with any accuracy always lead me to the disk I/O. Avira seems to use less memory than AVG.

Intel chipsets except the R model do not officially support AHCI mode. :/ You can hack the INF file to enable AHCI support. You will also need AHCI support in the BIOS. ASUS "helpfully" removes this in their iCH8/9/10 based boards, but you can always cross flash.

 

[e_dawg]

Crap. I've been getting those AVG 7.5 will expire soon, and was thinking "I should update to v8 sometime before it expires"... what am i going to do now? Oh well, I guess I'll install Avira when AVG 7.5 finally kicks the bucket.

As an aside, why did you post this in the Pub & Brewery?

 

[Tea]

Thanks guys, I'll give Avira a go.

 

[Stereodude]

As an aside, why did you post this in the Pub & Brewery?

Because the ranting nature of it seemed more fitting to the P&B.