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Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

thesharklady.com

21–30 of 42 posts

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#21
It is lucky she didn't get round to noticing the AVG (Yahoo) toolbar that appears in your browser. You hide it then next time you start up you get a helpful "I have noticed you have disabled the AVG toolbar, I have re-enabled it for you so that your system is fully protected." message.

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#23
post #21

It is lucky she didn't get round to noticing the AVG (Yahoo) toolbar that appears in your browser. You hide it then next time you start up you get a helpful "I have noticed you have disabled the AVG toolbar, I have re-enabled it for you so that your system is fully protected." message.

This was the last straw for me. I've purchased more than 60 licenses of AVG for business computers, after being impressed by how well the free edition of version 6.0 worked on my home computer.

With each subsequent release, they've just added more crap, and gone same way Symantec did. Aside from updating their virus database, I haven't noticed a single useful improvement in years.

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#24
post #12

She boldly declares, "Grisoft just lost a customer, and I'm guessing it won't be the last." It seems an overstatement to call a free AV user a "customer". Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira, though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup.

Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira, though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup. Avira AntiVir Updates to Version 9 – Make It More Usable: http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/03/18/avira-antivir-updates-to-ve...

Switched to Avira for almost a year now for most of the machines at home and friends. No problems so far, and works fine.

Still, the nag screen is annoying, but how hard it is to click one button. :P

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#25
post #17

I used clamwin, the windows version of clamav. That is after I used AVG for a while and went through the same experience. One good thing about using open source application is that they wont ask you to upgrade to some paid version later.

ClamWin is ok, but the scanning time is very slow.

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#26
post #3

This is making me rethink about installing AVG on my fresh Win 7 install.

Do yourself a favor: Turn UAC all the way up, and forget the antivirus. Your system will still be fast and snappy, but you'll still be notified every time tries to do something it shouldn't

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#27
post #20

Maybe I'm going against the grain here, but I'm glad Microsoft is going to release free antivirus software. I don't want to worry about choosing one of these third-party products and having my browser hijacked or whatever.

Agreed. This is one of those things that really should be dealt with on an os-level. They could push updates through the same channel as the os security patches.

Yep, it's not like Microsoft has ever hijacked any other software to shoe-horn in their own useless stuff.

See .NET" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=.net+framework+as... Framework Assistant in Firefox.

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#28
post #10

This is an old article. I also removed AVG after seeing this ridiculous behavior, but after updating it on a different machine I realized they had seen the error of their ways and fixed this issue. They have since removed the error sign when the link checker is disable, and as far as I can see remember they now allow (at least custom) installation w/out the link follower at all (as my installation doesn't even have i…

Do they still hijack new tabs in Firefox so that they show some crappy search page? Because that was the deal breaker for me.

Yes, did that for me until I disabled it (after swearing at both AVG and Yahoo for the intrusion). Would have been a deal breaker - I like my blank tabs, they represent the limitless possibility of the internet.

Re: Why I Removed AVG from my Computer: A tale of abusive anti-virus-ware

#30
post #12

She boldly declares, "Grisoft just lost a customer, and I'm guessing it won't be the last." It seems an overstatement to call a free AV user a "customer". Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira, though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup.

Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira, though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup. Avira AntiVir Updates to Version 9 – Make It More Usable: http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/03/18/avira-antivir-updates-to-ve...

Yes! I was going to ask if anyone used it, and what did they think of it, because there's been a long time since I don't work on a windows machine on a daily basis, but at the time I did I used Avira.

I was just wondering if after the years that passed it had become less good or something...

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