AVG

[Niall]

Just thought I'd mention it here as all the old threads the search function found are really old (which is odd as I'm sure I've mentioned this within the last 5 months). Anyway..

I mentioned a while ago that AVG was an immense system slow down/killer for me (like Norton is) so I got a refund. Well, I've been talking to my mum recently as it's on her system and it was so slow she decided to get a netbook for simple email/web browsing.

Today I FINALLY found the key to unlock her case so I could put a new battery in for the bios (damn thing kept resetting every time as the battery was dead), hoovered out 7 years of dust and put in some ballistix memory for a nice boost. I started the PC and obviously it was faster as it had 512mb more ram and was running slightly cooler after the clean. I decided that something was up as it was still slower than I remember my old AMD 1900+ system being, so I uninstalled a couple of programs but nothing changed. Finally I decided something was up with AVG and sure enough, as soon as I uninstalled it and the PC ran like lightning!

I'm now using avast on it, and it's flying along.

So to sum up, in my experience in the last 6 months, AVG SUCKS on 64bit Vista, XP Pro with SP2 and now XP Pro on two seperate systems with SP3. These are all completely different hardware levels too. The laptop is high end gaming laptop (or was 3 years ago), the PC in the back is 7 years old but in mint condition and my vista machine is pretty powerful dual core setup (which I've actually tried AVG with my old single core system on 64bit vista too). I won't be using or recommending that program for anyone again!

[Lance]

On systems where I need to put a free antivirus, avast gets my vote every time. Never had any problems at all with it.

[Simon]

On Pals, and here, I believe, we have heard of several cases where people have had viruses, and it turns out they had AVG on their machine.  I wouldn't recommend it either.

[Sebby]

I've got to agree with you, Niall. AVG has gone downhill since version 6 and I'm not overly keen on it anymore. Avast is much better as far as free options go.

[somanyholes]

Have to say I agree with avast being the best free one around at that moment, adding something else on top such as,threatfire or immunet easily brings your security up to the likes of kaspersky. I see no point in paid for security software these days, in a home environment at least.

[Gary]

Have to say I agree with avast being the best free one around at that moment, adding something else on top such as,threatfire or immunet easily brings your security up to the likes of kaspersky. I see no point in paid for security software these days, in a home environment at least.

I used to love Kaspersky but its such a pain it causes so many conflicts and slows down browsing these days, having removed it my system flies once more and I do not get issues with programs behaving oddly and crashing, the forum is full of people sadly having issues with programs, even when in the exclusion zone. The 2010 suite really has changed my view on protection with them sadly, its bloated and Buggy and full of false Positive kernal patch PDM module issues, also it now will not even let a user have Superantispyware on their system with the latest beta being tested, when one suite or AV takes over a whole machine and also has a worse detection rating than its last version I have to wonder what happened, It seems the rush to get the 2010 moniker out on products for sale is all that matters now. Also Symantec still slam Kaspersky in detection and removal, not that I want a Symantec product on my machine but its less prone to conflict, with the 2010 version I could not even view my router page properly and that was with all applied work arounds, something a few others had issue with. I find Sandboxie and Nod32 v4 works fine for me at this time and the windows firewall in Vista along with UAC is all I need in a home environment when behind a SPI router firewall

[somanyholes]

Pay for software always seems to be bloated these days gary. They like to make you think it's worth paying for all the extra features. This is another reason I prefer free security software, you get what you need to do the job, if you want software that covers something else just use another vendor, as long as the apps play nicely together all is well

[Gary]

Pay for software always seems to be bloated these days gary. They like to make you think it's worth paying for all the extra features. This is another reason I prefer free security software, you get what you need to do the job, if you want software that covers something else just use another vendor, as long as the apps play nicely together all is well

I agree So, Nod seems to play nice but Avast is good enough and as you say pay for is very bloated now, also the monopoly they want on your system is wrong, Symantec started that now Kaspersky join in which for me is a real shame, all in all I prefer to have a choice of layered protection that plays nice if I want, not a suite that controls all and leaves you with a headache 

[Sebby]

Gary, go back to Kaspersky 2009!

[Rik]

Can you catch a train to there, Seb? 

[Gary]

Gary, go back to Kaspersky 2009!

Happy with Nod v4 Sebby I can only have the internet security suite and its a mess and causes iTunes to crash more than, well a crashing thing, Nod 32 just the AV, is working very well on the Laptop so I'm happy 

[Gary]

Can you catch a train to there, Seb? 

Big old Russian one maybe

[Rik]

Steam!!!

[Gary]

Steam!!!

train  http://www.baltictravelcompany.com/img/content/Trains/Splash/ARC-by-Steam-2009-SPL-.jpg

[Rik]

Smell the sulphur. 

[David]

So what is the concencus here ? I use AVG free on all my machines,and I am all for speeding them up a bit,one notebook is painfully slow but I didnt think of this aspect of it

[Rik]

I think it's "don't trust AVG", David.

[David]

  It will be interesting to try this "Avast" is AVG easy to get rid of ?not like Norton I hope

[Rik]

I've never used it, sorry.

[David]

  Niall I think this worth one of these 

[David]

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Is this it ?

[Rik]

Looks like it to me.

[David]

  here we go.........................dive dive dive 

[Rik]

Or duck, duck, duck. 

[David]

  well it seems to be about feet today and this is the web so Duck is fine.I will just Swan off then 

[Rik]

Before you get goosed... 

[David]

I was well and truely that years ago now Im oven ready 

[Rik]

Ah, totally plucked you mean? 

[David]

Well someones nest was feathered ...it isnt mine 

[Simon]

I strongly suggest you use the AVG removal tool, David, otherwise it could leave all sort of debris behind, which could interfere with other brands of AV software. 

http://www.avg.com/download-tools

[Sebby]

[David]

I strongly suggest you use the AVG removal tool, David, otherwise it could leave all sort of debris behind, which could interfere with other brands of AV software. 

http://www.avg.com/download-tools

Thanks Simon will do.........have already installed on one machine Avast  I mean  still nothing was found after a long scan wonder if I can redo it all again ?

[Simon]

If you run the AVG removal tool now, I'm guessing it will say it's already been uninstalled, but it MIGHT remove any detritus that may have been left behind.

[David]

I did manage to get out the virus vault and some files but think I will give it a go.

will I need to remove Avast first Simon ?or can that stay where it is...

[Simon]

I'd leave it Avast where it is, David.  And pray. 

[David]

  Here goes.........

[David]

Wow.......................that did it to be honest up to now I had not noticed any significance in speed of the pc but its shifting now 

[Simon]

 

[David]

Juat 4 more to do now 

That is a good tool Simon thanks

[Fox]

I have used Avast for some years now, I have found it to be a good stable program and it works at least as well as Norton (and its FREE!!!!). I recently put Avast on my fathers aging laptop (he has run Norton for years but thought it was getting expensive), he rang me to ask what else I had done to it as when he got it back it was running like new and not the slow pace he had become used to.

I cant recommend Avast highly enough, it does what it says on the tin and doesn't use all of your systems resources to do it

[Gary]

I have used Avast for some years now, I have found it to be a good stable program and it works at least as well as Norton (and its FREE!!!!). I recently put Avast on my fathers aging laptop (he has run Norton for years but thought it was getting expensive), he rang me to ask what else I had done to it as when he got it back it was running like new and not the slow pace he had become used to.

I cant recommend Avast highly enough, it does what it says on the tin and doesn't use all of your systems resources to do it

Avast is good, but the thing i with new threats, rootkits getting harder to get out let alone find, security is going to get to the point where it slows a pc down, its inevitable as they try to battle the bad guys with the all in one suites, by the time you layer your protection, and avast is not enough on its own you still get slowdowns, thats the way it will be, its hard to make breaks feel light on a sports car that needs to slow from 200mph to 40 for a corner, and so it is in the malware world. Some just are better than others but they all are slowing you down more each year.

[David]

Took me hours but a laptop I gave to my daughter (not an old laptop) but was so slow I removed AVG and installed Avast and it really is much faster so thanks for this.

Still got 2 machines to do   


Putting a plug on it helped as well 

[Rik]

Glad it's going well for you. 

[David]

I didnt realise how you have to keep up with these things though....that small laptop had 167 issues on it,lucky it has not been online for a long time,Joanne only uses it as a personal PC/diary if I allow her online she will use this one.....Im quite strict on this issue though 

[Rik]

I've seen machines that have taken a day to clean up, David, things can go wrong very quickly.

[Glenn]

I've had hard drives that have taken 24hrs+ just to defrag

[Rik]

They're really painful, aren't they.

[Glenn]

It's the users that are painful, they know less about a computer than they do a car, I think it is due to the other electrical goods they buy, and need no maintenance.

[Sebby]

I've seen machines that have taken a day to clean up, David, things can go wrong very quickly.

Ah, the joys of running Windows.

[Rik]

[David]

  Are you STILL on windows Rik ?

[Rik]

I'm on something, just haven't worked out what.

[David]

  is it contagious ?

[Rik]

Only if you stand still...

[David]

Better run a scan just in case 

[Rik]

Definitely, MRI or CAT?

[Glenn]

Definitely,CAT?

Best feed it first though

[Rik]

See, even you're getting the food bug, Glenn.

[Glenn]

I have my first DR Ribeye waiting to be cooked later

[Rik]

We had ours on Monday, Glenn. It seems, to me, it benefits from being cooked in a flat pan, rather than a griddle, that brings the flavour out more. Enjoy...

[Ray]

Getting back on topic  As the F-secure AV I'm using on my Home Server is due to run out in a weeks time I'm currently trialing the WHS version of Avast on my server and the Pro version on my second machine. 

[Rik]

What's your reaction so far, Ray?

[Sebby]

I was actually looking at AV for WHS the other day. I think Avast seems to have the best reviews.

[Ray]

What's your reaction so far, Ray?

Seems to be working fine in both cases so far, Rik, does seem to use more memory than Nod32 but cpu resources appear to be very similar. One thing I do like about it if you have it running on the server and installed on other machines you can monitor and control those from the server console.

[Rik]

That sounds useful. 

[Glenn]

Getting back on topic  As the F-secure AV I'm using on my Home Server is due to run out in a weeks time I'm currently trialing the WHS version of Avast on my server and the Pro version on my second machine. 

Ray, how did you get Avast to install, each time I try it, I get told that it's the wrong version and I need at least NT with SP4 installed? This is where I downloaded it from http://www.avastuk.com/avast-pro-family-pack.html

[Steve]

Hopefully Avast WHS is better than it was 9 months ago it was a resource hog then for me , F-Secure had very little effect on WHS overall performance.

[Ray]

Ray, how did you get Avast to install, each time I try it, I get told that it's the wrong version and I need at least NT with SP4 installed? This is where I downloaded it from http://www.avastuk.com/avast-pro-family-pack.html

I downloaded the Pro version from this page here Glenn, and it installed with no problem.