AVG 9

[MALTBY D]

Hi All

If you use AVG anti virus, I'd advise to be wary of moving on to AVG 9 yet.
I updated mine about a week ago and am now using Avast! (free) anti virus instead.

The performance with Internet Explorer was sometimes pretty bad, with it not serving up web pages fully.
I had thought it could be a fault with my Internet Provider, as they'd done some server upgrades around the same time I updated to AVG 9.
And it had been mainly my own website's pages that I was noticing problems on!
But last night I found that Jo's laptop (with AVG8) was consistently serving up pages perfectly, while at the same time my PC was awful on the same pages.
I removed AVG, installed Avast! and Internet Explorer is now working perfectly again.

I had uninstalled & reinstalled AVG and tried all sorts in IE to get it working well, but failed.

Cheers
DM

[TSR2]

I've been running this since going to Windows 7... I know it may not be everyones cuppa, but does all I need it to do. My surfing habits are fairly basic... i.e. here and the BBC pages

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

[DaveB]

Hi DM..

One of my girls at the pub asked about this yesterday as it happens. She'd seen the 'new version' prompt so did the upgrade (surprising really as she rarely updates anything!). It went through the rigmarole of restarting then came up with an error which, as bad luck would have it, she didn't note She thinks it's still working but it appears to be stuck between 2 versions. I've told her to uninstall it so we'll see what happens.. if anything

ATB

DaveB

[speedbird591]

I moved to AVG from Avira a few months back because of intrusive pop-up ads, but I find that AVG slows things down a lot when it's scanning.

So I moved my laptop over to Microsoft Security Essentials a couple of weeks back when it came out of Beta. This was in response to a review in PC Advisor comparing free AVs. The performance of the beta MSSE at detecting viruses and malware was as good as the other free progs but it was marked down on scanning speed. As MSSE is the only product there is no incentive or advertising to upgrade to a commercial product.

The final product is still very slow at scanning but it has such a small footprint that it doesn't use any resources. A full scan takes two to three hours but I tried it during a FS session and there was no hit on frame rates and surfing wasn't affected either. It's also very simple and requires no attention and integrates with the OS.

I'm so pleased with it that I've put it on the present Mrs Speedbird's machine as well. The big test is on Cyberbrat's laptop because who knows what dark sites he visits but I've replaced his payware eSet suite with MSSE to give it a proper test. There's nothing important (to me!) on his machine so it won't be a problem if he catches something nasty.

Just thought I'd mention it in case anybody wants to try something new.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

EDIT: I've just realised that this is what Ben's talking about too! When he said 'I've been running this since moving to Windows 7' I thought he meant AVG9
Sorry to repeat it, Ben! Anyway I fully agree with you that it's a nice simple little program for us safe surfers!

Ian

[DaveB]

Ah.. that's the same link as the one Ben put up but I used your's Ian as I know you'd have wanted me to

I see it's compatible with WinXP in various flavours too which means come update time for the office pc (currently on AVG8).. I'll be seriously considering it's use It should follow that people who write software would know how to fill the holes they've left and am surprised M$ haven't delved into AV before.

Tks for the HU.. most useful

ATB

DaveB

[Paul K]

My new Windows 7 system is on the way ( hurry up, PC Specialists !! ) and I've been looking at maybe trying something other than AVG when it arrives. Was considering Avira, but that Microsoft one looks interesting. Thanks for the links, chaps.

[speedbird591]

I've just had another look at PC Advisor's group test of free AVs. There wasn't a huge difference in detection rates among the top 4 but Avira was rated top, albeit with a criticism of the complicated interface. Here's how the Avira detection rates compare with Microsoft Security Essentials (beta only was tested).

Overall malware detection: Avira 98.2%, MSSE 97.8%
Heuristic detection: Avira 46.1%, MSSE 52.1%
Rootkit detection: Avira 100%, MSSE 100%
Rootkit removal: Avira 100%, MSSE 100%
Adware detection: Avira 92%, MSSE 93%
Malware cleanup: Avira 50%, MSSE 50%

Comparison results were 1. Avira, 2. Avast, 3. AVG 8.5, 4. MSSE (because of the slow scan speed), but Comodo and PC Tools were both slated.

Ian

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Dave, seem to remember the last time AVG did an upgrade it all went t*ts up, at the end of the day it's not a bad freeware anti-virus so long as they don't upgrade it!!

Regards
Nigel

[TSR2]

If your going to Buy Av... look at trend. Free 30 day trial during which they usually email you a discount coupon making it about £35 if memory serves. Once I get teh car sorted that what I'll be buying, but as with all these things use the free trial to see if you like the product. If you don't simply uninstall it

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Ben, not one to change peoples' minds but Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 appears to be very good for £39.99

http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kaspersky_internet_security

Nigel.