My Rant on AVG Free 8.0

For all of you PC users that use AVG FREE 8.0 (the latest version), don't! The last couple days have been hell for me just because of this single completely useless AV program. Yes, it was a good program when it wasn't as popular as Norton or as the McAfee protection, but as soon as it was as reliable or as well known, it dropped the ball on the "free" version and completely disregarded any reasonable means of virus protection for people that continue using it past 8.0.

Let me explain, in the last few days my computer underwent some strange hardships. I only noticed it a couple days ago but my CPU was running really slow, my fan was running really hard (which only occurs in the event that I am playing a game), there was a consistent Windows Update showing up that didn't connect to any real Windows update, and my mouse configuration was gone (and still is until I install the driver). After doing some searches on the web, I figured out that AVG is no longer doing as much for the free version as they are on the new version. Not only that, the latest automatic download from AVG completely killed the version on my computer, rendering it useless and unable to work, therefore without any prompt I was unprotected from the internet. It's ridiculous.

After hours of searching and running Windows version of anti-malware, I was able to realize that a better free program could be found in either Avast! or Avira AntiVir, both are good and have different strongpoints, though I went with Avira because of the user friendly GUI. After that, I proceeded to get Comodo Firewall and a bunch of other things to full proof anything else from messing up. Now, though I still feel like my computer was effected (after seeing both Avira and the Windows scan say I have nothing), I feel like some things are still missing from my computer, like the original startup settings, etc., but I can learn to live with that and rebuild as long as my computer is running perfectly well with no problems.

So for all you guys out there looking for a good setup to have, run either Avast! or Avira AntiVirus along side Comodo Firewall (which both work cohesively with Microsoft Windows) and do regular disk defragments and disk cleanups (which could also be done with CCleaner, a freeware program). Don't make the same mistake I did and go with AVG Free, it is a piece of poop, and not only that, I hear that it's AVG Flat (the paid version) also is lacking in comparison to the features given by Avast! and Avira. Though the theory I heard behind this was that as soon as an AntiVirus program goes popular as AVG does, they get sucked into the feeling that they have a lot of loyal followers and don't need to keep their eye on the prize, consistently updating their programs to make them better and compete with the news things out there.

Now if only I had learned about that AVG crap before I encountered some kind of fake Windows update (during the time of my no antivirus protection), I would be set. Now I just have to find a way to see what kind of damage this thing has done because now, after 5 different System Restores to different points and being unable to locate files made today, I'm only going to try to fix the problem, not go back to a time where it didn't exist. And one more thing, get this, as I went back through various restore points, I was continuously confronted with the same problem that AVG Free set in front of me, an uninstall/install error that was associated with the program not being able to find files that may have been tossed around in the process of it's latest devastating product update. I even tried running on Safe Mode and trying to delete it, with no avail. I was prompted by several websites to run a regedit (registry edit) and manually delete, though I don't think it is advisable as it can mess with the configuration of other processes that are running simultaneously and in cohesion with the P.O.S. AVG.

But don't take my word for it, take all these other peoples' :)

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7813_102-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=261367&messageID=2844712