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 it!).<p>I do notice issues when AVG does it's weekly scan - the computer runs quite a bit slower - but besides that I've got no problems. I was upset when they released the version with the noted problems, but since they quickly released an update with fixes I'm happy enough to continue to use AVG. Everybody makes mistakes!
I too uninstalled it. I have a ridiculous multi-core system with more RAM than anybody really needs; I have been unable to even mildly slow it down since I built it -- until I installed AVG, which slapped ridiculous scan bottlenecks on every disk read, every download, every link click, every application launch, every <i>thing</i> I could do on my box.<p>It's almost worse than actually having a virus. At least you can uninstall it. Now my machine is back to it's usual, quick self.
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 isn't unique to AVG, but it does make you wonder what goes through the heads of corporate managers who decide how to "improve" their products.<p>Products seem to follow this cycle:<p>- 1.0 - neat idea, needs more<p>- 2.0 - wow, nice!<p>- 3.0 - okay, I can only use some of those new features, but not bad<p>- 4.0 - um...I suppose it's nice for people who do that kind of thing<p>- 5.0 - okay, at least they're supporting $NEW_OS_VERSION now; wait, that's odd, someone's added a toolbar<p>- 6.0 [read: 5.1] - where did these ads come from, and who said I needed an auto-updater?<p>- 7.0 [read: 5.2] - web integration? and where's all this extra CPU usage coming from?<p>- 8.0 [read: 5.3 beta 3] - I can't tell what the new features are...but now I have to go for coffee while it starts up
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.
AVG has all sorts of other problems including obtrusiveness (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/xdrunkagainx/3652625815/sizes/o/" rel="nofollow">http://www.flickr.com/photos/xdrunkagainx/3652625815/sizes/o...</a>), insane advertising, and generally buggier and worse since its 7.5 release.
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".<p>Those looking for a free A/V solution should check out Avira, though you'll have to disable the annoying upgrade popup.
I don't run antivirus, instead I configured a secondary account and then removed the admin privileges on my primary one. This has the added effect of preventing Skype from installing annoying browser toolbars.
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.
I just installed AVG's latest version after reinstalling Windows 7 (to upgrade from Beta to RC.) I remembered from using AVG during Windows 7 Beta that they included that link checker, and I hated it as well, so I did a custom installation instead of the default/recommended installation, and I was able to not even install the link checker. Now I do not have the exclamation mark thank god. Also, I didn't install the AVG toolbar either, so it's not nagging me either. Usually when you have an issue with software installing things you don't want, it's simply because you didn't do a custom install.
I uninstalled AVG ages ago. The resource consumption was what did it for me. As for the other complaints, they're not really such a big deal once you learn how to deactivate features that you don't need, and to set it so that AVG doesn't notify that you've deactived them.
Never ran into those problems but I did do a custom install and never installed those components.<p>I run Opera as well so would never the link scanner to begin with.<p>I do agree those parts of the AVG are horrible.
I haven't had anti-virus software on any of my personal PCs since MS-DOS 6.22.<p>Number of virus/spyware infections: 0.<p>Performance gain when compiling/building: Immense.