pc tips ~ email ~ hardware ~ rodent control ~ Windows

th 5 no 09

AVG anti-virus has started popping up saying wouldn't you like to upgrade to version 9, no doubt in time it will start insisting, remember you can still get AVG for free.  New in version 9 is an optimisation scan where trusted files are identified to save time re-scanning in future, the optimisation scan did only take about five mins here ...

sa 10 oct 09

Freebie anti-virus software AVG by default does a hard disc scan everyday at noon.  The scan will slow your PC down and can go on for several hours so a good idea to change the scan time to one when you're unlikely to be using the PC.  Open the AVG control panel by double clicking on the AVG icon in the system tray bottom right and then go Tools/Advanced Settings, click on the + to the left of Schedules and then click on the revealed Schedule Scan.

AVG should stop any viruses attached to email but you can still pick up a virus from other places that's why the scan; but it's not that likely so you may want to configure the scans for less frequently than every day.

Anti-virus software AVG is doing one of it's periodical upgrades requiring a download, you don't have to pay, the download screen offers a free option at the bottom.  As we have Microsoft anti-spyware freebie Defender loaded here (we're XP, it should be loaded by default in Vista) we turn off the spyware option in AVG in the hope that it speeds things up a little.

It's not you, the AVG anti-virus update server is being particularly wobbly today.

Eventually we closed our eyes, thought of England and went back to AVG.

Now we've been using it for a month our thoughts on the anti-virus software Comodo and we're wondering if some of the Trojans that AVG reports are in fact Trojans?

As you probably realise we're not great fans of the new bloated AVG anti-virus and we've found two new reasons to dislike it which has prompted us to try out Comodo.

You may have found recently that Grisoft's AVG anti-virus software has forced you to download and re-install?  If you do download remember you still don't have to pay, it seems to be much quicker downloading from Grisoft's own server in the Czech Republic rather than CNet, after installation ensure you repeatedly run update until no new updates are found and if you're running Spam Bully v3 update that too.

Why do AVG do this?  Could it be that some core software element can't be updated but more likely that the suits have taken over and they are going to send AVG the same way as Norton, from industry standard to something that hinders rather than help; the new AVG version costs £29.95 to register, has a nag screen and is just generally bigger and clunkier.  No doubt some new young Turk will appear to fill the gap.

th 6 mr 08

1902  An army order gave British soldiers the right to wear spectacles on or off duty

Street wisdom is that you don't upgrade your pc to Vista (Microsoft's new(ish) operating system) because it costs a fortune stand alone and may not like the hardware on your XP machine.  What you do is wait until you feel the need for a new box or a slinky laptop and then buy one with Vista installed.  Fair enough, but we've recently seen two new,  cheaper Vista laptops seriously underperforming because of not enough RAM and Norton Internet Security.

So don't install Norton (it's not really free), install freebie AVG anti-virus software, check that your new computer has at least 2 Gig of RAM and remember that the Office suite (Word, Excel, etc) doesn't come with Vista unless the retailer is doing a special.

pc tips

anti-virus

 It's and you are 1 of  visitors

W3C validate this page

no tools are kept on this web site overnight