There is a new version of Active Virus Shield available that finally supports Vista. I had been saying for awhile that when a Vista-compatible version came around that I would be jumping all over it, and immediately after finding out about this I had it installed on my computer.
I checked out the Active Virus Shield website, and it doesn’t appear that the new version has been posted there nor does it say that it is compatible with Vista. However, I had previously tried the version of Active Virus Shield that they have posted and Vista starts up with a blue screen of death every time. With this new version, which appears to be different than the one on the official site, it works perfectly.
Now I’m just sitting here waiting for my free activation code to reach my email. I would have thought the email would be sent instantaneously, but leave it to AOL to keep me waiting. You don’t need the activation code to complete the installation process, but it is needed if you want to do any updates, so I highly recommend that you hold out on installing Active Virus Shield until you get your activation code. Otherwise you are leaving your computer vulnerable.
Even though Kaspersky (which powers Active Virus Shield) didn’t do so well in the Retrospective tests, it did knock the others out of the park for the general detection tests based on virus definitions. So in my opinion, for what that’s worth, this is the best free antivirus solution available.
Download from our Mirror or from Softpedia [via Neowin]
Thanks for the tip XPGeek!
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Tags: Freeware, Software, Antivirus, AOL
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You know how AOL installs extra software (bundles it: example: to install AIM Triton, AOL Explorer had to be installed too) sometimes; does this program bundle anything else with it? And after removal, are there any traces of it left? I’m hesitant to install any more AOL software on my PC, but your reviews of this program make me want to install it. I’m torn!
@Max - I believe from Ryan’s post on it before, he said that it does not install anything else. As far as uninstalling completely, I am not sure. I will be switching soon.
@Ryan - I received my email activation code immediately.
I’m sorry to say this, but for me it didn’t work. I have Vista Business, I don’t know if this has any importance.
I downloaded it, uninstalled AVG Free, installed AVS, and got a BSOD. That’s a lot of letters, but basically I spent two hours fighting with it, and now I’m giving up and heading back to AVG Free.
Oh yeah, and I’m running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Okay, it looks like it does work — but you need to make sure to download the file from Neowin. The file you’re mirroring does not work.
Hmmm. Reinstalled Vista this morning, not just for this, but anyway, AOL must have pulled it from the server or something, maybe wasn’t meant to be released yet. Cause I downloaded it right from Softpedia there and this new one not the version I got and Vista just blocked its driver instal due to imcompatibility. Oh well, back to Avast for a while.
I guess I will not even try it currently and stay with Avast.
actually I downloaded mine directly from their website
No, it doesn’t install any extra software and doesn’t leave much behind when uninstalling (maybe a few registry settings, but nothing out of the ordinary). I wouldn’t really consider this AOL software because it is pretty much just a skinned version of Kaspersky.
That’s very odd, I downloaded and mirrored the exact same file Neowin posted.
Yeah, you could probably wait until there is an official announcement, but it seems to be working great for me.
That would be your problem, they haven’t updated the site yet to the newest version.