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AVG is often recognized as one of the top free antivirus applications, but they also have a paid version available with some more advanced features. For a little while now AVG 8.0 has been in a public Beta stage, and just the other day the first Release Candidate was pushed out the door.
I think one of the big highlights in the new version is the very much needed facelift that the application has received, which can be seen in the screenshot above. There’s also supposed to be some back-end improvements to both performance and the detection abilities, and I’ll trust that they are there although I didn’t see any noticeable performance improvements.
Here’s a list of the notable features that you’ll find in AVG 8.0:
- Redesigned interface
- Web shield – web content scanner (HTTP and Instant Messaging)
- Link scanner – Safe Search and Safe Surf (includes Exploit Prevention Labs scanner)
- Anti-Rootkit
- Completely new scanning engine
- New, much more effective, heuristic analysis
- Improved performance
The web shield has been needed for awhile considering that most of the competitive products all include such protection. With the web shield you’re protected from malicious websites, which has been becoming a big issue lately. The link scanner, however, was a very interesting addition. As you can see in the screenshot below it’s a lot like McAfee’s Site Advisor, and while it might be useful to some people I find that it clutters my browsing experience more than anything:
When you run AVG 8.0 for the first time you’re greeted with a wizard that will walk you through the configuration. Power users probably won’t find much use in this, but I’m sure the novice users will appreciate it:
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Anyone can register to become a tester and download the pre-release version of the next major milestone, but you’ll need to prepare yourself for a whopping 50MB download. Alternatively a download is available from FileForum which doesn’t require any registration, but either way the build is set to expire on April 1st, 2008.
AVG will obviously release version 8 as paid-only initially, and then after some time has passed they will likely upgrade their free edition as well.
Thanks to everyone that sent this tip in over the past few weeks!
Holy cow, they drastically improved AVG’s interface! I might switch from avast! Home to AVG soon…
Well, it could be a little while before they roll out the free version of this. And there’s no telling whether they are going to keep the interface the same for the free version.
Does anyone run Vista without Anti-Virus? I’ve been thinking of doing so for a while now, still haven’t yet, but my AVG just sits there doing stuff-all, now that I have UAC and Defender with Vista. I’m trying hard to actually see the point in AV anymore?
well, the best AV is the brain. If u know what u surf, careful what u download, and cautious what emails u open then u r all set.
I have been running Kaspersky for ages (one of the best out there in detection rate) and I ran Nod32 (another one of the best) and have not been infected once. On the other hand, one of my friends get infected weekly!!!
Exactly….the brain is king. It just seems like a waste of resources having AV installed when I only scan the odd file download in a blue moon.
Hi, I don’t quite understand why is it the website domain is .cz. and it is not published and mentioned in their official website .com that we normally access. Why is it so?
Looks good, although I wonder how many functionality they’ll keep for the freeware version. I predict that at least the Firewall, the Anti Spam, the E-Mail Scanner and the Anti-Spyware components would not be included.
BTW, does LinkScanner work in all browsers, or only in IE?
i will stick to nod32…
Grisoft is a Czech company. the free avg is available at free.grisoft.com while the official domain of the company is .cz.
Personally i think the more they withhold the release of ver 8 free version,the lesser their chances would be to hold on to the free antivirus segment.
I’ve actually wondered the same thing myself, but I recently picked up a subscription to the Eset Smart Security suite so I’ll be running antivirus software for awhile. I think with the added protection that UAC offers you should be okay, although that is reliant on you actually reading what the UAC prompts are for before clicking “continue”.
The LinkScanner should work in Firefox, IE, and Opera.
That’s a good point. I don’t think they will hold out too long, but with an interface this slick I think it will really help them attract the Avast users.
I’m using Avast and Comodo firewall and no problems. AVG with 50MB !? Next Norton ?! …
This is the full-blown AVG suite though, complete with firewall. So the size isn’t all that surprising.
I was running 7.5 antivirus on my laptop with visa. Decided to upgrade to 8.0 for free. What a mistake, I lost my wireless connection and dsl also. After hours of trouble shooting and with tech support help no luck. More hours of trouble shooting on my own only to find out the add-on they added to internet explorer with the yahoo tool bar was the problem. Even when I tried to disable the add-on’s and get rid of yahoo toolbar it didn’t help. By the end of the night I was getting a message that AVG 8.0 was missing a driver and email scanner was not working,what a mess. Once I deleted the program everything was find with internet explorer. As a long term user of AVG I was not a happy camper. AVG 8.0 is a nice program but not on my laptop. Now running NOD32 3.0 very happy with it. Check it out on cnet.com.
Sorry to hear that you guys are having so many problems with it. I guess they still need to offer an antivirus-only version so that problems like this don’t occur.
AVG has a nice set-up there with version 8.0,but like any new program there’s bugs to be worked out. I’ll give it a year then take another look. As far as NOD32 3.0 WOW what a nice program to work with,never saw a antivirus program set-up like that before. Very happy with it you don’t even know it’s there,SWEEEEEET. Buck
I have used AVG for years without problems. Version 8 of the network version has been a nightmare. Not only IE but many programs run very slow on computers with this installation. All of the twenty users I installed the program on had problems and asked to have it removed.
Upgraded my AVG 7.5 anti-virus + firewall to AVG 8.0. Though everything went smoothly, my computer now runs noticably slower. It’s not a big problem, but it’s there. I do hesitate about this product.
So did i on my XP Machine and the same story so i when back to 7.5 may try Avast! soon
AVG 8 – 25-30mb Ram usage
AVG 7.5 – 1.5mb Ram usage
I’ve only tested the memory usage with the free version really, which doesn’t include the firewall. So unfortunately I’m not sure if the slowdown is all that common with AVG 8 Pro.
TERRIBLE!! Justy installed it and it was a HUGE mistake. Slowed system to a crawl, bloatware, corrupted files, ………don’t upgrade. You’ll be sorry.
nod32, Avast, AVG 7.5, and other AntiVirus and AntiSpy can’t delete Antivirus XP 2008, well i think AVG 8.0 will do….
I know what you mean about Antivirus XP 2008,heard good things about windows onecare,used it and it kicked that suckers butt.
As far as AVG 8.0 we shall see,just installed it and it seems to be running smoothly and i like the fact it has a rootkit scanner,doesn’t seem to slow me down too much either.It’s configurable so if you don’t like the web shield,firewall,e-mail scanner,link scanner,or reident shield turn ‘em off,you can’t complain it doesn’t have enough gadgets even for the most gadget hungry.
I have AVG 8 and it is awful. Slows computer to a crawl, fire wall won’t let me connect to internet, and it took more than 4 weeks for the company to reply to my email. My advice – don’t go near AVG