(I was NOT offered an option of getting rid of that Yahoo toolbar and had to kill it manually. The AVG icon constantly nags that I’m less than fully protected, but I’m used to this particular nanny yelling at me.)

My problem is that I can’t shut the AV component off! I need to, in order to download a font that got corrupted, which (I’ve had to re-DL it before) simply cannot come through an AV program. I go to Advanced > Resident Shield and untick the box and hit Apply and OK, and AVG goes back to its main interface, which informs me that my AV is up and running, though when I go back to the Resident Shield box to check, it remains unticked. I find this enormously frustrating, and have lost the use of a program until I can get the correct font back.

There needs to be simple access to a temporary shutdown, or even an advanced option that, y’know, actually works. I can’t even shut down any AVG processes through Task Manager — well, I can, and they immediately relaunch, like zombies. It’s like having the world’s meanest babysitter. Would it KILL them to allow me to take an utterly reasonable risk?

I just think that free software is no excuse for forcing users to accept something they don’t want, or worse, they don’t know about.

And besides, if the thing is legit as they claim, why isn’t there a simple and straightforward “uninstall” feature for the toolbar? I may be an over-average user, but I’m no computer pro, and it’s not easy for me to poke around command lines or hidden tweaks to unistall software.

All this started badly with the annoying pop-ups, while I was still using version 7.5. I can’t say if we are using different AVG versions ( I’ve dowloaded from their site), but surely our windows version is different, as I’m using XPsp2 in brazilian portuguese. Don’t think that’s the problem, though.

English may not be my native language, but I’m sure AVG installer did not ask me if I wanted the toolbar.

Jo Ann Kurtz
Lakewood, CA

You make it sound as if AVG kicked down your front door and rammed the toolbar down your throat while holding a gun to your head!

Besides, the toolbar (if it is on your computer) is easily removed by going to the software section of your Windows start menu and removing it like any other piece of software, and then using the crapcleaner software to remove any lingering traces.

I wish you would stop over-reacting!

Fair enough, but the main feature is how well you are protected, and you need to be willing to “torture test” the antivirus to find out how it scores. This takes time, and it requires a pretty good understanding of how the security programs work. Needless to say, it’s better done by security experts, whose job is partly to deal with these things.

It does not mean you cannot review other “features”, but you should let the reader know that your testing is nowhere near complete, and that they should not base their choice on it only. Now, I’m off the soapbox.