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AVG AntiVirus Gripes AVG is an anti-virus program that is free for personal use

February 10, 2006. From a newsletter by Steve Bass of PC World magazine: 

     "AVG Antivirus won't automatically check for signature updates or perform a scan more than once a day. 
      But you can do it  manually whenever you need to: Just right-click on the AVG Control Center icon in the system tray 
      and choose "Check for update from internet." For a full scan, open AVG and choose "Complete test"..."  

2003

April 22, 2003. Windows 98 Second Edition. I downloaded the program on April 18, 2003. It is AVG version 6.0.474, released on February 26, 2003. The virus database is 272 from April 18, 2003.  

The first thing that happens after AVG is installed is that it gets updates in the form of an update file. It is not clear whether these updates are to the virus definitions, the program itself or both. (I am told it is both) 

After applying the first update, it re-launches the program and then crashes with an illegal operation. The exact error is: "AVGW caused an invalid page fault in module avgw.exe". 

AVG comes pre-configured to run a number of different tests (other programs call this a virus scan rather than a "test"). The complete test, by default, is not set to check all files. In other words, it's not a complete test. Checking all files is safer. 

When the program was installed, I opted not to have AVG check email because the email program being used is not one that it says it supports (as of April 2003 it only supports Outlook and Outlook Express). Despite this, email scanning was turned on. Specifically, AVG says that the email scanner is active, even after I used the control panel to turn off all the email checking options.  

I find the two user interfaces confusing, at least at first. AVG has a control panel windows and a main program  window from which you can launch manual scans. This is not hard to figure out, but it is not explained to the new user.  

I have not lived with AVG, instead my experience is limited to installing it twice on computers used by others. The first time I installed it was February 2003 on a computer running Windows XP Home Edition. That installation also resulted in AVG crashing right after the first update was downloaded. I have misplaced my detailed notes however. 

July 12, 2003. A reader of this web site who also had an illegal operation error from AVG while running the initial update, suggests skipping the Update Now and Scan options during install, re-booting and then manually running these functions. I have not tried this, but it can't hurt.