Friday, November 06, 2009

Will I ever learn? Never, ever upgrade

So, AVG anti-virus asked if I wanted to upgrade to version 9--for free, no less. And, for some reason, I went ahead and did so.

First sign that I had done a dumb thing: the "up"grade was being slowed down by Spyware Doctor (which I'd paid for 2 months' worth) to the point that the Internet didn't work, though don't ask me how one caused the other. So I had to get rid of Spyware Doctor. I did, and everything was fine. Almost. Except for occasional slowdowns. Then, tonight, my Outlook Express stopped "responding." My email program stopped working!!!!!!!!!!!

I tried to use it, you see. AVG got confused.

So, I'm one tiny step away from uninstalling the darn thing (AVG, not my email program). I have a year left on the subscription, but if it's going to cripple the operation of my computer, it's goodbye. Checking out various message boards that discuss AVG issues (including one with a comically bureaucratic and controlling monitor), I see that AVG's customer service is the usual conversation with a wall.

I'd just gotten used to a great product from AVG. So, naturally, they go the way of McAfee. Darn. Double-darn. Darn X 10.

Dang it, even.

7 comments:

DonHo57 said...

Sorry to hear about your AVG woes...I have been using the free version for three years, and never had an issue, even through upgrades. Had the paid version at work a few years ago, though, and it was always buggy. Go figure. As far as I am concerned the AVG Free is stellar. Hope you get this ironed out, Lee

And thanks for the great shares, I have a blast listening to some of the stuff you give us!

1verycoolguy said...

I, also, use AVG Free. Been using it for a few years. I up-graded to a higher version of it but didn't like how it did, so I went back to the free one. It works just great.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Thanks, Don and 1. My sister also loves the free version. I guess that's what I should do--ditch the paid version and go for the unpaid.

Definitely ironic.

I do remember disabling a feature or two on my previous paid version and speeding things up as a result, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can eliminate on this version. That, plus it raises a fuss if I touch any settings. Very temperamental software....

rbarban said...

One word, Don: Mac.

sumogrrl said...

Definitely. Mac.

Anonymous said...

They say, Once you go Mac, you never go back! lol

Anonymous said...

AVG Free not the trial version works for me.
Now with some older puters most anti V and spy doctors do cause a system to loose steam, a rule of thumb is once a year back up your files and wipe the drive 100% search for software that will do this.Format the drive's reinstall you OS Yeah getting all back up to date takes some doing but look on the brite side!