A Small Warning about AVG 9.0 Users.

[Dhalin]

This does not happen to ALL computers running AVG 9.0, but it can happen to some.

I don't know the exact triggers, however I have been reading AVG forums, and based upon what they have said and my own experiences, it appears that any OS running AVG 9.0 that was upgraded from 8.5 (using the link within the AV program itself, instead of downloading fresh from a browser), can mess with your full-screen games.

Every 30 minutes like clockwork, your full-screen games may minimize unexpectedly. I know from personal experience that this happens to WoW and Istaria both, and I suspect it would happen to anything fullscreen. I've also read user accounts on the forums that it can happen even with non-fullscreen apps like browsers, notepad, etc, where the window will lose focus and if you are typing, the window you were typing in will suddenly stop receiving input.

If anyone is getting this problem and are running AVG 9.0, so far the only thing I can deduce is that you should download the full installer from free.avg.com, and then cut your internet access (unplug the cable or something) and fully uninstall AVG and then install it fresh from the package you downloaded.

My Windows7 machine doesn't have these symptoms, likely because I installed AVG 9.0 from scratch with a fresh OS install, while my other computer is still running RC1, which had 8.5. I upgraded it by clicking the button in the popup window. Apparently the upgrade/install package you get through that means, fails to remove everything from the previous version, and the notification window (the one that was trying to tell you that you should download 9.0) still pops, but is a very tiny window that only appears for a split second, every 30 minutes.

This kinda sucks for Istaria, because of the whole CTD bug when trying to restore full-screen mode... just thought I'd let people know ahead of time. This appears to have only started since the AVG update/patch Tuesday morning.

[Tathar]

Hence why I switched to Comodo. AVG has been thoroughly disappointing to me over the years, and I'm very glad I ditched it.

[Dhalin]

Update:

Completely uninstalling AVG and Reinstalling the newest version from scratch fixes the problem.

[Vaz]

Another good replacement is Avast.

[Tathar]

Avast needed better ways to handle false positives when I tried it. That was when AVG was pushing out virus DB updates that would detect known good programs as malware, like the Firefox installer.

[Dragonboy]

So far I have only used Norton (not so legal version) and mcafee (legal 1 year) but to be honest both have not impressed me so far, with mcafee at the absolute bottom... Year was over and my computer was wide open for attacks because nothing worked anymore.
Going to try Panda security for 3 years now, after that who knows what I will chose.

[Dhalin]

Avast needed better ways to handle false positives when I tried it. That was when AVG was pushing out virus DB updates that would detect known good programs as malware, like the Firefox installer.

That's odd, I've been using AVG for at least 4 years now, if not 5, and this issue with AVG 9.0 really wasn't that hard to fix once people nailed down the problem.

It was all just a simple little oversight, and to be honest, I should have uninstalled the previous version when doing major version updates anyways.

I've never had any false-positives, or anything like that the entire time I've used AVG on 3 of my computers.

Now that the 9.0 issue is solved, and they made the thing update itself without popping windows up, I really can't think of anything I have against it. Also, when you install it, it wants to do an "Optimization Scan" ... it makes future scans _much_ faster, dunno if other AVs do that or not.

Oh, and Norton/McAfee.... they are huge over-bloated pieces of junk. Norton uses up way too much CPU/RAM time for all it does. I don't get why they are blasted as being 'the best' and end up on store shelves in fancy little packaging, making people think they are the most awesome thing around when they aren't.

Switching from Norton to something else (AVG Free works) will free up lots of resources, and if you have a computer that is barely able to play a game, you should see a quite noticeable difference. I once had a game (FFXI) that used to, for 5 or so second intervals every 5 minutes or so, go below 10 FPS (the game normally runs at 29.9; it is hard-coded that way) for no explainable reason. I switched to Grisoft (which is now AVG) and the problem suddenly went away.....