JEB's Website - Computer - AVG v8.5 Post Install Notes

Click on my logo to go to my homepage.

Installation of AVG version 8.5 Antivirus

Post Installation Notes

Added 3/28/09

A few post installation notes to mention after the restart.

1. After the installation, configuration, and restart, you will notice a few new icons:

A) Desktop Icon. If you are updating from version 8.0, the icon is the same.
If you updated from version 7.5 or earlier, the icon will look significally different.
It still has the 4-color box design, but is more 3-D looking than the old icon.
See below:

B) Taskbar Icon - Similar changes as the Desktop Icon.
If you are updating from version 8.0, the icon is the same, with the exception of the large
red exclaimation mark that use to be on the 'out-of-date icon'. The large red exclaimation
mark is replaced with a more suttle yellow triangle.
If you updated from version 7.5 or earlier, the icon will look significally different.
It still has the 4-color box design, but as with the Desktop icon it is more 3-D looking.
See below:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting AVG FREE 8.5 AE:

NOTE: OPENING AVG FREE 8.5 for the FIRST TIME - When you open AVG 8.5 FREE for the first time,
you will see an ACTIVATION window (below). The User Name and Licence number should already be fill-in.
All you need to do is to click the NEXT button, and the program GUI (Graphical User Interface) will start.

Similar to the icons, if you are upgrading from version 8.0 you will not see much of a change in the GUI.
If you upgraded from version earlier than 8.0, the GUI is very different.
See below:

3. Updating: As with previous versions, there are two different ways to update the program:

A) Click the taskbar icon and right-click on it. A pop-up balloon will appear. Click on UPDATE NOW line to open the update wizard.

B) Click on the Desktop Icon and open the program. On the blue section on the right, click the UPDATE NOW button:

ZoneAlarm customers. If you use ZoneAlarm, after you click either of the AVG Update buttons for the first time, you may see one or more ZoneAlarm pop-up windows such as the one shown below. You can tell they are AVG related by either what the large type says or the first few letters of the application name. In order for the AVG update to perform sucessfully, you MUST select ALLOW. Additionally, if you don't want to see this window everytime you run your AVG update, you can also check the box next to 'Remember this setting'.

After you click allow for the Zonealarm windows (or not if you don't use ZoneAlarm), the next window you will see is the DEFINITIONS UPDATE window showing you all the components that are being updated.
Click the UPDATE button to continue.

If you ran the update from the main program window, you will get a notification in two locations in the main window. One is clearly shown in the right side of the window. The other is under the UPDATE NOW button in the left side of the window. It will say FINISHED with a green checkmark next to it. See below:

If you ran the update from the taskbar icon as in 3A (above), when the update is completed, you will see another small balloon appear above the taskbar icon informing you the update was finished sucessfully:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADVANCED SETTINGS

There are many advanced settings for AVG version 8.5. Some are new, many are not available to the FREE version users. If you are FREE version user, in order to find out if an advanced setting is available is by trying to change it. Some options are grayed out (look lighter), others just don't respond to any clicking by the user.

To check or change the advanced settings, click the TOOLS option on the top, then ADVANCED SETTINGS at the bottom of the list:

After you click on the Advanced settings, you will see the window below:
You can go through these if you wish to become familiar with them. If you understand what any of them are, and wish to change the settings, make sure you click the APPLY button at the bottom right before proceeding. If you do not, you could loose any of the changes you made.

Advanced Settings - Turn off LINK SCANNER

One of the Settings that I feel should be turned off is the Link Scanner. Leaving this option enabled seems to slow down your browsing. It may be fixed in some future update, but for now, I advise turning it off. As with all of the various components, the LinkScanner is enabled by default, and must be turned off manually.
To disable the LinkScanner, open the Advance Settings window. Then click on the LINKSCANNER from the left hand column. Then uncheck BOTH of the two checkmarked boxes in the right side column.

Component Overrides
If you do decide to disable any of the components from the Advanced Settings window, in order to not get pestered by the program because you did disable them, you want to tell the program to ignore the state of those components. Some can be toggled in the individual windows when you are in the Advanced Settings, others you may need to toggle them from the main window. to override them, right click on the main window icons, then click on the 'Ignore component state' line. See below:

Program Status
One of more nicities of AVG is the conjoined group of statistics it gives you in the lower left pane of the main window. These statistics tell you the date your last scan was run, the date of your last update, the virus database version, the program version, and the licence type.

HOWEVER, with all things we must take the good AND the bad. The BAD here being the handy 'Notification' pane that keeps popping up below the main window. Even if you click the 'Hide Notification', the next time you open the program, it's right back down there again. My assumption is that it's one of those stickies that you only have to put up with in the FREE version. I can't imagine any of the paid subscribers putting up with that banner (if there actually are any users that pay for it).
See below.