AVG Free Upgrade in 2019

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Going to try and jump start this topic again.

Today is August 21 2019 with AVG version 19.7.3101 just installed.

I would like to mention one can install AVG without all the additional components. When I installed a newer version of AVG 2 years ago I elected to do a custom install. I unchecked EVERY component recommended and want the bare bones antivirus only. It worked. It only installed the real time antivirus and none of the additional long list of components.

I suggest others using or installing AVG consider the same.

Also do not forget to go to the privacy section and uncheck the submission of data.

Today 19.7.3101 got installed. I immediately noticed upon every reboot, Ping and Tracert want to go out. With the prior 19.6 this did not happen, so it is new to 19.7.

I have a 3rd party firewall and have aswidsagant, avbugreport, overseer and avemupdate blocked after the install has finished. Everything works fine and the updater for the definitions must ask permission to go out. Unless I am checking for updates manually, those requests are blocked. I have done this for years.

I hope this helps AVG users out there looking for more privacy or a smaller install.

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Microfix

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AVG and Avast used to be top-rated free AV until they got so bloated.
Perhaps not installing the bloat is the answer.

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Thanks for the heads up, I’m sure users will benefit from sharing your findings.
It’s good practice to custom install ANY program or utility where by paying attention can avoid being caught out by bloat/additional PUP’s and suchlike.
Also good practice to check for background connections and update firewall rulesets post installation. Nice one!

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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I’ve been using AVG Free since around 2007 and have been able to modify it to my liking. I put definition updates on automatic, but program updates I do manually when it notifies me. There were some bumps in the road years ago, but nothing serious and have no complaints with the current program.  The Free version doesn’t have a lot of the bloat that you get with the paid version.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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I mentioned above, “I have a 3rd party firewall and have aswidsagent, avbugreport, overseer and avemupdate blocked after the install has finished. Everything works fine and the updater for the definitions must ask permission to go out. Unless I am checking for updates manually, those requests are blocked. I have done this for years.”

My firewall logs are under control and not showing too many attempts of AVG to go outbound except for AVGSvc.exe. There are dozes of these all day.

Does anyone know AVG quite well to say if AVGSvc.exe is the only culprit and can be renamed or deleted? I cannot find any information about that going outbound and AVG forum refuses to acknowledge it. I do not want to break my antivirus just to stop outbound attempts and logging, but if anyone knows a sure fire way to stop those AVGSvc outbound UDP attempts that would be nice.

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Around September 20th, the update program function of AVG (2019) 19.7 had been disabled. A quick search on the internet shows that the new AVG 19.8 is having issues. Could AVG be holding back updates? Definitions are updating properly. Is anyone else seeing this situation?

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I have noticed two strange things with my AVG Free 19.8.3108 (build 19.8.4793.535):

1. Twice the main AVG Free screen had red notices that it needed the computer rebooted.  I did the reboot both times.  I didn’t notice any problems, things back to normal.
2. Yesterday I noticed I had two AVG processes running in Windows Task Manager. There had always just been one task before.  This new task has a very long command line, so long that I couldn’t take a snip of it to pass on.  There’s nothing out of the ordinary that I can see except that this 2nd new process is using an additional 7 MB of RAM.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Okay, here we go again.  My AVG Free is once again calling for a reboot because it has done something.  It gave no indication that anything was happening nor any notification from systray icon.  This is what I see when I click on the AVG Free desktop icon:

Anyone else seeing this on an almost daily basis?

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Okay, I guess not.  My fault, every time I go and say something good about AVG Free Antivirus, mine starts acting up.  So far today it seems to be okay.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Hello charlie, I am the OP here. I understand what you mean. Since late September my AVG 19.7 has turned OFF the ability to check for Program updates. The definition updates are coming in fine. I DID see once a few days ago the “needs to reboot” message that you saw. I did not notice anything actually change. As long as it keeps getting definitions I will live with it. If that stops, then I will have to investigate uninstalling and then installing the newer 19.8. But, I have seen a few issues with 19.8 and web browsers acting up elsewhere online.

Thank you for posting.

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Charlie

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My AVG Free has settled down (dare I say) for the time being.  I noticed after rebooting the last time that the program build number changed from 19.8.4793.535 to 19.8.4793.539.  So it looks like a small program update took place without my knowledge and without asking me.

My AVG Free program did let me know when the update from 19.7 to 19.8 was available, and I installed it manually.  All went well then.  I haven’t had any really big problems with my AVG so I’m just keeping a watch on things.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Looks like it’s every two days.  I got another reboot request today.  The program updates are coming in almost as fast as the signature updates.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Things are and have been back to normal with my AVG Free. Just wanted to state that because I left this post with a negative thought.  Things have been good for about two weeks now.  I really hope I’m not jinksing myself again by saying that.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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@Charlie –

Just took a look today, and I’m currently at version 19.8.3108, build number 19.8.4793.541, which AVG claims was released September 19th at 1:58 AM. Don’t know if that’s my local time or Central European Time, though.

I haven’t had any program updates since then, just the definitions about every two days or so. If you’re wondering, I’m using AVG Free just as you are.

In the not-so-distant past (up until about mid-September), I usually have had a monthly notification of a program update, and have noticed two or sometimes three daily definition updates.

My settings are set to manual for the program updates (to avoid the unexpected reboot request you’ve been experiencing) and automatic for definition updates, to avoid getting the little yellow exclamation point nag from the AVG icon in the system tray.

The program will still let me go out and seek program updates manually from within AVG, but it has been coming back saying that the program is fully up to date lately.

Since you and I are using Windows 7, perhaps AVG has decided to end the program updates for us and just feed us the definition updates from now on since Windows 7 is EOL in two months or so.

R/

Bob99

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Charlie

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anonymous wrote:

Since you and I are using Windows 7, perhaps AVG has decided to end the program updates for us and just feed us the definition updates from now on since Windows 7 is EOL in two months or so.

I sure hope not.  AVG supported Win XP long after it went EOS.  I’m also at 19.8.4793.541.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Out of edit time so I’ll give correction here:  my AVG version is 19.8.4257.552.  I’m guessing the 19 in there is for 2019.  I’m seeing a new 2020 version, but not on AVG’s website.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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