The last upgrade of AVG from 8.5 to 9 has many great changes while the best features remain unchanged. The newest AVG scans much faster and uses less resources, while the residential shield (which catches malware before it has a chance to infest your computer) still works well or even better than before. And the reliability and scheduling of the scans and updates makes it my first choice in a free anti-virus for my clients. However many clients get stuck when trying to update from free AVG 8.5 to 9.0.

This is what to do: Go to Start>Control Panel>Add and Remove Programs or on Vista or Windows 7 just “Programs”. Wait for Windows to form a list of installed programs. Find AVG in the list and uninstall it. Then reboot the computer. Now that 8.5 is removed, download and install version 9.0.

Problem solved.

I like AVG…no bones about it. And I recommend it to my clients because it’s easy to use and it’s reliable and now with version 9.0 it’s also faster again. On the comparative tests at Virus.gr, AVG Free removed 97% of the viruses. I have clients–with teenage sons— who used to hire me every six months to clean their computers of malware, I convinced them to try AVG and voila, two years later, and they still haven’t needed me to clean viruses again. I know, amazing!! And so much easier on the budget than computer repair bills.

If a client calls and asks me how to get AVG for their computer, I tell them to search for AVG on Google, but this week a client named Anna accidentally downloaded a virus from Google instead. Among all the legitimate links for AVG in her Google search results, she managed to click on a link that lead to Antivirus 2010, a rogue anti-virus which I remove several times a week from other clients’ computers.

Here’s where she clicked:

Don't download this one!

All the rest of the links are good. Look for http://avg.com or http://free.avg.com. Or you can use the one I use from CNET’s download.com: http://download.cnet.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10320142.html Since it’s Cnet, you know it’s safe. Just scroll down further in the Google search results for AVG.

Be careful out there, it’s a wild web!!