The new AVG Anti-Virus 8 comes with a component called LinkScanner (sometimes also called Safe Search) that automatically checks the results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN and displays security information in the form of an icon next to the link. You can hover your mouse over a link and it will pop up detailed information.
This extension can be disabled in AVG by going to the “Tools->Advanced Settings” menu and selecting “LinkScanner” in the tree menu on the left. However, if you do so the AVG icon in your system tray will complain that you have it disabled. 
I prefer to be able to see if my AVG has the latest definitions simply by looking at the system tray and seeing the normal icon. 
Continue reading ‘Disabling AVG Anti-Virus LinkScanner’
AVG Anti-virus recently displayed a popup window telling me that I needed to upgrade from version 7.5 to version 8.0. AVG Free 8.0 is no longer only an anti-virus program, it now includes an integrated anti-spyware and a safe search web browser extension. AVG Free also no longer cripples the scheduler, you can now have it run a full scan whenever you want.
Previously, the only way to get version 8.0 was to pay for it, and for a moment I was very disappointed that AVG stopped offering a free version of their great software. I soon realized that this was not actually the case, so I figured that I would create this post in case others were confused by the upgrade process as well.
Continue reading ‘Upgrading to AVG Free 8′
