Those of you who are in the market for a free alternative to the expensive Norton and McAfee virus suites would do well to have a look at AVG antivirus.

For those of you who are already running it, and running version 8, you may well have noticed a slightly intimidating message appearing at random while you're using the computer.
The message told you that your current AVG was expiring, and you needed to upgrade to version 8.5

Confusingly, AVG make this pop-up point you towards their paid range of antivirus suites. While there is nothing wrong with their paid versions it doesn't make sense to pay for their full Internet Security suite when you only need a good antivirus product.

So, can you still get a free version of 8.5?
Yes! And they do actually link to it from their pop-up, just in small print and very unclearly!

What you need to do is download the set-up program from this link:
http://www.avg.com/filedir/inst/avg_free_stf_en_85_287a1483.exe
Chose the option to 'Save to disk'.

Once you've downloaded the set-up program, you need to run it.
You will be prompted to 'Add', 'Modify' or 'Remove' the application. Choose 'Add', step through the questions it asks you about installing the security toolbar (my recommendation is to untick the box - i.e: don't install it!) and then press finish.

The installation should whizz through, and tell you that it's finished.
Reboot your computer and you should get your AVG icon in the task tray by the clock.

If you need to check your current version to see if you're running version 8 or version 8.5, double click the AVG icon by the clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. In the window that appears, look in the blue 'Statistics' area on the left hand side. Your version number will be listed next to 'AVG version:' and will start '8.0' for version 8 or '8.5' for version 8.5

Note for people thinking of switching to AVG
If you currently have another antivirus and plan to use AVG, make sure you uninstall your current protection before installing AVG. Antivirus programs don't like being run with other antivirus products, so you should always uninstall first. You can then install AVG by downloading the free edition from the link above.

If you need help with updating, please give us a call on 0118 9260084.