Review by B.L.

I’ve been a past user of AVG products and have generally found them basically satisfactory. It can be a little tough to say that any particular player in the home computer security field is definitely the way to go because for the most part their features and effectiveness are roughly equivalent to each other.

My experience so far with version 9 has been a mixture of good and bad. The scanning speed, and the degree to which it interferes with other things that I’m trying to do, have been greatly improved. There were times with version 8.5 that I would have to stop a scan before it was complete because it was making it too difficult to get my other tasks done. In 9.0 that has yet to become a problem.

There have been some downsides, but nothing particularly unexpected. I’ve had some difficulties with my computer issuing errors after waking up from being put in standby since the install, though I haven’t managed to track down the cause in detail yet. I also had some minor headaches with getting the settings right on the firewall so that a couple of pieces of software I use could function properly. Honestly, when I install any piece of software that’s X.0 I tend to assume there’ll be a few errors and some general quirkiness in the behavior until a few patches have been released. The issues I’ve with AVG 9 haven’t been anything that goes beyond what I expected.

The main source of annoyance I’ve had, minor as it is, was that I don’t particularly want my security software to be trying to influence my choice of what search engine to use. I get security software because I want it to secure my computer, not so that it can nag me about my choice of which search engine I prefer.

Had I not been offered version 9.0 as a review copy, I probably would have waited for the release of 9.1 before deciding to upgrade. Most of the time if someone asks me about whether they should upgrade to a new version of software, I tell them basically the same thing - if it’s not urgent, wait until a few patches have been released. If you do need to buy something now (or you happen to be reading this after a few patches have come out), AVG is a solid choice and should serve you well.