i have used avg for many years on many computers. couple of days ago it started asking to re-boot my windows machine after it's daily update. bummer. i HATE unscheduled windows reboots. so then i take a closer look at it, and they want you to upgrade to version 8, which is still free, but has a 60 buck a year fee attached for downloads. WTF. grisoft has been bought out by another faceless, bullshit yankee corp hiding behind a "support" site and an 800 number. damn i hate when that happens. so here i am. long live open source.

Welcome, but remember there's no real-time scanning here.

It's a league of people who aren't idiots.

I don't see any problem with a free product giving you an occasional chance to purchase their upgraded paid one. AVG has done a good service for many of us over the years by providing a decent real-time virus scanner. If their new "marketing" gets to be an annoyance to you, then by all means quit using their product. I understand their paid version now comes with somebody's toolbar, so their marketing is getting more agressive.

If you use ClamWin by itself, update it frequently, schedule several daily scans, and also install the free Spyware Blaster and WinPatrol--neither of which have any "nags," and they will provide some additional security. You might also look into ClamMon (see the topic here) if you are using ClamWin version 0.92 or prior.

Regards,

Avira Free (https://www.free-av.com/ https://www.free-av.com/) has been doing something similar for a while... I use it on my wife's computer (she needs real-time, and Avira has great protection from my past experiences with it. The only thing you have to put up with is a pop-up every once in a while after a signature update. It's also very light weight.

I'm dreaming of the day when I can run ClamWin real-time, so I can liberate my few remaining Windows computers from all proprietary software.