Upgrading To AVG Free 7.5 – Enough Disk Space?

The warning for my AVG free virus protected computers appeared again today only I noticed the difference is that the deadline was extended from January 15 to February 15 2007.

I decided to finally clicked on the link in the popup dialog for one of the computers running the free version of AVG virus protection. The link takes you to the Grisoft home page. Once there, it was not clear where you click to go to get the new 7.5.432 free version.

So I dediced to type free.grisoft.com to see if that would be easier. That was an improvement as there was a link on the top of that page. After clicking that, one more click was required on a page with a pitch to get the commercial version that got me to the download link page. If the link does not work for you, then try starting at free.grisoft.com as I did.

I noticed that download file name is same name as the file I downloaded December 11, 2004. Generally in new software versions the install file names are changed as standard operating procedure. Perhaps the idea was to delete as many old files as possible. I renamed my old copy just in case. The 12/11/04 file was 10.4 megabytes. The new file is 17.8 megabytes.

The first item I noticed is that the install program does not check for available disk space and on one computer that runs with a near full c disk (the computer is only used for print sharing at this point) had the NT 4 operating system complain and stop the install. To overcome the problem I moved the 17 meg install program to another drive on the computer and the install proceeded through 7 dialog screens to the finish button and then after pressing that it stopped while the progress bars were running. It provided an error details button which reported lack of disk space.

Cleared up some disk space and it then went all the way. Then a reboot was required and it seemed to be running with the new version.

A bit later, the program’s task bar icon indicated it needed servicing. On clicking that it required a priority update and then a program update. They went fine and the icon returned to its normal state colors.

The user interface seems to be identical to the 7.1 version. It is just the bare bones you need with few options. This was great news. The only other item I will want to know is if they improved its scanning speeds which are among the worse in virus software.

Lon Hosford

By Lon Hosford

Internet and Mobile Development Educator and Consultant Independent software developer with practical engineering project experience for clients such as AT&T, Avis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Ortho BioTech, Chanel, Avaya, Green Birdie Video, Aztec Learning Systems and Verizon Wireless. Lon is well known for translating client needs into useful applications. An interesting aspect of Lon's consulting work was the creation of industry jobs that did not exist before. That lead to hiring and training college students who were taught dead technologies at a time academia was woefully behind on the paradigm shifts in personal computing, the internet and today the distributed device environment often called mobile. Lon has taught thousands of students internet web development, animation and programming topics over two decades both privately and academically. He developed Multimedia Associated Degree program and courses for Raritan Valley Community College in the 1990s at a time when Macromedia Authorware and Director were tools. He is the founder, developer and educator for Raritan Valley Community College Web Developer Certification program also having its roots in the 1990s at the dawn of the internet. He also was a key curriculum developer and instructor for one of the Nation's first Web Developer Certification program offered through New Jersey Institute of Technology. Lon was also a technology instructor at the University of Phoenix Online. Lon over the years has produced educational video for topics including Paradox, Cobol, Java, Jasmine, C, C++, Linux, Flash, Cocos 2d and HTML. These courses were distributed and taught in Universities internationally when global was an emerging term.