The past few days calls and emails started filtering in about the new AVG 8.0 version folks have seen appear on their free versions of AVG Antivirus. The common query is, “Should I upgrade?”

No, home users of AVG Antvirus do not need to upgrade at all. The current free version of AVG will continue to be updated and as it has been for years. The new 8.0 version is the newest commercial product from AVG Technologies (they changed their name from Grisoft last week).

As much as we like AVG Antivirus and their anti-spyware product, we don’t like their full Internet Security package. Like all the other all-inclusive security packages from Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, etc, the AVG Internet Security product packs in too much software that will decrease the performance of your system. If you like the Swiss Army approach, it is probably the best of these types of packages, but we prefer you select your security packages a la carte.

To review our security recommendations for Windows home users, we recommend:

• AVG Antivirus Free Edition
  
• Mozilla Firefox (or Opera) web browser (don’t use Internet Explorer)
• Keep the Windows Firewall enabled
• Use a router with high speed Internet connections
• If you use Outlook, Thunderbird, or Outlook Express, there is nothing better than Cloudmark Desktop to fight email spam 
• IF you have teenagers (or immature adults) who use your system regularly, add SpyBot Search & Destroy and the AVG AntiSpyware product to the mix and update and scan at least weekly.

Links to all these products can be found on our Links & Resources page.

Related posts:

How to download, install & configure AVG Free 9.0 – Video Tip Should you pay for AVG? How to upgrade to AVG 8.5 Free – Video Tip AVG stumbles again AVG AntiVirus Upgrade