FAQ
To install AVG 8.5 over the installed AVG 7.x or AVG 7.5 Free please proceed as follows:
1. Download the latest AVG 8.5 installation file here (choose your edition):
http://www.avg.com/download?prd=aav
(AVG Anti-Virus 8.5)
http://www.avg.com/download?prd=ais
(AVG Internet Security 8.5)
http://www.avg.com/download?prd=avf
(AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall 8.5)
- Click on "Download AVG now" button
- When you are prompted, please do not open this file directly from the Internet, but click the "Save" button and choose a location, where the installation file should be stored (we recommend saving the file to the Desktop)
2. Reboot your computer
3. Close all running applications, locate the downloaded AVG installation file (it has a four color square icon and its name starts with AVG_...) and launch it
- Follow the installation wizard to install the new AVG 8.5 (previous version of AVG 7.5 will be automatically removed during the installation process)
- Enter your license number when you are asked (we recommend that you use Copy&Paste method to enter this license number into the installation form, as described in FAQ #988
4. Update the AVG program.
The LinkScanner component provides protection against websites, that are designed to install malware into your computer via the web browser or its plugins. The LinkScanner technology supports MS Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, and consists of two features, AVG Search-Shield and AVG Active Surf-Shield.
AVG Search-Shield contains list of websites (URL addresses) which are known to be dangerous. When searching Google, Yahoo!, MSN or Baidu, all results of the search are checked according to this list and a verdict icon is shown (for Yahoo! search results only "exploited website" verdict icons are shown). Also if you type some address directly into your browser, click a link on any website or e.g. in your e-mail, it is checked automatically and blocked if necessary.
AVG Active Surf-Shield scans the contents of the websites you are visiting, regardless of the websites address. Even if some website is not detected by Search-Shield (e.g. when a new malicious website is created, or when a previously clean website now contains some malware), it will be detected and blocked by AVG Active Surf-Shield once you try to visit it.
The LinkScanner component can be connected with the AVG Security Toolbar, which is part of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Internet browsers. You can read more about AVG Security Toolbar in FAQ 1188.
The AVG Security Toolbar is a new tool which works together with the LinkScanner component and checks search results of the supported Internet search engines (Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Baidu).
This tool is available in all editions of AVG 8.5. If you select to install the toolbar during the installation of AVG, it will be added into your Internet Explorer and/or Mozilla Firefox. Please let us inform you that in case you are using some alternative Internet browser instead of Internet Explorer, (e.g Avant Browser) you can meet unexpected behavior.
The AVG Security Toolbar can be used to control the LinkScanner functions and to adjust its behavior, and to update your AVG in case new updates are available. There are some other functions included in AVG Security Toolbar.
This AVG Firewall function is designed for full-screen applications which need to communicate with Internet and the Firewall dialogue with choice of available actions would affect the application (minimize it or corrupt its graphics).
The offered solution is the Gaming mode, which can be activated this way:
Open AVG - double-click on the Firewall component - tick the option Enable gaming mode - confirm the change using the button Save changes.
After saving the rule, all communication of all full-screen applications will be allowed.
It is also possible to enable the Gaming mode for each Firewall profile and change the Firewall action from Allow for all to Block:
Open AVG - menu Firewall settings - profile name
The migration from AVG Admin 7.5 to AVG Remote Administration 8.5 consists of several steps. This is a guide to this process, additional information about AVG 8.5 can be found in the documentation, or in other FAQ topics.
Before following this guide, please make sure that all clients that will be upgraded to AVG 8.5 comply with the AVG 8.5 system requirements.
Important note:
All stations that will be upgraded to AVG 8.5 will be restarted during the remote installation. Please see FAQ topic 1185 for more details. Please uninstall an old e-mail plugin if you upgrade AVG 7.5 to AVG 8.5 on your e-mail server. More information can be found in FAQ topic 1201.
1. Prepare a list of stations that will be reinstalled and moved to AVG Remote Administration 8.5
- Open AVG Admin 7.5.
- Export the list of stations that you wish to upgrade to AVG 8.5.
- Select stations that you wish to upgrade.
- Right-click on the selected stations and choose Export stationlist option.
- You can export list of all stations, or create several lists - e.g. one for each group.
2. Export AVG Datacenter 7.5:
- Open AVG Admin 7.5.
- Open Program upper menu.
- Select the Export.. option.
- Choose folder where the database will be saved.
3. Installation of AVG 8.5 Remote Administration
- Download the latest AVG Remote Administration 8.5 installation file.
- Please select the AVG Edition based on your license.
- Download the file AVG Admin 8.5 for Windows.
- Install the AVG Remote Administration 8.5
- Your valid AVG Licence Number will be required during the installation.
- After the installation, follow the AVG Admin Server Deployment Wizard.
- Import the previously exported AVG DataCenter 7.5 in the Data import step. More information on what configuration will be transferred can be found in FAQ 1672.
- The AVG Admin Server will be started after the wizard.
- Admin Server is listening on port 4158 by default, AVG Admin 7.5 and 8.5 can be running at the same time with no risk of collisions or conflicts.
4. Install AVG 8.5 onto the stations using AVG Network Installer Wizard
- Run AVG Network Installer Wizard from menu Start -> (All) Programs -> AVG 8.5 Remote Administration.
- Follow the wizard and configure all options according to your needs.
- The default settings are sufficient in most cases and will ensure that the stations will connect to AVG Remote Administration 8.5 after the installation.
- AVG 8.5 installation file will be required in the process. In case the AVG Network Installer Wizard fails to download it automatically, please download it from our website.
- Select Import stations from file option in the Network Scanning step.
- Browse to the previously created list of stations.
- In case you created multiple lists, please repeat the whole step 5 for each of the lists. All advanced settings will be remembered.
- Confirm the list of stations and proceed with the installation.
- The last screen of the AVG Network Installer Wizard allows you to decide, if you wish to remove all successfully installed stations from AVG Admin 7.5.
As a result, you will have installed 2 different AVG DataCenters on the server:
- AVG Remote Administration 8.5 - all upgraded stations will log into the new DataCenter, and can be managed using AVG Admin Console.
- AVG Admin 7.5 - should the upgrade process fails on some stations, these stations will be still managable using the old AVG Admin 7.5.
Uninstallation of AVG Admin 7.5
- Once the migration is finished, it is possible to uninstall AVG Admin 7.5. Its removal does not have any effect neither on the AVG Remote Administration 8.5, nor on the clients.
If you look into the Windows Task Manager, tab Processes, you can see how much memory is used by each AVG process. This number can range from single to tens of megabytes, depending on the process. In addition to this, process System can indicate it is using approximately 60MB of memory after installation of AVG, since the Virus Base is loaded in this process. However, it is not possible to simply add up the memory consumption of each AVG process to get the overall memory usage of AVG. Some of the allocated memory displayed for each AVG process is in fact shared between all processes. If for example 3 processes are using 10 MB of shared memory, they will be still displayed as 3 separate processes, consuming 30 MB combined, which is not true.
In case you are experiencing a major slowdown while AVG test is running, or, on the other hand, AVG is not scanning fast enough, please try to adjust the scan performance, which is displayed in the bottom part of the AVG User Interface - "Computer scanner" - currently running scan.
At the same time, we would like to inform you that we are permanently making an effort to improve the product so that its demands on system resources are as low as possible.
To clear the history in AVG Security Toolbar please proceed as follows:
- Open your Internet browser (Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox).
- Click on the button with recycle bin icon in AVG Security Toolbar.
- Select the category you wish to delete:
- Delete Complete History
- Delete Search History
- Delete Browse History
- Delete Download History
- Delete Cookies (What are tracking cookies?)
The AVG software protects your computer on multiple levels. In case you need to disable AVG, please consider which part of the protection you need to switch off. The AVG parts and their purpose are:
- AVG Resident Shield
The Resident Shield is the main component protecting you from viruses. It scans accessed files and if a virus is found, the access to the file is blocked. This applies to executing infected programs, as well as to opening of infected documents or any other files.
Disabling of the Resident Shield is sometimes recommended before installation of a new software or drivers, since it can prevent conflicts that would otherwise occur during their installation. This however applies only to limited number of specific programs and drivers, and there is no general reason why AVG Resident Shield should interfere with an installation of any application.
To disable the Resident Shield, please:- open AVG User Interface
- double-click on the Resident Shield
- un-tick the option "Resident Shield active"
- save the changes
- AVG Firewall
The Firewall component is designed to control and filter network traffic based on a set of rules. You might need to disable the Firewall while troubleshooting connection problems, or to install some network-related application. Please bear in mind that installation of some applications with function similar to that of AVG Firewall may result in conflict and malfunction of one or both programs/components.
To disable the AVG Firewall, please:- open AVG User Interface
- double-click on the Firewall
- select "Firewall disabled"
- save the changes
- AVG E-mail Scanner
The AVG E-mail Scanner may affect your sending/receiving of e-mails, since it is designed to scan the messages and needs to access them in some way. The way of accessing the messages depends on your e-mail client, but only the Personal E-mail Scanner plugin can interfere with the communication between your computer and the e-mail server.
To disable the Personal E-mail Scanner (if it is installed), please:- open AVG User Interface
- in menu "Tools" select "Advanced settings"
- go to E-mail Scanner - Servers - POP3, and click on the POP3 server (usually AutoPOP3:10110)
- un-tick the option "Activate this server and use it for receiving e-mails"
- repeat the same for SMTP server
- AVG Web Shield
The AVG Web Shield component checks HTTP and PROXY communication, and scans files that are downloaded to the computer through the related ports/sockets. Additionally, it is able to scan files downloaded using ICQ, MSN and Yahoo! instant messengers.
To disable the Web Shield, please:- open AVG User Interface
- double-click on Web Shield
- un-tick option "Web protection"
- switch to tab "Instant messaging" and un-tick "Instant Messaging protection"
If you require any assistance on this or any other subject, please feel free to contact our Technical Support.
In case the re-installation process from AVG 7.x to AVG 8.5 was aborted for any reason (e.g. computer restart) you can complete the installation by following the instructions described in FAQ 943
If you receive the "Invalid update control CTF file" message during AVG update, most probably the update control files are corrupted. In this case it is necessary to delete these files. During a next attempt to update AVG, new control files should be downloaded and update process should be completed without any difficulties. Please kindly follow these steps to delete mentioned control files:
- Run the AVG user interface (double-click the AVG 8.5 icon on your desktop).
- Open the Tools -> Advanced Settings... menu.
- Navigate to the Manage option in the Update branch.
- Press the Delete temporary update files button.
- Try to update AVG.
If the issue persists, then please follow steps below:
Your Internet settings are not correct
Even if your Internet connection is working correctly, incorrect DNS servers may be filled in, affecting AVG update. This can be caused e.g. by some virus that was previously on your computer.
- Open menu Start -> (Settings) -> Control Panel.
- Double-click on Network connections.
- Right-click on the connection you are using and choose Properties.
- Double-click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item on the General tab.
- Please check (and modify if necessary) the settings of IP address and DNS servers according to your Internet Provider settings or choose the Obtain * * DNS server address automatically option.
- Confirm the settings by clicking on the OK button.
- Close the window.
If the issue persists even after performing the steps above, please contact us using the Get Help Online option in AVG Help menu.
More information about contacting AVG Customer Services can be found here: How to contact Customer Services