If I set Resident Shield and Automatic Updates to 'disabled' status, haven't I in effect turned the protection off? I still have NOD32 and BlackICE but I thought AVG performed a protection role these two couldn't.

Also:

At the end of an initial 30 day trial these extensions are deactivated by default and the program becomes a feature-limited on-demand freeware version scanner. AVG AS is often better run in SAFE MODE and is not necessary solely for the above considerations

I'm not sure how this affects me since I've bought a licence through till 2009.

I thought AVG performed a protection role these two couldn't

For some people, such an active role may be necessary given the risk profile of their PC usage patterns and their user's behavior. I don't consider it a mainstream concern for my PC and the best security use of my money. My priority for additional (early detection and resolution) security is for protection against the often uncommon zero day exploits that could create serious problems for my PC if not addressed as early as possible - tools like Threatfire (free) and Linkscanner PRO.

In contrast, I have been running 'AVG AS' weekly for a long time and rarely fine anything except the odd COOKIE. If a given tool is constantly resolving a large volume of certain issues on your PC, you need to be asking yourself whether such issues are BEST addressed before the fact or can be ADEQUATELY addressed after the fact if being both uncommon in occurance and often minor in severity. Just my opinion.

Security is about fear, consequences, and comfort levels. Each user has to decide what is best for them. Disabling AVG AS for a short period of time is unlikely to ever become a catastrofic situation of any signicant consequence.

This is an interesting point you make about AVG, because my experience is pretty much the same. Apart from the BHO bug and maybe one or two other items, all it has ever detected are cookies. I was using Spybot previously and it was the same there. I still use Spybot but some reviewers were saying a year ago that it was getting outdated, which is why I added AVG.
Anyhow, I've disabled it and installed ThreatFire. I'll be interested to see what it throws up.

EDIT - When I switched the computer on this morning AVG had reverted to Active status. How do I stop that?

I took your advice and kept AVG inactive, running it just once a week, but this morning it showed me a startup file as a trojan. It was the startup for Undelete Plus, which I haven't even installed yet. This program is completely clean and reliable from the information I can find on the net.
With NOD32 and Spybot and Threat Fire keeping the computer clean AVG seems unnecessary, especially given the 'problems' it alerts me to. I'm going to put it to sleep permanently I think.

AVG seems unnecessary, especially given the 'problems' it alerts me to.

AVG is no worse than many other tools. Often, the issue is the suspect behavior that is seen with a certain application. Better safe than sorry. However, such behavior may be appropriate in the circumstances. Always best to investigate further where possible. Otherwise, the removal of a 'false positive' item could create a serious issue.

In other cases, some tools take issue with certain type of applications such as 'remote access' or perceived keylogger behavior (I have previously seen several tools seemingly have issues when 'RoboForm' is present). Such tools could be a significant risk if the user is unaware of their presence.


Those of us that are lucky enough to see very few issues should ALWAYS attempt to validate any perceived issues by running other selected tools or submit any suspect files for second opinion assessments to:

VirusTotal
OR
JOTTI

Thanks, I'll keep those links for future reference.