AVG Problems

Chappy · Nov 17, 2008

Hey Everyone

Well recently I have been giving credit to AVG Anti Virus vendor for vastly improving their product over the last couple of years. They had gone from a fairly "Garbage" program with multiple failures at all of the top AV Test facilities since inception, to actually achieving decent to Perfect results the last few years (little over 2).

Well, some very important and critical news released recently has forced me to re-evaluate that statement. Here's the deal:

AVG update accidentally cripples Windows XP

12 November 2008 4:18

A recent update to AVG 8 has caused massive headaches for its owner and for many users who ended up with a crippled Windows XP operating system. At the core of the problem is a false positive of user32.dll, a vital Windows Operating System file, which the updated AVG 8 reported as a trojan horse. Upon the false detection, the AVG update prompted the user to delete the file to fix the problem, which in turn could result in Windows XP endlessly rebooting.

The problem affected the Windows XP operating system with SP2 or SP3 installed. It didn't affect systems using Windows XP in the English language, but affected Windows installations using the Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish languages. Upon noticing the problem, an update to fix it was immediately pushed out.

"AVG is actively working to remedy the problem some users are experiencing related to the most recent update to commercial and free versions of AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 in some languages. A number of users who installed the update mistakenly received a warning that the Windows system file user32.dll product version 5.1.2600.3099 was infected with a Trojan virus and were prompted to delete a file essential to the operation of Windows XP." a company representative said.

The Czech anti-virus company has posted a fix tool and further details on its website. For users who are unable to boot Windows after updating to the latest version, they have been told to, "contact their AVG reseller or ask a friend to download the information and fix tool for them." This latest problem comes after a recent update identified elements of the ZoneAlarm security software as a threat.

2 EXTREMELY critical issues within a very short period that affects the users system and security, both issued thru program updates. This alone will cause their ranking to drop drastically at most AV Testing facilities, and it certainly has to cause users of AVG to have grave concerns about their AV Product.

Even tho this affected XP users and only on some language packs (the ZoneAlarm issue is another story tho), this kind of thing shows how easily it can happen to any user no matter what platform they're on while using AVG. It shows a lack of pre-release testing, which is a serious concern for all users of AVG products, and a lack of engineering expertise. Being an insider of the AV Industry for 8 years, I know this kind of problem can happen to any vendor, but two very serious issues within months of each other point out something else is wrong within AVG's internal codeing and testing process.

I certainly hope that none of our members here have been affected by any of the latest AVG problems.

Take Care

AVG Problems

Chappy

Tech Help since 1993

My Computer

System One