Vista - AVG 8 advice

I put AVG Free 8 on my brother's laptop for him; he's new to using
computers and I hoped to keep things simple. The pop-up messages
about updates were irritating him so I suggested setting all that to
manual. I also, I now think in error, removed AVG from the start-up
programs. It occurs to me now that with the extra features of 8 as
opposed to 7.5, which we both just had for scans, it needs to be there
in the start-up. Am I correct? Can I put it back there without
reinstalling (is this what right click on the avg icon > 'pin to start
menu' does?)

AVG 8 seems to look for updates on my own laptop even when I've
disabled the automatic feature, and is reporting failure to connect
for the updates when I use my laptop offline. I have tried Avast but
it seems a bit of a pain so I'd prefer to stick with AVG if it will co-
operate.

Thanks.

On Sun, 18 May 2008 05:09:44 -0700 (PDT), kplumm wrote:
Avira AntiVir® Personal - FREE Antivirus
http://www.free-av.com/
You may wish to consider removing the 'AntiVir Nagscreen'
http://www.elitekiller.com/files/dis...ntivir_nag.htm

In article <014a0a6e-7345-486b-9b0e-63115a30fdea@
8g2000hse.googlegroups.com>, kplumm@xxxxxx says...Instead ... Open Tools, Advanced Settings and turn the update
notification off. AVG still updates, but does it silently.

Yes...No.
It needs to run at startup and No, Pinning it to the Start Menu only means that it's shortcut Icon is permanently added to the Start Menu listing, like your Internet and Email are by default, in the top left of the Start menu.

Just open the AV's options and find where it says "Start at Windows Start" or similar to that...some say "Enable".
Doesn't it make sense that your AV product should be set to d'load updates automatically? That way you don't forget to update your signature DB and end up being not fully protected, so I suggest that you live with the popups as thay're far better than the alternative can be.