A message about the December 2010 AVG Anti-Virus update problem

On the evening of December 1 I received 4 phone calls within about 30 minutes with each caller having the same problem following a prompt by AVG Anti-Virus to restart the computer. The problem was that their computer would not start up. A check of social media networks and other news sources indicated it was a widespread problem across the world. Since a large majority of Computer Techs clients use the free version of AVG for their anti-virus detection, I decided to notify our 1300+ clients via the Computer Techs monthly newsletter subscription list, and on our social networking news feeds at FaceBook.com/ComputerTechs and Twitter.com/CTreno.

Over time it was discovered that the newly released program update was incompatible with 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, causing Windows not to start. Once the problem update was discovered it was quickly pulled from AVG download servers to prevent problems on more computers.

AVG is not the only anti-virus vendor that has temporarily released an update that caused problems with computers. McAfee, Trend Micro and BitDefender have all had bad updates in the past few years. Microsoft has even released updates as part of their monthly automatic critical updates that have caused problems for millions of computer users.

We still recommend AVG anti-virus because it’s easy to use, provides good virus detection and the availability of a free version which is enough for most computers. If you are upset like we are about AVG’s new “PC Optimizer” and other add-ons that pop-up and eventually ask for payment, another free alternative is Microsoft Security Essentials. Remember that an anti-virus program is your second line of defense for computer security. Your first line of defense is practicing safe computing habits.