There are many companies out there that offer a free antivirus programs to home users. Avast! is one, as is Avira, BitDefender, and AVG. AVG, however, appears to be the sole vendor to offer a free antivirus program for the x64 versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. And since I just got a new x64 computer running Vista Home Premium, I was in the market for a new AV solution. So I downloaded and installed AVG Free 8… only to recoil at how bloated the whole thing had become!
AVG Free 8 has, in my opinion, two big problems: the Link Scanner and the Notification Area.
According to About.com, Link Scanner is “a tool that protects the user from visiting malformed sites from a search engine. So for example, if you were to open up Google and type ‘skiing’ and Google returned 100 sites concerning skiing, Link Scanner would visit each of those sites and determine if you were at risk by clicking on any of the supplied links”. This is a giant waste of bandwidth for nearly everyone involved – especially since the same types of sites that Link Scanner blocks are easily blocked by Internet Explorer and Firefox’s phishing filters, as well as OpenDNS’s servers if you use that service. More importantly, Link Scanner visibly slows down Google and adds these annoying green icons all over your results page:
So – how do you disable the Link Scanner?
If you haven’t installed AVG Free 8 yet, just install it using the following switch:
/REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch
In plain English, Windows XP users should click Start > Run and Windows Vista users should type “Run” into the search box to bring up the traditional run box. Both users should then click the “Browse” button and search for the AVG setup file (be careful not to click “Run” yet!) In the “Run:” box, add the above string to the end of the command so it looks like this:
C:\Downloads\avg_free_stf_en_8_176a1400.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch
AVG setup will run normally, but when setup is complete… the dreaded Link Scanner will not be installed.
If you already have AVG 8 installed, you have 2 options. You can disable Link Scanner, but this will cause a large red exclamation point to permanently appear on the AVG icon in the system tray. If you’re like me, this will annoy you almost as much as Link Scanner itself. So you can run MSCONFIG and disable “AVG Internet Security” from opening at startup (this will only prevent the system tray icon from starting, not the AV app itself). Your other option, by the way, is to simply uninstall\reinstall AVG. It’s honestly not that bad of an option. Unlike, say, Norton products, uninstalling AVG’ is easy and graceful.
By the way, users of AVG’s pay-for products might like to know that you can disable many other features not included in the free version by using other command-line arguments. Click here to see a full list.
The other big problem with AVG is the Notification Area. This is an area, about the size of a banner ad, than runs across the bottom of the AVG application window. You would think that this area would be used to display helpful system information, such as “Your AV signatures are from 01/05/2009” or news feeds, like “New virus plagues Adobe Flash users”.
But no. Apparently it’s just used to shill for AVG’s “premium products”. The only message that the notification area has ever apparently shown AVG Free users is “Upgrade to AVG Personal NOW!”. Not only is this annoying from an end-user standpoint, it’s downright insulting, too. We get it that AVG makes their money from selling software. We get it that they’re probably offering AVG Free on the outside chance that you may one day buy a license in the future. But you don’t have to remind us of your products every single time we open your application! It’s like AVG is running a soup kitchen, then mentioning that we’re poor every 30 seconds!
To disable the Notification Area, make sure that the main AVG Free window is closed (minimized to the system tray) and use Windows Explorer to go to the folder where AVG is installed. All you have to do next is rename the following two files:
avgmwdef_us.mht
avgresf.dll
You may rename them to anything you’d like, although I suggest changing the extension to .OLD or .BAK so you could easy change them back if you needed to. You do not need to reboot your computer – just double-click the AVG tray icon and see that the Notification Area is gone!
Lastly, note that you may also need to redo this hack after any AVG program updates (but not signature uupdates).