Thoughts on AVG8
Last April 24, AVG released the 8.0 free version of their popular anti-virus so I was forced to update the ever-reliable 7.5 expecting that AVG found a way to top 7.5′s performance and efficiency. AVG8 promises both basic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, combining two previously separate programs in a single interface.
Just recently however, I upgraded my operating system from the stable XP to the not-so-stable Vista despite the 
generous caution against Vista people have been handing out to likely candidates who are willing to take the bait. Needless to say, the new AVG8 didn’t quite make an impression on me as I failed to try it out due to compatibility issues. I was getting an application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect error. The installation files said that it is compatible with Vista but it didn’t explicitly say Vista SP1. Makes me wonder if I’d ever encounter the same problem at all if I chose to hang on to XP.
It could probably be a faulty version or installation of a Visual Studio update, though. I’ll try removing the Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable, revert back to the 2005 Redistributable, and see how it goes. Meanwhile, I’m using avast! and it’s doing really great I might consider sticking to it if I don’t get AVG to work.