AVG Identity Protection future of stand alone

I'll be testing something tomorrow. I'll only install IDP and Linkscanner components. Unfortunately, I'll have to install the component PC Analyzer as well, because there's no option not to install it, or even remove it or disable it.

So, an option would be to make use of something like AppLocker/SRP to prevent PC Analyzer from working. Not sure if AVG AV would display some error message though. Still, it's not for me that I want to test this, is for family members, and AppLocker/SRP is out of question. I've found an application named AppAdmin at Softpedia and will give it a go and block PC Analyzer process and see what happens. Also, if I had AppLocker/SRP in mind for my family members, there would be no need for IDP, at all.

If I successufully prevent PC Analyzer from even running, then having only IDP or IDP + Linkscanner as the only active components would be a great addition to my family members security. I don't need the AV component, which also seems not to be effective, according to some users testing it.

That's what I believe it will happen, sometime later. Makes sense, from a business model view.

They liberate it as free. They make people understand it protects them. They people move towards the AVG AV Free, which now has IDP as part of it, and it seems to be doing a great job, according to users, even more than the AV component itself. Then people will move to the paid products for increased security.

But, maybe they'll leave it be, because it provides them more malware information to help their signature products. Who knows. Only time will tell.

 

I already downloaded AVG AV Free and installed it in a virtual machine, only with IDP and LinkScanner enabled. I haven't installed anything else yet, though.

I must say I'm disappointed. I was hoping for IDP to be the same as in the paid products, as it were in version 9. In the paid products it is linked to the "Tools" component, where one can see information about processes. In the free version there's no such thing. No way to get information about any process that is active.

Sadly, there's no web protection component either.

Anyway, I do not wish to deviate much from the thread... despite the fact we already know that IDP as stand-alone application is gone, but not as a stand-alone component.

In a moment I'll block access to the PCTuneup component. I'm not sure where I read, but I think that after you use it once it will nag you to buy some other crap.

I want to prevent PCTuneup from even starting when pressing the button.

I'll install, first, Microsoft Security Essentials along side IDP and LinkScanner, and see how they work together. My guess is just darn fine, because in one physical system, there's already running MSE, Linkscanner 2011 and IDP stand-alone, so...
Then, I'll test avast! 5.

 

I'm still on Configuration Version 257, Product Version 9.0.921

These are the same versions for several weeks now with no update.

 

The latest (and last) version is 9.0.979 and Configuration Version 257.

 

Is that what your version of IDP is or is that the latest IDP bundled in the av? Here's mine-

 

That's the version of stand-alone IDP. The version bundled with their AV is 10.
I downloaded it from AVG site when it came out. Didn't manually update; to be honest, I always thought that the update button would only check for new behaviors available.

 

So does AVG IDP need manual updates? Or for some reason is mine not updating automatically like it should?

 

FWIW- I emailed support asking for a refund.

 

For $2.75?

 

$2.75 x 3
principal of the matter, this little shenanigan of AVG should cost them more aggravation than it made them. Then again I'd probably trade away my two IDP licenses for something I could use.

 

I remember PRSC also pushed it updates very slowly out to the world.

Configuration version tells something of the behavious monitored (when my memory serves rght it is a kind of data base of behaviours).

Depends on whether there was a brand new behaviour which required additional code. So an old product version with a new configuration can be as effective as the latest product with the latest version when only the behaviours watched are updated.

 

That's correct. Well, I assume to be correct. But, there's something that I could never understood, and that is that many users have a different number of behaviors being monitored. Right now, the stand-alone version I have in a virtual machine has 318, and it has been running for quite some time now. I've seen others with 323 behaviors monitored. I never understood the discrepancy.

 

I have 317 behaviors monitored.

 

Reply from AVG- no refund allowed. It's been longer than 30 days since purchase- even for licenses not yet activated. What a bunch of bs.

 

Have you asked them why they sold it, knowing, before hand, they would kill support for it? This is kind of a shady business in my way of seeing it. But, that's me.

 

wer the licenses a lifetime license deal or a yearly subscription? if it was a yearly subscription license then as long as they kept the product alive and supported for the duration of the licenses they sold then i dont really see a problem, idk if they did fullfil that but thats how i feel about it. if it was a lifetime license and they had the intention of killing it from the start, then yes that is quite shady

 

I think that the licenses that are in question aren't lifetime licenses, maybe 1-year licenses. I'm not entirely sure.

But, even a lifetime license only means it is a valid license for as long as the product exists. The product no longer exists. Not as a stand-alone app. I don't know if this means that the license is dead as well for any updates Only to allow costumers to use the stand-alone paid version while the license is still valid

According to what AVG told acr1965, updates should have come out some time ago. Nothing, yet.

But, my previous comment was more like: Why selling IDP really cheap, for the sake of extra bucks, knowing before hand it would be released for free as part of AVG AV Free edition? I don't get it. This is shady.

 

ye i know lifetime means product lifetime, but if they knew beforehand they wer cutting the program off, and they STILL decide to sell lifetime licenses, id say that wuld be quite shady myself because anyone who buys lifetime licenses thinks they would be getting at least a few years of usage.

 

I wrote AVG back today stating that the reason for longer than 30 days was because I was promised earlier that AVG IDP would continue to be updated, despite the product no longer offered for sale as a stand alone. But there have been no updates since my purchase date nearly 2 months ago. And I believe the IDP included in the free av has been updated during this time span.