how is avg antivirus?

I disagree. New version of Comodo, Norton, McAfee, etc.. all run lighter than old versions.

 

You see, the problem is that statement is meaningless.
The confirmed detection rates of AVG, now and in the past, are actually among the highest.
Your statement only has any relevance if *your* system was being constantly infected with the very small number of malware types *not* detected by AVG - and that *is* rare.
As far as False Positives AVG was and is still on a similar level to Avira, and far far less than AVAST!
As far as detection rates for AVG Pro and AVG Free, contrary to some of the misguided comments here, there is *no* difference. They use the same engine and same detection databases and heuristics.
The differences between Pro and Free versions of AV programs are *not* in the area of detection accuracy but user options, and too many people get confused by that.

As far as AVG8 being 'bloated' well if the Link Scanner, SafeSearch and Toolbar are *not* installed, it is *lighter* in RAM usage (even with Anti-Spyware) than the old version 7.5 - many people have reported that on both XP and Vista.

 

Not on the PCs I have tried it on.

 

Shame for you then.
I don't see any authoritative user stats showing high RAM usage with those options disabled.

 

but these options should work properly and not have to be disabled.
robinb

 

Like I said there are exceptions,so what are you disagreeing with?McAfee??doesn't seem to run lighter than older versions,Norton yes it does,Comodo:-not one we've tried or want to try to be honest if it runs lighter its probably down to it not conflicting as much with other software or just lack of developement of previous versions,weren't earlier versions classed as betas??