Firefox vs. AVG
Posted: Tue 15 September, 2009 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Geeky, Technology, Work-related |5 Comments »As part of setting up the new laptop over the weekend, I’ve installed (among other things) AVG for anti-virus and Firefox as my main web-browser.
Bizarrely, I found that when I was entering a URL in Firefox, the Enter key wasn’t working – I had to click on the ‘Go’ arrow in order to get it to go to the URL. Now, I never click to go to a URL, always just type it in and whack Enter, so this was going to be something that was deeply annoying if it stayed around.
It turns out that AVG installs a toolbar/add-on in Firefox called “AVG Safesearch” and for some reason it’s that add-on that was breaking the functionality for the Enter key. I don’t know why this is the case – it strikes me as just something that hasn’t been tested properly.
But if you’re having a problem with the Enter key not working in Firefox, the first port of call is to check you’re not running AVG Safesearch. As soon as it’s disabled, everything works fine.
Most odd.
Safesearch is a complete PITB. Uses bandwidth and slows everything down. AVG, however, is the best Value product around (ie free and, with SS removed, totally uninvasive).
Agreed – I get on very well with AVG in general, although Safesearch is utter crap. I didn’t realise it had installed in this download – I really should’ve been paying more attention.
As for AVG Free, I usually recommend it – although I’ve actually paid for a license now, as it can be seen as “commercial” due to using laptop and home PC for work purposes.
I don’t mind though – it cost me something like £40 for two years, and I’m quite happy to fund something that works as well as AVG does.
There’s always that dilemma of how much work one needs to do to be classed as ‘commercial’ isn’t there?
And ditto with ISPs… when does one need to pay for the ‘business’ rather than ‘home’ service?
Well, with ISPs I’d normally say that the “Business” one is for >2 users, and/or those needing a static IP address for servers etc. Other than that, ’tis ‘domestic’ service so far as I’m concerned.
As for software, if it’s something that I use all the time and think it’s good, I have no issue with paying for it. In AVG’s case (and a couple of others) I’m quite happy to put something towards keeping them going etc.