I am extremely pleased with my new AVG 8 Free Version, and would appreciate having some advice regarding settings, notably in the Advanced Settings of the Tools menu. Thank you.

Hi BigFelix,

I'm glad someone is pleased with it! I am in two minds at the moment - it seems more aggressive (efficient?) than v7.5 but it takes up more resources when scanning. I'll wait and see how it goes.

Regarding settings, I use the default settings with the following exceptions (at least I think they are exceptions - the Defualt button doesn't work so I can't check):

Appearance All checked - I like to know what is happening and what is not working.

Maintenance/Virus Vault Size set at 5% of drive size (if this is exceeded then I have real problems). 'Automatic file deletion' is unchecked as a false positive could wipe out an important file.

PUP Exceptions I just let this get populated when the Ignore button is used after a scan has found a potential threat.

Link Scanner Both settings checked. The Search Shield is handy and reporting bad sites to AVG can only be good for the users.

Scans
Scan Whole Computer 'Automatically heal ...' is unchecked - I like to decide what is happening to my files, and some (like the eicar AV test file) should show as a threat but are actually benign.

Schedule
Scan 6.00 am every day
Database Update 4.00 am every day, Run on Startup checked.
Program Update 4.00 am every day, Run on Startup checked.

Everything else (apart from the Update section at the end) is a matter of personal preference. I think AVG have done a decent job of setting the defaults to suit the average user, I just like the opportunity to make final decisions.

I appreciate not only the settings but the explanations as well. Many thanks. I agree about the use of resources; AVG sort of "takes over". The new schedule times will alleviate that "difficulty".
After running my first scan with AVG8 (complete), results showed 0's for threats and errors. But it showed 24,608 warnings!? All in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatability\{###############}. Almost all adware, but a few downloaders, trojans. Deleted everything. I use Firefox 95% and run daily AVG scans and regular Ad-Aware scans, CCleaner and ATF-Cleaner every day, SuperAntiSpyware and Advanced WindowsCare once a week. I allow cookies to Fx only by Exception, and to IE with "much greater difficulty" than default settings. I control cookie settings from the desktop with Fx addon CS Lite.

You're welcome

I got 131 warnings in the same registry key. 24,608 is a bit much
I'll do some research on these warnings and try to find out what the problem is.

Thanks for the explanation, Kodl. I gathered that from my research but seem to have posted in another forum here

It's good to know this will be addressed in the future. Kudos to AVG when it's sorted!

I was sure that I had already posted here to state that anybody with reservations about AVG8 is/was correct! Again I came up with 24,501 warnings much the same as the first batch. The scheduler would do only what it decided, and it was so "heavy", even with the slow setting, that I ran up the white flag, uninstalled and went to Avira. The difference is absolutely amazing!