Yesterday I came home from grocery shopping, deposited the bags on the floor and got busy with the arduous task of finding homes for it all. I have a fair amount of cabinet space and big, giant chunky draws are in abundance in my charming, if not old kitchen. However, my cabinets are packed full with who knows what; remnants left over from various recipe contest experiments and other foodie adventures that were abandoned for a night at the local Pizza Chef, and rightly so in some cases. My experiments sometimes border on sheer craziness, as do the ingredients I collect to create them.

AVG 8.0 was released recently with a new user interface, real-time web protection that incorporates Exploit Prevention Labs "LinkScanner" technology, "Safe Search" protection, and a revamped scanning engine among other features.

So far my impressions of this new version are generally 'Pro', although there are  some 'Cons' to include in my review. (See my UPDATE[s] below)

I like the redesigned interface. It's fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. The installation was fairly simple, and the included Help section is good although I'd like to see in this application (and all others) is a feature that provides information/tips when you hover your mouse over a setting explaining what it does (like when you put the cursor over one of the links in this blog). This is an extremely useful feature for new users. All too often software has settings that aren't even explained in the accompanying 'Help' documentation. An option to turn this feature off (for experienced users) should be available also.

The addition of LinkScanner technology is something I've been waiting for, and adds real value to this Internet Security Suite. As the name implies it scans 'links', both in search results from Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. It's also part of the "Active Surf Shield" that monitors web connections in real-time for malicious content and stops it when found, before it gets to your browser.

One of the things I don't like so much is the AVG Toolbar that's installed on your browser. I'm not a big fan of 'toolbars' in general mainly because they reduce the size of the viewing area of the browser. You can easily hide it though by clicking on the main toolbar button [View] -> Toolbars -> "AVG Security Toolbar" and [un]checking it. The other issue is the association with Yahoo! [search] and having their logo visible inside the search box. AVG is catching some flack in various tech forums for this association. But as I said, if you don't want the toolbar visible all you have to do is 'hide' it. The Safe Search function works regardless.

Another issue is for some older, slower systems, I'm not sure how much of the system resources it will consume. On a new system it shouldn't be an issue, and most of the various 'System Suites' out there use *around* the same amount. As far as browsing speed being affected by the real-time scanning for malicious content, I haven't noticed any. Again, on older and slower systems you will notice it more, but the real-time scanning is fast, especially when you think about all it's doing.

Either way, this feature has become one of the most important ingredients in protecting you while you're on the Internet.