AVG Technologies, developers of the world’s most popular free anti-virus software, AVG, today announced a limited public beta test of its new online tool, AVG Threat Labs. Threat Labs merges the quantitative Web threat detection data that AVG routinely collects from its almost 100 million users with data from AVG’s LinkScanner technology. It offers information about a website just like McAfee SiteAdvisor and MyWot. The latter is a community-based, free safe surfing tool for browsers that provides website ratings & reviews to help web users as they search, surf & shop online.

AVG Threat Lab reports are straightforward and simple to understand, outlining the respective site’s popularity (i.e. “POPULAR”, “VERY POPULAR”, “TOP SITE”), the location of the site’s server, the number of threats and the number of compromised web pages on the site, found if any. Users can also view a description of the threats detected, the period over which they were identified and how they’ve managed to manifest themselves over time. Furthermore, a user can get extensive details about the number of web pages infected – essential information if multiple threats have been detected.

AVG users with LinkScanner already installed are protected in real-time from sites containing malware. Threat Labs complements this software by enabling the user to type in the URL of a specific Web site to gather more information. Users not using AVG software can still benefit from visiting Threat Labs as it provides an instant and complete safety analysis of a Web site including detection statistics, a detection timeline, an analysis of linked sites and a detection map.

“Web threats are constantly evolving and it is our mission to provide consumers with the resources they need to not be victims of Internet crimes,” said JR Smith, Chief Executive Officer of AVG Technologies. “What really excites me about Threat Labs is that it is all about what makes AVG a different security software company to our competitors because it is based on people powered protection. From the standard AV tools and malware detection, to more cutting edge resources like threat labs and our new social media tools, AVG is committed to a product line that is effective against the risks we understand today and the threats that are evolving as we speak.”

AVG Threat Labs Beta can be accessed at www.avgthreatlabs.com/sitereports. AVG Free or LinkScanner can be downloaded at the AVG Download Web page free of charge.

For protecting our computers from security and malware threats we sometimes experiment with different security suites to see which one is better than the other. In this process, we install and uninstall these security suites as it is always advisable to use only one antivirus or a full featured security suite at a time in our system. More than one antivirus or a full featured security suite that includes everything from a firewall, antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, and more can cause lots of performance and stability issues.

Although we can easily uninstall the existing security program using Windows built-in “Add/Remove Programs” (or Programs and Features in Windows Vista and 7) applet but it’s not a perfect solution. Sometimes the uninstaller of the program doesn’t remove all the components and registry keys installed by the security program completely, this can hamper with the newly installed security program and may even cause system instability and BSOD’s.

What should we do then? How can we uninstall the existing antivirus or security suite completely? Well, almost all the security suite vendors provides a special uninstaller tool which can remove the security suite completely from your system. We are here providing a list (not in any particular order) of these special uninstaller of all popular security suite or antivirus programs to save you time and energy in finding them yourself.

For most of these uninstaller, you just need to run the executable file and follow the onscreen instructions. Then after completion, restart your system to have a clean system again.

Kaspersky Removal Tool

Removal Tool for Kaspersky Lab Products

This removal tool can uninstall all versions of Kaspersky Antivirus and Internet Security, we have even posted a tutorial here before (How To Completely Remove Kaspersky Anti-Virus/Internet Security).

Norton Removal Tool

Norton Removal Tool Instructions

Norton Removal Tool Download Link

McAfee Removal Tool

McAfee Consumer Products Removal tool tutorial

MCPR.exe Download Link

Note: Please read the tutorial before using the tool.

Also, read how to fix improper or unsuccessful McAfee Product Installation with Free McAfee Virtual Technician if you want to just fix McAfee Products.

AVG Remover

Download Avg Remover

Here is the tutorial on how to remove AVG completely from the system. How To Completely Remove AVG Antivirus?

Avira AntiVir Removal Tool

Download Avira AntiVir RegistryCleaner

Avira RegistryCleaner removes all entries that were created by AntiVir. In this way, it prepares your system for the installation of a new AntiVir version. Use it after uninstalling Avira AntiVir using the uninstaller that came with it.

ESET Uninstaller

Manually uninstall ESET security product

Download ESET Uninstaller

Please read the instructions on the first link before using ESET Uninstaller.

Avast Uninstall Utility

Download Avast Uninstall Utility (See updated links below for more details)

Bitdefender Uninstall Tool

Download Link 1

Download Link for 64-bit version.

Some more of the uninstallers to completely get rid of the antivirus installation:

Avira Manual uninstall and Avira registry cleaner
Avast Uninstaller
AVG Uninstaller 32-bits
AVG Uninstaller 64-bits
Computer Associates Removal Tool
Dr. Web Removal Tool
F-Secure Removal Tool
IObit Removal Tool
Kaspersky Removal Tool (old version, see above for new version)
Microsoft OneCare Uninstaller
Microsoft Security Essentials Uninstaller
Norman Uninstaller
NOD32 Removal Tool
Panda (non-PCA) Removal Tool
QuickHeal Removal Tool
Sunbelt CounterSpy & Viper
ThreatFire Uninstaller
Trend Micro Uninstaller
Webroot Spysweeper Removal Tool
ZoneAlarm Removal Tool
Panda Cloud Uninstaller

[If these uninstall and removal utilities fail, there's a last resort tool which can also help get rid of all traces of previous installations of AV programs. It's called AppRemover and developed by Opswat. Download and run this tool if you are still having problems after trying the above tools:

Download AppRemover

If we missed any program, just tell us through the comments? If you know of any method to completely remove antivirus, share it too!

After uninstalling, if you are Windows 7 user, you may be interested to know which security suites are compatible with Windows 7. And also read How To Get 1 Year Free Professional Protection by Using Norton, CA, McAfee Security Suites Available Free for 90 Days.

McAfee Labs Stinger is a portable free Windows security utility that is used to detect and remove specific viruses. McAfee Labs have developed a new Stinger version to specifically target “FakeAlert” threats that are seen in the wild. This new version of Stinger Detects and removes the following “FakeAlert” Variants – Kryptik, AVP Security, Fakespypro, Winwebsec, Antivirus Soft and XPSpy.

Stinger is not a substitute for any full anti-virus protection or security program, but rather is a tool to aid administrators and normal users who wants to clean their infected computer system. Stinger uses the next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimizations.

How to use McAfee Labs Stinger?

1. Download McAfee Labs Stinger. After the download completes, run the downloaded Stinger application file.
2. By default, C:\ drive is selected for scanning. If you want to add more drives/directories for scanning, click on the Add or Browse button.
3. Click on the Scan Now button to begin scanning of all the specified drives/directories.
4. The default setting of Stinger allows it to repair all infected files found during scanning.
5. If you want to enable Artemis Technology in Stinger, click on Preferences and then select the sensitivity level of Artemis Technology. If you select “High” or “Very High” setting, McAfee Labs recommends that you set the “On virus detection” action to “Report only” instead of the default “Repair” setting for the first scan.

Only a few hours is left for the Official launch of Windows 7. Windows 7 is a great improvement over earlier Windows. Still, it is highly recommended to install security software to help protect your computer from viruses and other security threats, and that you keep your security software up to date.

The security software listed below is compatible with Windows 7. Just click the company name to see the Windows 7-compatible product they offer. You may like to visit the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to see the complete list of software and hardware that are compatible with Windows 7.

• AVG
• Kaspersky
• Symantec (Norton)
• F-secure
• McAfee
• Panda Security
• Trend Micro
• Webroot
• GData
• BullGuard
• Rising
• Sunbelt
• Eset
• Ahn-Lab
• CA
• QuickHeal
• Avast
• BitDefender
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• PC Tools
• Jiangmin

Note: The above list is randomly written and in no particular order of preference.

Important: Before you install antivirus software, check to make sure you don’t already have an antivirus product on your computer. If you do, be sure to remove the product you don’t want before you install the new one. It can cause problems on your computer to have two different antivirus products installed at the same time.

Warning: Some companies use products that seem to be antivirus programs to install viruses or malware on your computer. When you install the program, you might also be installing the virus or other malware, without knowing it. Many companies, including those listed on this page, distribute antivirus programs. You should carefully investigate the source of antivirus and other products before downloading and installing them.

Today, I found “special offers for Microsoft Customers” by Norton and CA. I think, after the launch of the final version of Microsoft Security Essentials, Symantec and CA both are providing their security suites for free use for 90 days, which is great! If you download all these four 90 days version of security suites from both Symantec and CA, you may get professional security free for more than 6 months upto a year.

Suppose, you have installed NAV 2010 and used it for 90 days. After NAV 2010 expiration, uninstall it and install the CA Anti-virus Plus 2010 and use it for 90 days and then Norton 360, CA Internet Security Suite Plus 2010 and Norton Internet Security 2010. Then you will get professional protection for free for more than 1 year (taking into consideration, our previous information about the free 90 days OEM version of Norton Internet Security 2010).

Here’s how to get the 90 days free version offer by Symantec. First, visit the promotion page and click on the “Try FREE For 90 Days!” button to download Norton 360 Version 3.0 and Norton Antivirus 2010. You don’t have to register anywhere, after you install the product you can test it for 90 days for free. You can also download from the direct download links of Norton Antivirus 2010 (NAV 2010), Norton 360 3.0 (N360 3.0) and Norton Internet Security 2010 (NIS 2010) given at the end of this article.

Now, to get the offer by CA Product Solutions. Visit the promotion page first. Then click on the Download button to get the registration window. Register for both the products and download each of them.

Update: McAfee is also providing 90 days free trial of their products. You can download them from the links below:

• McAfee VirusScan Plus
• McAfee Internet Security
• McAfee Total Protection

[ Download NAV 2010, N360 3.0, NIS 2010 ] [ For CA Products visit ]