Scenario

A computer running Windows XP SP3, fully updated and running AVG 8.5 also fully updated. There is a REGCURE popup which will not go away and, not unsurprisingly, the uninstall for REGCURE throws up an error message. AVG 8.5 appears to be blissfully unaware of its presence and makes no attempt to remove it.

Next..

I uninstalled AVG, and installed Microsoft Security Essentials from a USB drive. MSE’s first scan showed two problems, both being summarily cleaned from the system. I rebooted and then ran Malwarebytes free version. The ensuing report showed no problems.

Results..

AVG 8.5 gets a fail -  MSE gets a win

Conclusion..

There is no perfect anti-virus program or suite, but AVG should have caught and cleaned out REGCURE. It is not an unknown infection.

Microsoft is making sure that its new AV solution works well and, so far, I have found it to be a very good product, installing it in place of all other free offerings and one or two well known subscription AV’s from other companies.

I will admit to running the ESET NOD32 Security Suite on my machine, but I also run a spare machine and a Toshiba laptop which have MSE installed. All of the machines remain virus and Trojan free.