AVG Offers Free Subscription for Deleting Key File Options

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Security vendor AVG said Thursday that the company will offer a free year of service, after its antivirus software misidentified a key Windows system file as malware.

Earlier this week, AVG identified user32.dll as a generic Trojan, offering to delete it. Those that did risked putting their PC into an endless reboot cycle.

AVG later apologized and offered workarounds for affected users.

Thursday, the company went one further. "As a follow-up to the rapid distribution of recovery instructions and repair CDs, AVG Technologies is offering all affected users a free license or license extension as follows," AVG said in a statement.

Essentially, the offer covers a free year of AVG 8.0 service, or a free upgrade for AVG 7.5 users. The upgrade also includes users of the free AVG antivirus service. Not all customers will receive the license, just "affected users," AVG said. The company said it will contact affected customers beginning Nov. 24, and advise them of how to obtain the free year of service.

AVG also apologized again for its error. "AVG Technologies apologizes again for the inconvenience caused to our customers and wishes to assure our users worldwide that the company is actively putting new processes in place to avoid similar occurrences in the future," it said.

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20081113/tc_zd/234017