It is becoming more clear now. V7 free version offers the following:
anti virus
anti spyware
email scanner
link scanner
resident shield
I didn't know what the resident shield does...so I looked it up...and here is what is says it does:
"Enable Resident Shield – uncheck to turn off the Resident Shield component. We strongly recommend not to do this unless you have to!
By checking or unchecking subitems, you can further specify how the Resident Shield should protect your files:
Scan cookies – check to activate this additional protection; all suspicious cookies will be blocked.
Scan Potentially Unwanted Programs – check to activate the Anti-Spyware engine, and scan for Potentially Unwanted Programs as well as for viruses. We recommend to keep this feature turned on as it significantly increases your computer security.
Scan on process closing – check to specify that the Resident Shield should scan files also when closing (by default, files are only scanned when opening).
Scan boot sector of removable media – check to always scan boot sectors of floppy disks for threats.
Use Heuristics – check to use heuristic analysis detection method.
Auto-heal – check to heal or remove all detected threats automatically, without displaying any notifications. If you leave this box unchecked, the Resident Shield will warn you and ask what to do with each threat (heal it, remove to the Virus Vault, or ignore and keep on disk)."
Unlike the V7 free version, the V8 freebie lets you specify a full or partial scan on a weekly rather than daily basis. One of the big differences seems to be how it handles cookies. V8 finds much more information than V7 and tells what is safe to delete, quarantine, heal, etc.
I originally thought some of the features on the V7 interface were missing, but they are all there. It is just that you may have to click on a blue link to access one.
When it starts scanning it slows everything else down to a crawl...but you can PAUSE or CANCEL any bothersome scan by clicking on the one and only AVG icon that will appear in your tray to bring up the master page.
Eddie