AVG has announced an unfortunate bug in the latest update to its flagship anti-virus software that's leaving 64-bit Windows 7 systems completely unusable.
The 3292 update was released on Wednesday and required users to reboot after installation, but left some Windows users unable to return to their desktops. Even safe mode was completely inaccessible, essentially bricking the machines.
The company has since pulled the update and posted an apology on its website with instructions on how to solve the problem. While there are ways to recover the PC, they all require the use of AVG's rescue CD/USB key. Full details are available on the AVG support forums, as well as a video walkthrough for those in need of more detailed instructions.
At this point, AVG hasn't explained what would cause certain PCs to respond in this way and although "a significant number" of x64 Windows 7 installations are affected, it's not clear if any other versions of the OS were similarly afflicted.
Unfortunately, many users of the free and paid editions of the software will have had the mandatory update automatically pushed to them, meaning that the number of impacted users could be quite large.
Obviously these sorts of glitches happen from time to time, although that will come as little consolation to anyone whose computer was rendered inoperable by the update - especially anyone who pays AVG to help prevent rouge software bringing their computer to its knees.
