A-Squared anti-malware 2.0 Beta

[mrhero]

A2 v2 beta is now out
Here is download link: http://download1.emsisoft.com/a2AntiMalwareSetup.exe
and forum for beta : http://forum.emsisoft.com/Default.aspx?g=topics&f=21

My first thought about product is that there is a lot of good feature, especially I'm impressed with Hijackfree.
If you want i can add some screenshots

[rdsu]

I'm testing it and it's a very nice piece of software :)

A nice concurrent of ewido.

[WSFuser]

i too have been testing it and i like it very much, tho the startup screen is annoying.

[Andreas Haak]

Just a little note:
I did a little video presentation a few weeks ago featuring an internal beta version of a-squared. So if you don't want to install the beta version but you want to know how version 2 looks like feel free to visit our blog: http://blog.emsisoft.com/?p=9.

[TouchuvGrey]

I just got it yesterday and i'm liking it a lot so far. As far as i can tell it does not conflict with Ewido and seems to complement it nicely. As an added nice touch on the A2 home page if you look around a bit they want to thank you for Beta testing 2.0 by giving you a promo code that is good for a discount on a 1 year license.



Mike :)

[Andreas Haak]

I hope its ok to post this:

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/kb/articles/news060527/

-{ Quote: "Enter the discount code A2WM562 when ordering and you will receive a-squared Anti-Malware for 1 year for only US$ 19.97 instead of US$ 39.95. The license includes all software updates within the year, i.e. the new version 2.0 and the daily signature updates providing optimum Malware protection.

Online orders:
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/order/homeuser/ " }-

[aigle]

My biggest concers with a- squaed in the past were
1- Extremely slow scan( taking ages) and atleast one other member confirmed it and told he runs scan at night before sleep to coplete it overnight( that was really funny).
1- Very big updates that really frustrate me on dial up.
3- Poor results in AT tests( don,t remeber but there was an AR test like AV tests and a-squard was far behind Ewido.

Anybody can tell what about these issues in this new version?
Thansk.

[mata7]

i test it Right now, and i like so far, the only problem is memory it take allot on my system, i know is beta

[JerryM]

-{ Quote: "i test it Right now, and i like so far, the only problem is memory it take allot on my system, i know is beta
" }-

That is a lot of memory. I just checked Ewido, which I thought was heavy, and it uses a total of 28,896K.

I may try it, if it is compatible with Ewido. I don't want to go through the remove, etc.

Jerry

[Andreas Haak]

@mata7:
We are currently working on reducing the memory usage of a-squared.

@JerryM:
It is compatible to ewido.

[mata7]

-{ Quote: "@mata7:
We are currently working on reducing the memory usage of a-squared.

@JerryM:
It is compatible to ewido." }-

good to hear, BTW the new UI Look wonderful good job

[Infinity]

at least it is more advanced then Ewido..sorry to say but I feel with A², there is room for tweaking and personaly I love to play with settings and features .. and this kind of tweakability (hoping for some extra features like parent/child process control, ... ) + the IDS (apparently there is still some room for improvement .. but that's for all other apps too afaik) is topnotch imho!
the strenght of on demand scanner/on access scanner will certainly improve .. ahhh we'll see but I certainly am beginning to like A² ... at least the more advanced users are not left alone in the cold.

[Andreas Haak]

-{ Quote: "1- Extremely slow scan( taking ages) and atleast one other member confirmed it and told he runs scan at night before sleep to coplete it overnight( that was really funny)." }-

While most parts of a-squared 2 become more and more stable we started fine tuning recently. Scanning speed will be increased. The first performance related engine changes were released today. More will follow.

-{ Quote: "1- Very big updates that really frustrate me on dial up." }-

I guess you refer to redownloading signature packages over and over again cause we changed signatures in that package. Well ... I think you will be glad to hear we are currently testing a way to change signatures of an older signature package using incremental updates. So instead of redownloading the old signature packages all changes will be delivered with an incremental update that has only a size of a few kbytes.

[aigle]

Yes incremental updates are must. I downloded the trial and when I tried to update it started downloading more than 10 MB. I am on dial up so I stopped at that point.

[Andreas Haak]

-{ Quote: "Yes incremental updates are must. I downloded the trial and when I tried to update it started downloading more than 10 MB. I am on dial up so I stopped at that point." }-

Don't install the beta version if you are on a dial up connection. We are releasing several builds of all components every day. You would have to download 20 MB and more every day.

Incremental updates are inplemented since version 1.0. We will just introduce a way to change signatures of incremental updates using a second incremental update. Thats a big diffrence ;).

[JerryM]

I am not a good/knowledgeable beta tester. However, I have downloaded the beta. I am glad that it does not conflict with Ewido, for which I have a lifetime license.

At this point in time are there many conflicts with other programs, or problems that could crash the machine?
I am not sure whether to install it or wait a little longer when it is more stable.

Jerry

[Andreas Haak]

If you don't know much about computers its safer to wait for a final release to be honest. The current beta release is quite stable for most of our testers but there are still some bugs and glitches left that might confuse lesser experienced computer users.

[JerryM]

Thanks a lot. I hate to get in over my head.
Jerry

[TouchuvGrey]

I've had A2 Beta for about 10 days now, no conflicts with any of my other security programs.:)




Mike

[mata7]

after the last update A2 crash after my computer startup also if i run a scan it will crash to, i try to send the error report but it say cant conect to the server, so for now i have to uninstalled it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v330/MATA7/a2.png

[Chubb]

-{ Quote: "after the last update A2 crash after my computer startup also if i run a scan it will crash to, i try to send the error report but it say cant conect to the server, so for now i have to uninstalled it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v330/MATA7/a2.png" }-

I also have the same when clicking AutoStart Menu in Hijack Free in 2.0

[Andreas Haak]

You will find a bugreport.txt in your a-squared directory. Could you please send them to ah@emsisoft.com?

[Chubb]

-{ Quote: "You will find a bugreport.txt in your a-squared directory. Could you please send them to ah@emsisoft.com?" }-

E-mail sent to you...:)

[mata7]

-{ Quote: "You will find a bugreport.txt in your a-squared directory. Could you please send them to ah@emsisoft.com?" }-

just want let you know, i install A2 Today and i don't have any crash on my system everything is working good, so it look like you made a few fix, nice job

[controler]

I had to uninstall this beta last night because my pc kept freezing just after boot. I wonder if it is a conflict with BoClean?
Otherwise A2 is looking good ;)

controler

[Andreas Haak]

What operating system are you using controler?

[controler]

I am using XP Pro on this system.

[Andreas Haak]

Hmmm ... can you please send me a list of installed software via PM so I can try to reproduce the problem?

[controler]

I would not worry about it. I have installed so many programs it would not be fair to A2 to mess with this. I am going to install Vista Beta on here and will give A2 a try with that.

Keep up the good work :)

controler

[Infinity]

Hi Controler
-{ Quote: "Keep up the good work" }-

that's the least you can say .. I'm trialing this new version for a few weeks and to be honest .. it's a fine piece of equipment! with advanced features for the ones who want it and with the possibility to be protected "right out of the box".

waaaay much better then the previous version imho and it's reassuring that every day again (not every day but still every day updating) they're active, responding and making things better...

cheers,

[colt45allstar]

I'm VERY impressed with this program.

Especially the fact that it's able to find everything from spyware... to worms.. to trojans.

I also love the frequent updates. Have noticed there tends to be a new definition file daily.. sometimes more than one even.

I'm real anal about protection, so in addition to tradional firewall and antivirus I've got everything from trojan hunter.. to adaware..to spybot on my machine.

This along with trojan hunter (which also seems to have frequent updates) just might be my two favorites of the bunch.

Bravo!

[ghodgson]

Well gents, I beg to differ here. I have been an ardent fan of A squared for 2 years now and I have to say my enthusiasm for this product dwindled yesterday. I was very happy with V 1.6.5 , simple and did the job. Yesterday I went to update and found myself with V2!, I had no choice in the matter. compulsory[/B] programme update which was still Beta and buggy.]
However, seeing as how I had [I] 'got' it, I would trial it. First thing I noticed was an annoying splash screen being flashed at me everytime I changed the context menu. The GUI looks fine but disappears when I change the context menu, giving me the splash screen again. The hijack free part is really only of use to the advanced user. The background guard/realtime scanning and IDS progs etc consume..........would you believe 76MB memory,
ie a2start.exe 38MB and a2guard.exe 38MB , just about more than the rest of my PC put together. When scanning the scanner uses 42MB ram and 98% CPU usage. It didnt find anything so I must be doing something right.
Result, firstly, I have disabled the real time scanning because of RAM usage. THerefore it follows it is not worth renewing the license if the RAM usage is abhorrent to a point where you cant really use it. It also follows if you dont get a license , will I be plagued with the splash screen all the time? If so it will be uninstalled.
In the help files it says to make 'it free' delete the following
a2guard.exe
a2handler.dll
a2sys.exe
a2cfg.exe,
But I cant find a2sys.exe or a2cfg.exe, so when Updated I got the other 2 files downloaded again.
Whats gone wrong Emsisoft? I loved A squared before yesterday. It annoys me that to continue using it I got an automatic prog update, I wasnt asked. This is my PC, dont I have a say in whats installed on it?
I dont think A squared will be on it much longer.
Gordon

[emsisoft]

Gordon, which splash screen are you talking about on which context menu? Can you please send me a screenshot of this to info@emsisoft.com?

I'm curious because a-squared Anti-Malware doesn't have a splash screen any longer. Not at the scanner and not at any other program part.

About the memory consumption you're right, it is very high. But please keep in mind that you usually only run the Guard and not 2 or 3 program parts. The security center (a2start.exe) is usually used very infrequent as well as the scanner. But we're currently working on an optimization for that. More than 420,000 signatures take more memory than a simple spyware scanner that uses just a few thousands signatures, that's clear.

The help file needs to be updated, because in version 2.0 you can no longer downgrade to the Free edition from the Anti-Malware. Btw, a-squared Free 2.0 is not available at this time. Will take some more weeks.

Version 2.0 is nothing else than normal evolution. We will definitely not support version 1.6.5 any longer because everybody who has paid for that version paid for 1 or 2 years license of the latest software. So everybody will get the new version for free. Anti-Malware 2.0 is no longer beta software. We are in final stage for about 10 days now and that's why we decided yesterday to publish it to all 1.6.5 users too.

[ghodgson]

Dear Christian, thankyou for your reply, and explanation of some of the features of ver 2. I understand about normal evolution and wanting to move forward. I will continue with it for now to see where we go in the next few weeks, keeping an eye on updates, ram usage etc.
About the 'splash screen' , it is the screen that comes up telling me how long my license has to run before it expires, ie...always on commencing the programme and when returning from both the Hijackjfree screen and the scanner screen back to the status screen, it pops up again. Once is enough surely.

[bellgamin]

-{ Quote: "About the 'splash screen' , it is the screen that comes up telling me how long my license has to run before it expires" }-Lots of folks call that sort a screen a NAG screen.

I detest Nag screens, and will rarely continue testing a product that uses this sort of thing. If a product is good, I buy it. If not, I don 't.

Perhaps a reminder a few days before a trial period expires might be less of an annoyance - possibly even useful. In any event, a daily nag screen sells nothing to me. In fact, it can have just the opposite effect.

[ghodgson]

Bellgamin-{ Quote: "In fact, it can have just the opposite effect." }-,
It is doing.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Lots of folks call that sort a screen a NAG screen.

I detest Nag screens, and will rarely continue testing a product that uses this sort of thing. If a product is good, I buy it. If not, I don 't.

Perhaps a reminder a few days before a trial period expires might be less of an annoyance - possibly even useful. In any event, a daily nag screen sells nothing to me. In fact, it can have just the opposite effect." }-
They should put the splash screen as optional. BTW, if some software is free, in my opinion at least a splash scrren on system start up can be acceptable if software is free.

[Infinity]

-{ Quote: "They should put the splash screen as optional. BTW, if some software is free, in my opinion at least a splash scrren on system start up can be acceptable if software is free." }-

my opinion too (but only if optional) ..

regards,

[emsisoft]

The trial screen should only occur once each day and only while the 30 day trial period, not at full versions at all. It is not made to annoy users, but once a day I'd say is acceptable to see that you're running a trial.

Which operating system do you use? Which version is displayed in the Security Center?

[Infinity]

And I guess most of those custom made nag screens are builtin just because to fight against reverse engineering the program .. just my 2 cents .. (at least I think so) ..

[ghodgson]

Dear Christian, I am running XP service pack 1. The version in the security centre is 2.0.0.393. I dont get the 'trial screen'/nag screen' just once a day. It is everytime I open the proramme and as said before on returning between the Hijack screen and scan screen to the status screen. Something is not right then???????
regards Gordon

[emsisoft]

Could you please try to refresh your license information?

Security Center -> Settings -> License tab -> Refresh Licenses -> Click the license and restart all a-squared applications (Security Center, Guard).

Is the trial box still displayed?

Are you logged on with administrative rights btw.?

[ghodgson]

Thanks, I do have admin rights. I have done what you ask, and indeed, now when the guard is activated the trial screen disappears-- so long as the guard is active. But due to the large ram usage I have disabled it again and the numerous trial screens return as before. The trial/nag screen only appears when the guard is disabled. Is this a bug in Ver 2 ?, or how its meant to be?
Incidentally, we had better be careful where we go with this thread as it is suppose to be opinions on A squared Ver 2 beta, we dont want to invoke the wrath of the moderators on setting up a forum.
regards Gordon

[emsisoft]

OK, it seems to be a problem only with the disabled guard. Which is definitely not recommended and therefore not a really good tested case so far.

How much RAM do you have, that these 30-40 mb ob the Guard are really important to save?

You have to keep in mind, that only an active guard is able to protect from any new infections. The auto-update and scheduled scan can only be run if the guard is active too.

More than 420.000 malware signatures take a lot of ram, that's clear. But we're still working on it to decrease the ram usage of the guard.

[ghodgson]

Ok thanks for looking into this problem Christian, and point taken. But Glad to hear you are trying to reduce the footprint.
regards Gordon

[Mongol]

-{ Quote: "Ok thanks for looking into this problem Christian, and point taken. But Glad to hear you are trying to reduce the footprint.
regards Gordon" }-

Andreas posted a while back that removal of the debugging code will make a big improvement in footprint. They are leaving it in for now to find and correct little bugs in the new version. I am very impressed with Version 2 so far...:thumb: 8)

[CJsDad]

When I run a deep scan I notice A-Squared finds alot of cookies from FireFox, the same ones over and over, is there a way to stop this, either through FF or A-Squared?

[Andreas Haak]

-{ Quote: "Andreas posted a while back that removal of the debugging code will make a big improvement in footprint. They are leaving it in for now to find and correct little bugs in the new version. I am very impressed with Version 2 so far...:thumb: 8)" }-

Beside that I reworked the whole signature handling of a-squared in the last week dropping the memory usage by ~20 MB. I am currently busy implementing a signature manipulation language so we are able to change older signature files using incremental updates instead of forcing a redownload of them.

The new engine will be available for beta testing at the end of this week.

[Andreas Haak]

-{ Quote: "When I run a deep scan I notice A-Squared finds alot of cookies from FireFox, the same ones over and over, is there a way to stop this, either through FF or A-Squared?" }-

As far as I remember this was a problem in one engine build that has already been fixed. Can you confirm that?

[ghodgson]

A slightly diiferent question. When the present A squared ver 2 licence ends [in my case in about 7 days], if we dont renew, will it revert to the free version?, or what will happen to it? I havent yet seen any info regarding this, as we all know in VER 1.6.5 it went free, with the background guard disabled.
cheers Gordon

[emsisoft]

The expired a-squared Anti-Malware trial will not convert to the Free edition automatically. You would have to buy or uninstall Anti-Malware and download the Free.

[ghodgson]

thanks for the info.