Hello, I'd like to ask for your candid opinion on Avast. Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? It this a product you would recommend to your friend? If yes/no, why? What are the things you like about it? On the flip side, what do you not like about it? Any other comments/opinions? We'd like to get as much feedback as possible, to create a new version that would fit best your needs. Your opinion is very important to us! Thanks, Vlk
If you are talking about Avast for PC then in my opinion Avast is great for careless or computer illiterate user - lite with good AV detection and additional shields. I would trust Avast to protect PC of such a user. As for me personally I would use Avast more frequently or even permanently if it had strong HIPS with tons of settings.
I have to say, Avast Premiere is one of those products I would love to buy if I was still using Windows. It's very friendly, has a pretty and blackie interface which makes sense, has a good firewall with reazonable customization, sales' prices are very attractive, it's lightweight, has a very good "anti-keylogger" feature which I can't remember the name, and I love the girl's voice (pt_BR). On the other hand, sometimes Avast does things I don't like. Just recently it marked several system-related libraries as malware, or was it's own libraries? I don't remember. And since I have clinical "crazyness" I feel like I shouldn't fully trust such company when dealing with security. Not that others don't do that, but I didn't see many having such problems, even if that was caused by a simple and harmless mistake. Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? Absolutely. It this a product you would recommend to your friend? No doubt. If yes/no, why? What are the things you like about it? On the flip side, what do you not like about it? Reasons above. Any other comments/opinions? Yes. Keep up the good work, I see Avast! as one of the few products I would consider buying. But PLEASE, improve your false-detection rate (make it "smaller"); use full auto-sandbox for unknown-publisher software (like COMODO does); and improve your product's trustworthiness, that is, make sure it always start with Windows, no matter what, and that it cannot be shutdown by system bugs or it's own bugs. Also, I would definitely use avast on one of my Linux machines, if the product would look the same as it does on Windows and have the same detection rate. Regards, Amarildo
To make the long story short...I like it but IMHO it is too bundled and there are too many settings for novice users. Check how Emsisoft does it...
Yes, I am a long-term user of avast... going back at least as far as avast 4... currently with 2015. I've recommended it to friends and relatives in the past, but currently am ambivalent about continued/future recommendations. I LOVE the abundance of settings which allow the advanced user the ability to tweak so much of the program however they desire [but which have adequate defaults for most average users]. I personally take full advantage of tweaking several settings. I am satisfied with how avast ranks in many comparative A-V reports, typically very high/effective in protection, while typically very low (though not the lowest) in false positives. What I *DON'T* like: 1) All the "bloat" that's been added to avast over the past several years.... just look at the change in size of the installer! Modules like "Grime Fighter". Yes, if a person does a full installation, using custom setup, they can choose not to have these installed. But if someone accepts the default/recommended setup, they wind up with a lot of potential "garbage" they don't really want/need. Keep it trimmed... focus on the core anti-virus protection, and not all the extra modules. 2) The continual pushing of Google Chrome upon (not just initial installation but on) each program update. Your forum is full of thousands of posts from users who quickly hit "NEXT" to a screen with TINY pre-checked boxes, only to discover they'd been "CHROMEd". If you wish to offer/suggest/recommend Chrome, that's certainly your prerogative... but you need to change this to an OPT-IN rather than an OPT-OUT... that should satisfy just about everyone. 3) Release of newer modules before they're sufficiently tested. Even to this day, most users are complaining about issues with the Online Security add-on in IE, as often not working, and more significantly, crashing IE. There were numerous problems with HTTPS scanning either blocking or slowing-down surfing. And NG slowing down systems, and eating up tons of disk space. I'm not sure which of these problems have since been fixed, as I have disabled HTTPS scanning, and not installed NG. 4) Lots of complaints about the avast service not starting properly... it happens too often, to too many people. It needs to be addressed, and fixed. 5) Too many reports of System Restore not working unless avast self-protection is disabled... what's up with that? 6) "Forced" updates to newer versions, even when a user selects the option to "manually update the program (i.e., only when I check for it)". Yes, avast has every right to STOP support of older versions [Personally, I can't believe there are some people still running v4]. Tell us that --- even "threaten us": tell us that you're no longer offering definition updates, say to versions 8 and earlier. But then let US decide how we want to react. Let US decide if we wish to update to the newer/newest version... or if we prefer to switch to another anti-virus. But don't force an update [in the background] on us after we've specifically opted for manual updates only. The attitude that "you know what's best for us" is arrogant. I hope to stick with avast, unless/until I have a major "incident" with it. At that point... if it ever happens... my (current) plan is to switch to Panda.
I will talk about Avast Free as this is the version I have used in the past & recommended....but not any more. For me Avast Free is the best free AV out there. Provides good traditional & proactive protection especially for average users. But I dont like ads/ads popups, etc... in the product....whether the ads are in the GUI, on the screen or appear on the tasktray, etc... If you want to advertise your paid products...give a tab on the GUI..like Paid Products...clicking on this will show paid products...I like this approach better & acceptable. I dont like the Upgrade tab on the GUI too. Either there should be an option to dont show it or show the Upgrade tab on the about Avast page. I know you provide custom install...but I simply hate non security, additional software, browsers, etc... in a security software....And especially when those additional softs are provided during version upgrade too. Avast has become bloated & the recent versions are affecting system i.e slow down, etc... Above are the reasons I have stopped using & recommending Avast. But with every new Avast release I check to see if the above mentioned things are removed or not. And couple of Avast protection options I found are scattered everywhere on the GUI...And they can be better put in the more suitable module or new module. And 1-2 feature, etc... should be renamed more aptly as they are little confusing & different in experience....like Aggressive & Moderate mode...users have mentioned the naming is confusing & in experience they work in a opposite way as per the naming. You should take such user recommendation & try to implement it as they do affect user experience with the product. Info on the product, features etc... like new HIPS... no info what & how on HIPS. Beta/Release happened but users are still clueless on HIPS. GUI change/new GUI, basic/advanced settings, etc... are welcome. Opt-In instead of Opt-Out for additional softs...better dont include additional softs. A clean software is always liked & loved by any & all type of users...hope Avast will start the clean soft era again. Just my honest opinion.
While years ago I liked Avast a lot, now days not as much. I recently I fixed a computer which Avast Premier installed on it. I didn't like that when I clicked on scan, it found infections, but did not list what was actually detected. I know it is possible to do a virus scan, and in that case any threats found will be listed, but I really don't like the "dumbed down" scan which give no information. There were also some tweaks found, which, again were not listed, and wold have required Avast to download another component to fix. It's probably just me, but I actually prefer the user inteface of Avast 4 to current versions.
Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? Maybe It this a product you would recommend to your friend? Absolutely If yes/no, why? The only free Av (acc to me) which provides same level of protection without missing components. ( eg: Avira miss web protection etc. Note: FW dont count) Also, it is tested in Av-c and scores well. unlike avira, which has pro version in test. Avast free is used in various av testing. So I am sure free version provides atleast mentioned protection results as given. What are the things you like about it? Free & Fast On the flip side, what do you not like about it? 1. UI: I am not sure about others but I dont like its UI. for me, its confusing compared to other products. I always find it difficult to find a particular setting. 2. More things getting added which I dont like. I prefer simple, plain AV. 3. For me the installation was not that smooth. Same goes for un-installation. SO many things left over, even my start menu has avast folder left. Worst of all, the uninstall tool of avast also hanged when I tried to use it to remove any leftover things. Regards.
Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? No It this a product you would recommend to your friend? No If yes/no, why? I was using Avast Pro until around July 2014. I had more than a month left on my subscription but the daily renewal popups started. Not just one time a day but several times a day every day and there was no way to disable it. Plus, I had read complaints of other people who had renewed their subscription and were automatically signed up for the "auto renewal" feature and there was no option to not sign up for that. That is a decision we should be making not someone making it for us! I tried to hang on until my subscription expired but I updated my version one day and tried to reboot but Avast says my Windows version was illegal which I new to be false because it had been working fine for a year and Microsoft had never complained or anyone else. I had purchased this system new from HP just about a year ago. I rebooted in safe mode and uninstalled Avast and my license was legal again. All of this together made me uninstall it and say, "Never again!". What are the things you like about it? Right now I can't think of anything. The customer used to have better control over it but that seems to be gone.
I almost fully agree with user "yesnoo". Avast is great product: Great UI, solid performance and detection rates. Easy to use and so forth! What I do not like/why I stopped installing/recommending it (now it's Panda Free AV): Constant popups/promotions (AND no way to turn them off - if person is not interested in other than free product) and pre-selected 3rd party software during program update (and install). Plus re-registration that only maybe 1 of 15 my friends could do themselves (not English speaking people). Re-registration is not possible manually, lets say 45 days before expiration. It is only possible via reinstall or popup (which is complicated). Paid products solve many of listed problems but as said in this thread, constant popups at the end of subscription are going to ruin people's experience.
Same , tried a lot but right now happy with emsisoft . No extra stuff . Also I have noticed avast performs fine if net is on , but if I lose net connection there is a definite lag in opening programs .
Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? No. Won't touch it again. Previous user of avast. It this a product you would recommend to your friend? No. Used to recommend avast to friends and family. - And then avast have to lose focus and bundled with all kind of nonsense things. - More trouble than it was worth. - Detection starts going downhill despite I remember avast "received" an investment of USD100mil. - Fancy technology names which didn't deliver (1-2 years "saying" avast comes out with this technology, going to boost detection/protection? What a tone of BS) - Irritating pop ups on offer this and that. - Along came 360IS (now 360 TSE). Despite some bugs, it was way better than avast in terms of detection, lightness and repair. If you are connected to the internet, 360 is able to "repair" the system by replacing damaged files with their own clean backup files. I feel much safer with 360. Still sticking to 360TSE. Recommends them to friends now and no complain. Coupled it with CFW autosandbox and you have a pretty strong security. Up until today, nothing get past that combo. No popups, light, good detection, good repair, what else can you asked for? Goodbye avast. What are the things you like about it? - WAS one of the best free antivirus On the flip side, what do you not like about it? - Annoying offers/popup - "Promising" technologies which didn't deliver - Horrible marketing team. Any other comments/opinions? - Brush up until you are on par with China's top antivirus. There's a reason they are the top and Chinese from other countries not China (my friends) are using their Chinese product. I can't read Chinese so I am suing their international version.
Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? Used to use it, but not any more. It this a product you would recommend to your friend? If yes/no, why? No. It has become to bloated with all of the extra features. The detection rate has also gone down. What are the things you like about it? Currently not using it so can't say. On the flip side, what do you not like about it? See comment above. Any other comments/opinions? Would love to see the detection rates go back up. Also the finding and removal of pups. Slim down the bloat and keep it simple like you guys used to be and you will have a winner!
Well, vlk. I had used Avast Free for over four years starting from early 2011 to early April 2015. It'd been fine during that time ! I did a simple tweak so that Avast would not give me any promo/upgrade pop-ups, and I had a license key that's good till 2038 so I didnot have to go through the trouble of re-registration every year. I tried 360TS then and it's almost like love-at-first-sight. The GUI, the lightness (yes I think it's lighter than Avast) and the bootup time is also faster. My suggestions to the Avast team : Make the product as much user-friendly as possible other than being a competent AV product_____ i.e. for paid users, when subscription is about to expire Do not use multiple daily pop-ups to remind users to renew (it would ONLY irritate whoever that's using the computer), maybe once every three days on the last 15days then once per day on the last 7 days. Also stay away from abusive business practice ___ Now I don't know if that is true or not on the "auto renewal" part, but nowadays bad words spread fast ! p.s. @Trooper. Don't you have anything to say ? : )
used to be a long time user. do i like it currently.. ehh. if avast would offer a normal stripped down version like they used to i would love to use it. i miss the old days of avast. stop adding more junk and focus on making the av / firewall parts better i dont want everything and the kitchen sink in my av. so make a version with ONLY the av and or with the firewall and nothing more then yes i would start recc it again. to note i was and still own paid lic's to it so i am not talking about the free version i can understand the extras in the free one because you know its free....
Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? It this a product you would recommend to your friend? Yes and yes, I use the free version and am glad it's available. Thank you. Any other comments/opinions? Avast user for many years, will continue to do so. I really liked the siren. Was and am well satisfied with the detection rate. Don't like the trend toward more & more functions, wouldn't call them bloatware, but they do slow the system and are only marginally important. Stick to malware detection. If you must keep the peripheral functions (they do have a marginal usefulness), make them available on demand, so they run only when called. The trend to include more stuff and slow down makes me reluctant to update the engine. Just let me know a bit in advance when virus definitions for my current engine will stop. I prefer a separate HIPs protection software, so that is not an issue here. The popups don't bother me, but if a user gets accustomed to ignoring them, he might miss an important one, from Avast or some other application. If you must pop up about google or chrome to help pay the bills for the freebie, that is OK-fine w/ me.
Is this a product you would consider using (or are using)? I'm still using, but I'm looking at alternatives more and more lately... It this a product you would recommend to your friend? To be brutally honest, no. If yes/no, why The pre-checked crap that gets installed one way or another and is offered after every program update (and it does, have seen Skype, Dropbox and Chrome on systems that never wanted or needed them) and the hassle of renewing stupid licenses makes it less than ideal solution to recommend to people. Unless you want them to constantly call you and ask you what to do with x and y in avast!. I just don't have the nerves for that anymore. Why can't you just offer all the junk at first time install and then be done with it? If I don't want it the first time, what makes you think I'll want it next 20 times? And for the love of god, ditch the re-registering of free version. It's stupid and unnecessary. I've installed localized version to users that I know and they were still not able to make a decision what to pick when you shove more offers down their throat. They just wanted free basic protection from the start. Why can AVG, Panda Free and AVIRA do this automatically, but avast! can't? What are the things you like about it? Free, ok detection, well configurable compared to other free AV's in some ways. On the flip side, what do you not like about it? Developers-users relationship is pretty much non-existent now (compared to amazing contact/interaction from just few years ago), the obsession with stuffing more kitchensinkware and dreadful popup ads are not helping (I don't mind the banner in main GUI, but random taskbar popups are annoying as hell). I also absolutely hate it how new amazing detection/protection features (at least on paper) are released and then we need like a year to even see some effect from it. Where competition, when they release a game changing detection system, it works from day 1 on a very large scale and only gets even better. And the above rant over renewing of licenses... EDIT: I also dislike false positives handling. Submitting them from within Virus Chest NEVER gets them resolved in any meaningful time. I don't even know why you have that feature if it does nothing. And I always take time to properly fill in the requested details, wait for days and weeks and nohing. Not cool. Any other comments/opinions? Being a die hard fanboy won't solve or improve anything. So don't take my criticism as a long time avast! user (it was 11 years this year) as something terrible. I just avast! to become better, because I'm seeing a certain trend of things going down). It did become better in many aspects, but then again it also got very bad at quite a lot of things...
@vlk I have a huge amount of respect for you for coming forward like this. And because of that respect, I plan on taking the time in the next few days to answer your questions honestly when I have some spare time, particularly because I think that reaching out like this is sincere and can be beneficial for the community.
Even after how many people complain of the third party support company that tries to push people into a $180 support plan, avast still sticks with them. Per the same reasons given by RejZoR I removed avast from my computers and I was a long time user. Went to Bitdefender Free. I could not deal with NG being put back on at every program update and having Dropbox being installed using the stub installer without any opt-in or opt-out box was the last straw. http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Avast
Been so long since I used or suggested it to others. When Avast, Avira & AVG were the only free AVs I always picked Avast. Can't remember which version but I updated a version on a computer I take care of. When I rebooted there were so many superfluous settings. I said that's it, done. And haven't even looked at Avast since.
@vlk First I give you credit for asking these questions here. I currently have Avast installed on my parents PC, and had it on one of mine until about a week ago. I removed it to try something else, not that Avast was inadequate. I feel Avast simple enough to use, fairly light weight, and offers solid protection. Also, I trust Avast more than some other AV vendors. I can offer three suggestions on improving the program. First, I don't like that it asks me about installing Chrome toolbar (or whatever it is) every time the program updates. It gets old. I understand the need/desire to monetize the free version. I wouldn't mind being asked on the initial install, or maybe once every 6months or so. But when program updates are rolling out almost weekly, at least for the beta, it becomes really annoying. A required reboot is bad enough without the repeated prompts to install add-ons. Secondly, I agree with others, too many add-ons. I want a lean, effective AV program. I don't like when companies add parental filters, registry cleaners, backup features, boot optimzers, etc... Finally, detection. I no longer test the AV programs myself, and now mostly rely on the various testing sites. Avast used to be top tier, but now it seems more middle of the pack in the last couple years. It appears to be a much more competitive market place now than it was maybe 10 years ago. Tons of solid free options. And a lot of companies offer paid programs for free. I can get Norton free from my internet provider, and Webroot free from my bank. I still feel Avast is solid overall, but probably not the first program I recommend anymore...........thanks
After many years of using Avast I stopped using it completely over a year ago. Good things: it used to be great and it protects well. Few bad things and the reasons it's no longer here: - Option to ignore an alert was removed. Avast just blocked and that was that. That scared me totally. What if it blocked a vital system file by mistake. - It failed to observe some exclusions. - Setting up exclusions is in more than one place in GUI confusing users. - Various confusing acronym-type engine features which to the end I never understood. Like what is NG? - Clean uninstaller in some versions did not fit the safe-mode screen so there's no way to click the buttons since they aren't visible. - Cloud reputation flagged a home-made, totally safe program for my family, from executing. Submitting to the Avast lab would be futile since it changes so often. Ignore option on a supposedly disreputable app would've helped. - Varying auto emergency update filenames were a nuisance for a firewall and a HIPS program. - Connections to google analytics during said updates just annoyed me. - No resizeable windows or scroll bar, to make long paths readable (that unfortunatly is a stupid feature of many programs). - No clear identification of detected stuff in the logs. Actually, no log display exist in GUI. Sifting through text files isn't that great. - Several instances of misidentifying a process avast thought guilty. - Popups, never ending popups for non-AV related features I have no interest in. - During one update, chrome browser installed and avast permitted it to start an update service even though the original setting was no chrome (yes, it was one time when I updated over an existing version, a huge mistake, I admit).
