Avast's Tools

Dude, take a chill pill...

 

I absolutely agree! They should really rename it: Avast utility tools or something like that.

 

It didn't even list PDF-XC last time I checked it.

 

If you don't want to learn a proper definition of word "bloat", then why not just call it "cheese cake". it would be a menaingless description just like bloat for something that isn't bloat. people scream "bloat" for everything thee days without knowing what they are even saying. Learn first and talk then about it.

 

Hi RejZoR, how are you today? Let's call it: Avast utility tools with antivirus. That would be a perfect name, no offence.

 

Respectfully, let's all just give credit for the fact that Avast gives us a free version in the first place and mostly for the fact that they allow us to customize the install to remove what we individually think is not necessary on our own systems.

 

No. It's security related feature so stop mocking about it (them). I'll never gonna stop you calling GrimeFighter a "bloat", but saying the same for all other featues is just plain stupid. Bloat is something unrelated to the core function of the program. And like i explained, all the extras apart from GrimeFighter are security related. So, NOT bloat. Call it whatever you want, but it still isn't a bloat.

 

seriously? let people call it whatever they want to. ill call it bloat till the day i die. and ill never stop calling it bloat because its BLOAT. plain and simple. if perit wants to call it avast pot pie LET HIM its free choice, he is free to call it whatever he wants. i agree they should call it something else. maybe avast cheese cake or avast gumbo? or maybe avast essential tools with the av add on. tell me to chill again, but ill still call it bloat and tell anyone anywhere who asks thats what it is. extra junk i.e. bloat. in all seriousness you tell me to chill but when anyone says anything to the fact its bloat you jump all over them. last i remember its a free world.

i agree 1000%, remember i used to be a HUGE avast supporter when it was simple. an av and firewall. in fact i used to own personally nearly 100 lic's at one point for all my business' we no longer run it at any of them.

my issue with all the extra junk is most people who are not tech savvy or the "common" pc user dont know its there and dont choose custom install and just install the whole mess of it. and then they call me asking me how all this extra stuff got installed when all they did is install avast? and yes this in fact DOES happen many times. they start to see extra things in the browser or pop ups asking them about updating software etc. then they just get ticked and remove it or ask me to anyway. same when programs like adobe flash player try to install the mcafee browser stuff hidden in installs? so when people install flash player they should always install the mcafee add on's because they are in fact security related? avast should offer a BASIC av free of all this stuff for the average user who doesnt want all the extras they get stuck with. then offer a version with the "essential tools" add on. let the user decide which they will use. i can tell you which i think would be more popular.

 

Geez, i've never seen anyone so stubbornly ignorant...

 

same could be said for you my friend....maybe the only thing we agree on.

 

You both have valid points - glass half empty, glass half full...

 

You can opt out of every unimportant stuff so I'm not sure it's "bloat", but IMHO the mentality behind it is getting in the way of producing a stable and effective AV. The results have severely dropped and their forum filled with bug reports. If you can't handle doing everything at once, why bother anymore?

~ Removed Off Topic Remarks ~

 

A few weeks ago when Firefox 27 came out, some SBIE users reported problems running Firefox under the protection of Sandboxie. So I installed and tested Avast as I suspected that it could be conflicting with Sandboxie and the new Firefox.

When I installed Avast, I unticked every tool and only installed File shield. I wanted to see what the settings were in File shield and play around with those settings to see if it made a difference regarding running Firefox sandboxed.

Even though I only installed File shield and none of the Tools, it took me a while to find the important part in Avast. File shield its hidden at the bottom on the left side of the UI. I had to go through a lot of unnecessary steps looking around for File shield since I had to go into the sections designed for Tools. I don't think the important part in Avast should be treated like that. It should be on top. Just my opinion.

Bo

 

I hope you understand that people working on scan engine and detection capabilities don't work on GrimeFighter, SecureLine or even browser plugin (except when it comes interconnecting phishing detection with the scan subsystems). So one program having loads of extras doesn't affect other parts if you're thinking taht manpower is being wasted on one part and neglecting the other because of it...

 

I know, that's why I said "mentality". There are a lot of once-good software going down the drain once the vendors get more interested in implementing these kind of features, no matter how big and rich they are.

 

I had a lot of respect for avast in the old days as they did what no paid AV did. Offer a top notch AV for free. It was one of my highly recommended AV. Then came the bells and whistle one at a time. Initially was still bearable. At the same time, they are introducing new technologies. But it would seem that they would release their technologies too early and it took them several versions to correct it. All their new technologies is just hype for the media when in actual fact, it was a premature tech.

And then, there were these marketing trick, recommend avast get blah, blah. Avast didnn't do that last time when it was in version 4.x.

Then when more bells an and whistle came, I was like it is still ok. Detection rate still good. (Still having faith in avast). The last straw came when I noticed a steady decline in detection. No way am I going to keep it anymore or recommend it to people. I actually recommended avast to 5 or 6 people. Well not anymore.

An AV main function is to protect the PC, not doing some marketing trick. So in a way, you can say, avast lost itself. I would have kept avast if they continue down the 4.x road.

 

I think none of these is needed. However rescue disk and browser protection might be useful.

BTW anyone knows browser detection details? Which browsers it supports?

 

Apart from all the arguments going on here,I would like to add that all the people here have valid points.Yes apart from grimefighter everything is useful from security aspect.

But anyway yes.Avast can avoid grimefighter,VPN in free version.That is accounted as bloat.But some people are just bashing this way too much and guys get a break.Its a AV program!! Its not that horrible as some people are trying their best to make it look like that.I know everyone expects big things from a huge name like avast and when it doesnt happen everyone is upset which is fine but its not that worst.

Apart from that useless discussion on features,moving to protection part.Yes,signatures with sf are from safemachine I confirmed it from avast! team.

And if you keep observing virus database update history.They are adding sf and dyna prefix detections since start of march and its coming in more often now.

I know that avast had setback till start of march,but I am going to test them out maybe next month.Because dyna and sf signatures are getting added every now and then in alternate 1-2 updates.Hopefully,Avast is showing improvement and we should be back on track!

Oh and about the increased noise yes vlk acknowledged that here:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=147601.msg1072420#msg1072420

Nothing wrong in talking positive,is it?

Fingers crossed!

 

Though i don't know what they are doing with Dyna. They said v9 will feature Dyna-Gen (similar to Evo-Gen, just for DeepScreen, automatically generating behavior detection rules). They were mentioning as Dyna-Gen is already part of avast! v9, but the function itself is nowhere to be seen. We were talking about it during v8 and v9 is now like 6 months old and nothing is happening. It seems like their entire development ideas are way ahead of any sort of actual implementation.

 

Rej,dyna is coming along...but safe machine and dyna seem interconnected to each other.

As I said they are deploying safe machine and dyna stuff more often than never.

Its coming along and I am really impressed...Few days ago, I had a brand new fakeAV sample and deepscreen caught it with safemachine signature.

If you noticed they added a lot of dyna from start of feb and they continue the trend.And as per sf goes,its coming along regularly alongside with dyna.

Next month AV-C results and my personal tests will be on then we will see!

 

Well, they've said that about Dyna-Gen like almost 1 year ago...

 

Well I dont care...We just want dyna detections coming more often and deepscreen working the way it should.No matter how dyna signatures are created.

I am still seeing the way they are going with safemachine and dyna signatures being added regularly since end of feb.We will see as I said

 

Fella's,

I hear you on Dyna-Gen (or lack thereof). Yes, I know, we talked about it almost a year ago - and it's still not quite here. The problem is that Dyna-Gen is pretty much done (has been for some while) but unfortunately doesn't deliver on its promise at the moment. And the reason for that lies in the fundamental limitations of the Avast sandbox. That is, many pieces of malware don't run (or exhibit themselves) in the Avast sandbox (deepscreen container), for various technical reasons. Even with SafeMachine2 in place.

And that's why we're in the process of completely redesigning and rebuilding the sandbox and deepscreen. This is where the 'NG' technology (currently alpha-tested on the avast forum) comes into play.

Believe me, we now have more people focusing on advanced protection technologies than we ever did (despite the various modules we have added to the product and which are the subject of this thread). I'm pretty confident that later this year, with the new hw-based sandbox and all the add-on technologies like dyna-gen and snx-prevalence, it will make a big difference.

Thanks
Vlk

 

I sure hope it will and also don't let us wait for it too long...