What the heck happened to Avast???

Nonsense. avast! doesn't care if there are inactive leftovers left. But problems happen when AV before it failed to remove itself properly. In such case almost every AV will have problems.

 

that's what I meant: improper removal through "add/remove" from windows. and this is not unusual, the avast forum is full of such questions/answers.

 

I am waiting for Avast (AV Pro) to 'fix itself'
I have BSODs when I use it, not repeatable but enough for me not to use it.
Yes all the dmps etc - uninstall, clean up, re-install. It sounds like a 'mantra', I'm fed up with hearing it.
If anyone thinks that the awsclear works I suggest they try Nirsoft regscanner and look for Avast.
By the way Avast changes some permissions on reg keys etc so cleaners cannot deal with them anyway.

My license runs to mid 2012 as well
Teach me a lesson to buy a 2 year deal

 

How exactly can this be an avast! problem if OTHER product fails to uninstall itself properly? It's like blaming BMW because a wheel feel off Toyota. Ppl should complain at the problematic vendor and not to avast! who just happens to be the second product used. I can install ANY program after uninstalling avast! and avast! will never conflict with anything because it's always removed properly.

 

Agreed...Avast seems to be the one product with some consistent stability and I have run most of the others with this same pc.

 

you are of course right. if you read back where I first reply to another poster, I just guessed what he wanted to say.

 

I think it was originally going to be in v6, but those plans were dropped if I remember correctly.

 

Eh..no. Read the rest of my post please, lol. What I said was that I did not like Avast having the exclamation point over the taskbar icon when I shut a module off like mail. I never said I couldn't turn the module off.

 

Avast used to cause a machine to freeze upon install, when it would try to update the definitions at the same time as running a quick scan. Happened to me on 3 machines, some of which were fresh installs - had to install with the network cable disconnected to avoid the problem.

Since resolved, and didn't prevent installation.

 

I guess our mileage really varies with these things - Avast gave me my first blue screen in years, necessitating a re-install as post-blue screen everything was quite sluggish. Even after a system restore and uninstalling Avast, it felt as slow and unresponsive as a computer with multiple antiviruses installed. I wasn't the only one who experienced both the blue screen and the strange slowdown.

Not really sure of the point of this thread though.

 

Have only had one problem with Avast - sometimes web pages won't load completely. The loading bar will not complete, or it will keep waiting for a response from a site.

 

Ahh, okay. I've never run into that myself.

 

To be fair, and I'm not saying Avast wasn't a cause at all in that, but a lot of things can cause that kind of issue. Anything from website issues to having a lot of blocking apps, say script blockers, ad blockers, things like that.

 

The only true free AV with very good protection & no craps attached to it. The overall product is very good. The number of processes running, resourse usage, features, protection, automatic update, usability, GUI, etc is very good.

The other free AV's. Some has many processes, heavy, less features, updates doesn't works properly, GUI sucks, hard to use, etc.

Avast is simply the best overall free AV product.

Thanxx
Naren

 

Using Avast IS Build 1289 (no firewall -using Comodo Beta 5.8 )in an XP SP3 and W7 dual-boot drive in a system with another W7/XP SP3 dual-boot drive with Avira ver10 (APSS --no firewall --using OP Pro ver7). Agree here that the Avast suite has the components that you need. I hope the Behavioral Shield will improve as in comparison with Comodo's HIPS I never had one alert since I installed it. Avira's Proactive is the same...still needs improvement.

I just wish that Avast will improve in RAR scanning. Was shocked to know that in that drive with Avast IS I was already infected with a virus that MBAM detected. Well MBAM detected one then I scanned with Avira and found out that even the .\Thinstall\Cache\Stubs\ was in fact infected. All were uploaded to VT/jotti/Comodo and all said it's a virus. That's too bad. Last year I had 3 infections from a RAR file again that was missed by Avast and later confirmed via VT/jotti/Comodo/Avira/Eset. So now when MBAM detects something in the drives with Avast I countercheck with AviraVT/jotti/Comodo/Eset.

Avira detections excerpts (from a log file that I found in an image backup. I loaded a clean system image after the detection)

\..__.._Ultra_v5.0_.....Portable.rar
Archive type: RAR
--> BRS\brs.exe
[DETECTION] Contains recognition pattern of the WORM/Agent.142336.B worm

\Trial.exe
[DETECTION] Contains a recognition pattern of the (harmful) BDS/Poison.bhuv back-door program

\TrialMgr.exe'
C:\Users\....\Thinstall\Cache\Stubs\d5f2........4e\TrialMgr.exe
[DETECTION] Contains a recognition pattern of the (harmful) BDS/Poison.bfbo back-door program

Avast GUI is big though..maybe because of the contents. It can be resized but I seem to like the Avira/Comodo window size. When I was using the firewall component of Avast you'd have to make it full so you can see all the network connections(unlike Comodo/Outpost which you will see all in a medium window). Well that's just me there. But I still like Avast. I like Avira's detection better. Better an FP than a non-detection. At least I can check it out and know that it's an FP.


@The_Champ/Vladimyr,
- Very nice there. I did not know that. I have all checked so I can see if a shield isn't functioning or not.

 

Quantum updates were planned for v6 but were later dropped due to immense bandwidth needed to operate it. Cloud scanning technology is supposedly scheduled for v7.

@Dundertaker
Having something inside archive on disk doesn't equal to being infected at all. At every point, if you'd want to execute the file inside archive, it will have to be unpacked and then it will be scanned and detected (if signatures are available). As for the detections you mentioned, they look like false positives though i can't comment anything further unless i get samples that i can poke with a stick and then give a verdict.

 

Out of curiosity, what's your source of infected RARs? Perhaps sandboxie would help, particularly if you unrar first and scan the extracted files.

I do agree that while Avira is a better pure antivirus, Avast's strength is web and network protection, as well as low memory usage so great on old machines.

 

Without Avast, I don't get the same hang-ups.

 

Then you likely just have a system and/or configuration that doesn't get along with Avast. There are quite a few things mine doesn't seem to like. It happens.

 

The Status Bar settings do not turn off modules. They turn off the monitoring of the modules. You can prevent or get rid of the exclamation mark that way.

 

I experienced the same problem on different computers/operating systems/browsers. It seems to me that the problem occurs when loading pages with lots of ads. It is very irritating problem.

Except that, avast! is just excellent.

 

I don't understand. My reply is specifically about removing the exclamation point from the taskbar icon after having turned off the module.

 

I've never seen such problem in any browser. But then again i never see any ads either because i use AdBlock in all browsers.

 

He means that you can also disable monitoring for certain modules, so that when you do disable them then it doesn't warn about it. I found it a minor annoyance too, but I suppose if someone turns off the web shield indefinitely and forgets about it (rather than for a set period), then they'll see the exclamation mark.

 

avast! is designed very modular. You can either chose not to install specific shield at all (for example i don't need Mail, IM and P2P shields), so you can uncheck them during installation or change this later through Add Remove Programs panel. You can also disable specific module and disable warning in the settings, so you can have Mail Shield installed but disabled and not monitored.
This way you still have that shield installed, it's just disabled and avast! will not show any exclamation marks or warnings that that specific shield is disabled.

So, if you look at it, it can really satisfy any needs anyone can ever have about different shields.