Avast 2014 Released

Can you elaborate on this? I didn't try the beta out and I'm curious as to what the problem was (and still is)? TIA

 

Don't bother sandboxing Chrome: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=350960

 

I mean from my yesterday's test it still seems to be the same old deepscreen from the beta and RC because its still ineffective completely.They obviously still have technical issues with it and I just realized that since I read Vlk's reply that I forgot about:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=2288759#post2288759

"Which may mean that you may see A2014 go live with or without a quality DeepScreen, really depending on how everything goes."

Just also the above link is a shoutout/reply to cruelsister.

 

Is the Do Not Track/Privacy feature enabled by default? If not where do I access it from?

 

I'm glad to see that (so far) Software Update works in Free just like it used to....have not really had a chance to play with Auto Sandbox/Deepscreen yet to see how that works (or doesn't work).

So far I like what I see. UI is laid out a little better and more straightforward than I think it used to be.

 

Thanks J_L for pointing out the link. . I have not read and follow that thread.

 

Just wanted to give my initial impressions on Avast Free 2014 final (results in greater detail on Malwaretips).

1). For malware samples that ranged from D+2 to D+5, Avast detections were very good but not great. That being said, the on-demand scan/resolution time is nothing short of incredible. Far and away the best I've seen.

2). Avast seems to be rather tardy in analyzing malware samples submitted to them (a far cry from Emsisoft, whose response seems in most cases immediate).

3). DeepScreen- This really should be viewed as one would an additional Cloud detector. In my tests it has picked up about half of the samples that were not detected outright on scan; the other half were allowed to proceed. To the best of my knowledge flipping a coin on unknowns will provide similar protection.

4). There is a "Hardening Option" that is disabled by default. Those files not recognized as being trusted by Avast will be suppressed from running. The downside is that Avast doesn't recognize much (ie malware will be prevented from running, but so will legitimate applications like Inno Compiler). But one is provided with an option to run the unknown anyway, which brings us back again to a coin flip.

All in all, for those who never run into malware, Avast would be an excellent choice (and for free, it is less expensive than a coin).

 

Deepscreen detected malware in your test?
But on malwaretips you mentioned 188/222 - Ondemand, further 16 on run(I guess these were Evo-Gen & normal detection & not Deepscreen, And Deepscreen gave thumbs up to all the malware analyzed, so where is Deepscreen detection?

In my test with final version on real system XP SP3 32 Bits, Deepscreen analyzed 33 malware & didn't detected a single threat. I tested by pasting more than 100 malware links in the browser & running. Many were blocked/detected by Avast protection but not a single detection by Deepscreen. Apart from Evo-Gen, 1 file was detected as FileRepMetaGen. During test, Connection was established & stream updates received under settings - updates. I enabled PUP for test. After test, quite a few desktop shortcuts, entries in msconfig - startup, 8 active processes in memory of which 6 were classified as malware by KillSwitch, HitmanPro & MBAM too detected processes, entries in msconfig, desktop shortcuts & threats in other places. 2 windows appeared after restart & I clicked Run but nothing happened/appeared. After test I restarted the system, ran Ccleaner & then did all the scans.

 

After accepting Avast in the Action Center it wouldn't change until I re-booted. Now all is well.

 

I just noticed that on my Avast 8 it says a program update is available and lists the new version as 9.0.1500 but the forum lists the version as 9.0.2006.

 

Hi All,
Installation went great as usual, and I have looked it over best I can. The only thing I noticed is that although I found the virus chest, I can't find any reference to where you can choose to have a virus detection go immediately to the virus chest or choose to be Asked what you want to do first. I want to be asked whether I want a detection to go to the virus chest or not, because failing to choose that in the last version caused me some grief for a day or two. Thanks in advance for any direction to that option.

 

You can do this:

1). Open GUI, go into Settings
2). Click Active Protection
3). click the settings icon to the right of File System Shield
4). click Actions, and make changes there.

 

Thanks cruelsister and naren! But as usual I still have avast installed on most clients machines who mess with malware and never got a call back.Its not just me,Mrizos (remove-malware.com owner) has similar experience.

Its interesting to see different observations,now lets wait for dyna-gen to come alive and that will change things!

Also after cruel sis test yesterday,I downloaded the same pack of 222 and avast just missed 1 from today morning so indicating the IQCommunity sensors are doing well to get new malware to lab which is great to see.

@ Cruel Sis,so it did pick up half of samples?? I am not sure about that...would you please mention deepscreen detections in your written tests as it would fruitful to know if there is anything going on with it or not.

 

I do tests for myself & sometimes shares results. In this case I did the test only for Deepscreen effectiveness that failed totally so I think Deepscreen is not working with full force yet. In theory things seems good, lets see how Deepscreen will be when its working in full force.

And as for infection, I have tried MSE, Avast, Trend Micro, Mcafee, UnThreat, etc.... & currently CIS & never had any infection.

In my opinion any good AV provides very good protection for majority in real world scenario, tests are different things. Avast is very good AV with zeroday protection module too that we dont find in many free AVs & provides strong protection for majority in real world scenario. CIS & Avast are 2 of my favs.

 

+1

 

Hi Cruelsister, Got it! I didn't delve deep enough on my initial exploration. Thanks!

 

Anyone using this new release with XP? Any problems or running smoothly?

 

proof of this?? i hope they dont go the way of the rest of these ridiculous gui's today the one they have is awesome simple and clean just easy to use.

okay back on topic.

i dont hate the new gui but im not a huge fan either. i think its okay. not nearly as bad as many are but i do prefer the older v6 one myself.

 

I set mine for aggressive. Not sure if that's the best option but I'll find out.

It did block Zemana AntiLogger which I had to add to the exclusions list.

 

Is a PM ok?

 

Well I went to download the free version from the avast site and I'm redirected to cnet download.com. I thought avast had stopped sending people to that site for downloads, maybe I'm wrong though. Anyway, does avast from download.com include the adware/spyware crap that comes from that site?

 

sure thing

 

Don't know, but if you are concerned about it download from filehippo.
http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/

 

Me too

 

Running it on XP Laptop

Functioning appears fine, System response Great for that old system, Also Running Avast 2014 on my Windows 8 soon to be 8.1 Quad Core, running perfectly there also

Also on Vista and HTPC WIndows 7 PC, Also running well.