avast! 7.0 released!

Those reports are uncorroborated, just like the reports that Chrome was installed without the option to Opt-out being displayed. I remain open to the possibility that these things can happen, but I have not been able to duplicate them and no one who claims to have had these experiences has duplicated them either. Those folks are perhaps in the best position to prove the problems are real, but I don't see any willingness to do the work and document it. Part of looking at this objectively is considering the possibility that the reports are wrong. I realize that people who are upset have trouble with that option.

 

Okay. Thanks for stating your stance.

 

Stance?..seems like a reasonable and logical assesment to me.Perhaps you would care to duplicate and document your findings with replication report/screenshots etc? .Ive never had problems installing so cant really report anything amiss. It would be nice as suggested for those with problems to duplicate/document the issues to get to the bottom of the problem.

 

I have not looked through the entire thread but have a question- in x64 is the sandbox and or behavior blocker disabled? Is anything disabled in x64? thanks

 

I have tried Avast free on a x64 bit machine and I can tell you that all features worked without a glitch. There was nothing disabled by default.

Thanks.

 

Only with Windows XP 64bit. On WinVista 64bit and Win7 64bit, everything works with full capability.

 

ok thanks for the info guys - RejZoR just out of curiosity what is different/disabled in XP x64?

 

Behavior Shield and Sandbox (and Auto Sandbox) DON'T work under Windows XP 64bit. Everything else works. But WinXP is not exactly widely used so it's not a big issue really. Other vendors have the same limitation because WinXP 64bit just doesn't allow such features.

 

Really? I thought it was still massively used. I actually think Microsoft extended Windows XP SP3 (if I'm not mistaken) support period.

 

Windows XP 64 bit

Rare in my experience...

 

OH!!! I missed that one bit!!

 

Yeah, i forgot to add 64bit to the last sentence. Still, even WinXP (the 32bit) usage dropped significantly since the introduction of Win7.

 

I may be wrong but I think XP still has a bigger market share. But, it will be dropping quickly soon as businesses are probably deploying Windows 7 in larger numbers.

http://netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=11&qpcustomb=0

 

64bit version of WinXP is in very small minority. 32bit version still has a big share but is already lower than the one of Win7 in general.

 

I have switched back to Avast! from Panda for no particular reason. I still like it, but I don't like how the AutoSandbox is set to automatically isolate instead of ask. I have only ever gotten false-positives from it. Today was a new browser plugin for Battlefield 3. If I had not set the AutoSandbox to ask, it would have isolated the plugin and my game wouldn't have worked.

 

No offence but I assume you're not a newbie and you play with your AV settings,and the Avast's sandbox has to be set to ask (as well as the behavior blocker) in the first moment after you install the software.All the unknown processes for Avast are sandboxed,that's the very purpose of it and that was the case of your browser plugin.So in my opinion,nothing to blame here.

 

Your post has confused me a bit. I changed the setting from Auto to Ask right after I installed Avast! I'm just saying I think that it's bad it automatically sandboxes unknown processes, because if was an average user that left everything at default settings, Avast! would have sandboxed a legitimate process and I wouldn't have been able to play Battlefield.

My main point is I think it's bad for Avast! to automatically sandbox processes when many (at least from my experience), are legitimate.

 

Perhaps this behavior is not yet fully implemented, but I thought the idea was that if the item is new it would be sandboxed for a short period in order to take a brief peak at its behavior and following that the user would be prompted. IOW, I got the impression (from avast forum posts, I'm not running 7) that the user wouldn't (shouldn't) get stuck in a "can't properly run it loop".

Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but its sounds to me like the "check file reputation, if a new file trigger the autosandbox" behavior is partly designed to protect you against an item avast doesn't have adequate information about and is partly designed to make your machine perform some analysis of it and send the results back to avast. IOW, I think avast *wants* the "early exposed" to do the sandbox thing even when the file is in no way suspicious.

 

Well,from this point of view....i think you are right.And sorry if my previous post confused or offended you,was not my intention.

 

Brandonn,

Avast 6's sandbox employed a toggle where you got to choose if you wanted it to go into the sandbox. They changed that in Avast 7 Free, not sure if Avast 7 paid does it the old or the new way. IMO, it is a security feature that is nice, but only nice when it works. I prefer the older method.

 

I'm amazed by *some posters * in this thread
especially in relation to the registration process ...
avast! 4 which is 9+ years old needed for free registration email and name

i can't understood why nobody was worried by some logical and technical flaws which first v7 release had but was 'discussing' to death such useless point ...


yes, even second public v7 release has issues, mainly related to the autosandbox and behavior system but it's way better than v5 and v6 issues

let's hope third public release gets rid of these remaining irks

trust me ... i seen plenty of BSODs

 

@Dwareden

Some discussion have a high Monty Python level, some times funny, often surreal. It is like mixing up the right of freedom of choice with the right of usage of free products (free for home use, but still a lisence).

Regards Kees

 

That's the main reason why I don't recommend Avast any more Is it possible to install Avast without this AutoSandbox junk?

 

Don't overgeneralize things. It sounds like every app gets sandboxed which clearly isn't true. Also, when you get selection, large majority of users would ignore the isolation or blocking which isn't good either. Trust me, i've sen it too often...

 

Junk? Proactive detection. Needs improvements? For sure. Junk? Of course not...
Anyway, you can disable autosandbox completely into File Shield advanced settings.