Avast 8 Free AV – A step in the wrong direction?

No AV is perfect, but I've never had problems with Avast! (except maybe one or two little issues quickly resolved), I would hardly call it bug-riddled.

 

I've always wondered why does Avast! Free requires user to create an account and register the free version which expires after 365 days? That's just pointless... and in my experience, the only AV product that does this, which in turn makes Avast! 'not as free' as any other free AV. You are 'paying' with your personal information.

The other thing, as somebody already mentioned, they are always trying to push the pro or the IS version, be it when you are looking for the free installer, when you run the installer, when you open up the GUI, when you get a popup reminder, and the buttons for the free version always look smaller than the PRO ones or even color grey like if they were not enabled. Let's be honest, they aim for the people who don't read carefully, or the pople who get lured by the 'Get Better Protection' ads which is kind of deceptive, IMO.

 

Good Evening! Have had licenses for both Anti-Virus Pro and I.S. in the past. There's a lot to like with the product...it has excellent detection...light on resources...and is generally user friendly. Avast's Sandbox component is and has been problematic...both with Google and Firefox...and I ran into major problems when trying to uninstall...it was either the Sandbox...or Web Shield. Anyhow as mentioned it's a super product when it works! Consistency that's the key! Sincerely...Securon

 

I do not agree with some of your views about avast.
Because they offer a free version some people may not be aware a pay version is available and it makes good business sense to promote such an offer.They have given this good av for free and are perfectly entitled to advertise a paid version.

There are no advertisements in avast 8 free av at all.There are premium offer sections but they are not pushed upon anyone.
What people need to do is read carefully the installer and choose the free version.its perfectly clear and if not then maybe a visit to an opticians would be suitable advice.
Thank You.

 

I've never had a problem with Avast since ver 4.8! They do have buttons to upgrade to the paid version but there is nothing wrong with that.

Ice

 

I have used both free products, avira and avast! with no issues. I chose avast! because I got tired of the constant ads with free avira.

 

When i clicked on the thread i was expecting really serious issues. (Something like the software not working at all etc.)

Sensational title for such things.

 

Why ppl always make some flawed pointless accusations? All you have to do is enter a username, password and an e-mail. And in a return you get a monitoring account so you can check whats going on with all the devices registered under that account. And when its about to expire you just repeat the thing. It takes like 15 seconds to do it if you type slowly...

 

This turned out to be baseless thread. I was hoping to read something drastic as indicated from the title.

 

1. The bizarre upgrade v7 Pro did puzzle me at first, but I just uninstalled and reinstalled with a fresh copy of the installer. Problem solved.

2. The account creation doesn't seem like big deal to me. Though I do find having to register every year a small inconvenience.

3. The only thing that bothers me is that SiteCorrect (enabled by default) seems to cause a delay in IE when loading pages. Of course it can be disabled.

 

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Sensitive much?
I'm not even accusing anyone for anything. This is my experience and my take on their approach. Feel comfortable to have your own.

Anyway, a 'free' product that requires you to register any personal info is not 'free' after all. I don't need monitoring for my account and I should not need to renew something that states is free. I can think of a ton of true free software that only requires you to install it. That's it.

 

This article is not focused at all in my opinion.

If they are talking about issues then come on guys,with a 200 million user base there will be odd balls in any condition but if you take a look at the latest released beta,it is going slow and I think they will eventually learn from their mistakes,everyone of us do,and I think that people reporting stuff in the forum may have conflicts arised due to other software and stuff and strictly some issues may be really not a avast causality.Speaking about avira,I have it installed since past week on 2 machines including this one and it has crashed so many times and I am fed up and looking for another solution.I used avast on both of these machines and some other machines in workstation and on clients that have simple security setup's with issues and plus the new technologies are very good in my opinion and security wise its great application atleast in my and my client's regular real life usage where we dont browse to 1000 infected websites everyday

I think when people see a big name like "Avast" not coming up to the expectation,then they began to bash it,and rather this thread came out to be nothing as the topic heading indicates.Everyone has a unique setup of their security and their OS and they may feel the issues with 1 AV and be happy with another AV,just as now I am fed up with avira and I feel it is overwhelmed by some people who say "its the best",tired it 3 times since past year and its annoying for me,toolbar is disgusting and its more of an adware coming with a security software and security wise I find its good in my usage although frequent crashes and advertisements are annoying but I feel insecure without a web guard or some additional protection like sandboxing,HIPS or something

But Hey guys,even Kaspersky,Mcafee,avira have had worst issues than avast in the past and no one made so much noise about that over forums and stuff like these in the past,why? probably because people love to pick up on free products whereas paid applications have had worst days than free applications.

EDIT: Switched over to COMODO and dumped avira and I am Happy go Lucky Again

 

Free Avast's installer is so superbly granular, I installed only the File, Web, Network, Behavior and Script shields providing a light (0.025~ gigabyte in memory) and proven element in layered schema of four separate security apps fine tuned to run without conflict. For the mainstream user, I don't find any fault with a default install Avast Free (with Windows firewall) as an effective single-product endpoint solution. As is with the majority of cases, problems are largely those of the user's making. I do acknowledge at this point, your solution is The Perfect One.

You should wonder then about your experience and not Avast. Without even thinking, Bullguard is one of several that come to mind and they have no free version.

Sometimes but not "always." Discounting the "buy it instead because" blurbs during the ten minutes of download & install, all one has in the main GUI is an "upgrade" button and two "activate now" in the Home pane. Of course there is the hubris and audacity of the Recommend tab but after you click on it the first time and find out what it is, you never have to click on. It. Again.

 

Thats their policy. Take it or leave it. We've asked quite few times about it and they (still) seem to stand by it. I still don't agree entirely with it, but at the end of the day, it's really a small price to pay for something as good as avast!.

 

Well said.

 

And I totally agree with that. They do it that way, that's fine. I'm not complaining for Avast! as a product, I actually like it for the eye candy and the performance. Last version I used was v7 and I enjoyed using it. Like I said, the only thing I really don't like is the need for 'registration'.

All I'm saying is that their upsell strategy tends to aim at uncautious people who don't read before clicking Next, and before my eyes, that looks like taking advantage.

 

Well, yes and no. If i'm determined to use a free product and i have installed one because of that, then i'm not just going to enter my credit card details straight away the first time program asks for them. I'd only do that in an event that i'd specifically want to upgrade. So all the nags are just reminding me, but since i know that i want to use free version, i'm not just going to enter credit card details into it. It's really perfectly simple and logical.

I mean, if ppl just enter credit card details everywhere just because they are requested to do so because they clicked the wrong button, then there are bigger problems with users themselves than with the fact that we have to re-register avast! (or any other free AV) periodically...

 

I feel the software updater is a valid part of avast. it is a security feature after all. I hope other vendors introduce a similar option.
I have tried avast 8 and it seemed like a nice product. it installed fast and didn't slow down the machine.

 

Unfortunately a lot of users think it's stupid. Not sure why. I'm an advanced user and i like it, especially for apps that don't have auto update checker (like 7zip) for example. And besides, if you keep it updated, you won't even know it's there. If you forget to update an app, it will notify you.

 

i think the main aim of this topic and initial few replies was the buggy side of this and i frankly after trying many updated/fixed versions of v7 of avast, had decided to quit using it .

 

It was no more buggy than v7 before and no more buggy than v6 before etc etc. As for countless rants on random forums, with 180 million users, you'll get that one way or another. In most cases it wasn't even avast!'s fault but an already thrashed system or some other security app.

 

though app updater is a good idea for novice users it is really not necessary for advanced users.any advanced users must know that when it comes to security only things that need to be updated when browsing are browser(keep auto-update on),flash(again keep auto-update on) & java(don't install unless absolutely necessary).for windows/office updates system updates is already there.you really don't need to know updates about softwares like 7-zip unless you feel like you are missing something.at least in my opinion i don't update a software unless i feel like i am missing something or i am just bored & download updated version just for the sake of it.

 

Well thats where you're wrong. There were exploits that caused execution from archives and other anomalies

 

A software updater is a necessary security component IMHO. I've been using Secunia for that purpose for a long time. There's nothing wrong with making an updater a suite component since many people may not be aware of standalone products such as Secunia.