Avast!

Thats great and all, but this isnt about the ad. This is about the 2 added features that Pro has over the free. Is it worth it for me to upgrade to get those features or are they not needed due to Sandboxie? By paying and disabling the ad thats just a bonus, but not a deal maker.

 

I seriously don't see what kind of miraculous answer you expect here given the amount of info you provided. Yeah, if you browse warez & pr0n sites 24/7 then it will catch 0.00001249678% more infections. Happy now?

 

Troll is a troll I suppose.

What other info could you possibly need?

 

Like, what are you using that computer for, are you browsing as admin or not, what kind of sites you browse, which browser you use and how's it configured etc. etc. etc. But since your main concern seems to be the "huge green uber annoying" thing then I conclude yeah - absolutely you need the script shield and go buy it.

 

I use my laptop for gaming, school work, and browsing the net. While on the net I check email, browse PC Magazine sites, Wilders, Car Audio sites, some gaming sites like GameFAQs, and the occasional torrent site for music.

Browser is FF with ABP and its sandboxed with Sandboxie.

 

how many times do you sit in front of your computer and look at AVAST or any other antivirus program? I open it after it does a scan but that is about it. It sits there and does it's job and I really do not think this "ad" is an annoyance, in fact I did not even realize what you all were talking about until I opened it and looked.

robin

 

Although one can never say that LinkScanner and avast! script-shield are exactly equivalent, but I think its a close enough call. Moreover you run FF sandboxed, so I don't think you really need to go for avast! Pro. It really depends on your comfort level with managing multiple solutions. avast! Pro just makes it easy by incorporating this stuff.

 

I have Sandboxie already configured and I wont change it. Ive got just enough compatibility but I have 99% of the main security features enabled. And with a little hint earlier I managed to get rid of the ad anyways.

 

You basically have the same setup as me. I use FF and IE both Sandboxed. I surf on the dark side/light side and have never been infected with this combo. Avast's web shield has protected me on a few web sites. When I shutdown the browser everything gets deleted. I also have the Drop rights checked.

Ice

 

I have paid Sandboxie so IE and FF are forced and drop rights are also forced. The only way to run IE or FF outside of the sandbox is to turn Sandboxie off.

 

I've used avast! 5 Free since an early beta version alongside Sandboxie before eventually upgrading to avast! 5 Pro. I'm still using Sandboxie and have not installed the avast! sandbox. I also don't install/use the web or mail shields. I've been using Pro for a couple months now and haven't hit an infected script yet. I'll take a glance at the script scanner every now and again and it does indeed scan quite a few scripts while surfing.

I upgraded to help support the developers of an AV that I like. I'm not sure my observations will help your decision, but here they are anyway.

 

Been running this AV on some of my PCs and I am happy for the quick update when you first boot up and the low system resource usage.

 

Thanks for bringing my attention to the AD. I had the Avast! summary page open a few times when I set Avast! up when V5 was first released, and did a few scans, but only glanced at the AD. I kind of like seeing it there to remind me of what's available and how easy it would be to upgrade should I decide to do so.

 

With regards to the Script shield in the Pro version,it seems to me that the Web shield's script monitoring offers most of the required functionality anyway so it's hardly a 'must have'.As for the sandbox,SBIE will fill that gap.

 

Look in this directory. If I can remember rightly the free version shows banner files in the flash folder. delete them to remove the purchase/upgrade banner

 

Oops I forgot to show the directory here it is anyway
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\flash

 

Well, that folder appears to have stuff used for the statistics gimming (as well). And anyway, while I like Avast, definitely not preciousssssssss enough to have me staring at the status GUI.

 

Well, it's useful though, so you can sometimes diagnose problems or just satisfy your curiosity.

 

Very true, but thats human nature, give em a finger and they want your shoulder.

 

Well, what I meant is that deleting the stuff b/c of the ad is not worth it... probably not clear enough. The statisticks are kinda useful for some people at least.

 

If you really want to delete the file, make a copy of the file first

 

Or you can do what has been suggested in this thread and block outbound connections with the AvastUI. A tutorial can be found here that I tossed together real quick.

http://pc-babble.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-block-ad-in-avast-anti-virus-v5.html