Avira incompatible with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

That's really a sloppy job on AVIRA's end. Win8 has been RTM for ages and if they couldn't make it compatible till now, they well deserve the BSOD's.

 

hate to say i kind of agree im really a bit disappointed

 

I agree, I don't think there is many vendors that hasn't made their products compatible yet, at least to the extent that they will work without serious problems.

 

Wow! That's really not cool. I was expecting Avira to be compatible long ago.

 

Maybe that is a new interpretation of product naming. I always thought if a product is named "2013" in 2012 already this shall be regarded as "we are ahead of the times". Now I know in reality it means that the product shall be finished within the year stated in its name.

"Avira constantly adapts to the changing security requirements of its users. For example, Avira created one of the world’s first ever products with dialer detection..." (from the homepage/about).

Somehow I miss the changed requirements caused by TLS/SSL for Email, 64Bit (ProActiv), Win 8...

 

The year naming a head of time is just marketing hype IMO
Personally I like AVAST 7.0 or ESET 6.0 better than 2013 or 2014 etc etc.....
And I thank the vendors that keep the version numbers

But I am sure Avira will fix the incompatibility with and update.
Meaning the 2013 non-compatible version will become compatible ASAP.

 

Windows 8 probably updated recently and coming out right after probably broke what avira thought was working.

 

"Soon" has been claimed for 64 ProActiv also (more than a year ago). ASAP reads "Q1/2013" on the offical statement for Win 8. For 64Bit ProActiv there isn't even a statement any more after 2 years of waiting - or did I miss something?

6 month ago the COO of Avira briefed PC Magazine, that the next version is free not only for private, but for everyone. The most important feature was said to be remote management. Beta was announced for July.....
(http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/none/296982-avira-s-planned-online-service-will-ensure-you-get-help)

Let's check in Q1/13 which promises have been met...

 

Well I was talking about serious incompatibility issues resulting in errors and blue screens etc... But hopefully they'll fix the "other" stuff that you mention as well....sooner or later.

 

It's Avira's loss really. If their not compatible then people moving to Win 8 will go with a competitor that is. Nothing like seeing sales go to the guy down the street instead of you to get things moving if your a vendor. Avira products will be compatible with Windows 8 in the first quarter of 2013 supposedly.

 

I'm afraid that I don't understand why they are delaying things now

Upgraded to Win8 my both machines, the lappie is happily running GData AV but I'm forced to use the "average" stable built-in WinDefender on the other in the meantime...

I'll phone you, Avira

 

I don't get it. Windows 8 doesn't seem to have any changes in driver structure. It shouldn't take long to get a basic product working from a Windows 7 version. What's the hold up? Only the GUI may need major changes I think.

 

Avira's shut down threads critical of their handling of this issue on their forum.

 

I have not been over to the avira forums in awhile but I was really surprised that someone mentioned that the Ask toolbar was being presented in the paid Avira Internet Security 2013. Then I found this. Pretty sad.

Article

 

Neither toolbars being in paid products nor Windows 8 compatibility will bode well for Avira I bet. Though the company itself seems to have taken a nosedive in the last couple of years. There was time I had that little umbrella down there in the taskbar and loved the program.

 

Has anyone seen the BSOD error code. I wonder what they were doing to cause such an easily reproducible crash. Were they trying to bypass patchguard by any chance

 

but the current version(s) of AVAST is also not compatible with Windows 8 and has been known to cause blue screen crashes as mentioned in the following avast forum threads:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=108731.0
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=107811.15
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=108270.0

therefore I can't recommend using avast under win8 right now.
sometime in early 2013, there will be Windows 8 compatible versions of Avast and Avira but it will take some time for them to be produced.

 

I am very disappointed in this news - I installed the final version of Windows 8 many weeks ago, via an MSDN Technet license. I do not understand why Avira have not released a compatible version by now, especially with the final version on Windows 8 being widely available.

I renewed Avira back in April for another 2 years, and now I am faced with many months of not being able to use the product.

Surely Windows 8 can't be that difficult to work with...? I understand that things are probably different under the hood compared with Windows 7, but the fact that Avira can't deliver something until next year has lowered my confidence in them significantly.

 

AFAIK TDI filters and LSP drivers are no longer allowed in Windows 8 (that is, if you want certification for Windows 8 compatibility, not sure if it's actually blocked); so if a program was dependent on these then they'd need to do some recoding. Not sure if Avira does; if yes then that's probably what's causing the hold-up.

EDIT: It appears several Avira components use LSPs (e.g. WebGuard, MailGuard). I guess they'll build equivalents on WFP (Windows Filtering Platform). TDI and LSP was already marked for deprecation since Windows 7.

 

There is a difefrence between a conditional BSOD and unconditional one. Conditional means it only happens under specific rare conditions. AVIRA will BSOD every single time without exceptions as far as i can work it out here.

 

Perhaps you could contact Avira support and ask them because of their current lack of support, if they would consider extending your subscription commensurate with the amount of time it takes for them to offer a Win 8 compatible program. If it takes them another 3 months, then request an extension for that period. Best way to pursue this in my opinion is to ask Avira when they plan to fully support Win 8, and ask them to add that length of time to your subscription.

At the very least, it does not hurt to ask and explain the logical reason for your request.

I hope they will be fair, but re-read their license agreement, it may not allow this kind of request, but for customer satisfaction, I think it is a fair request if handled properly.

Jim

 

I just wanted to give an update on this. Most programs on the market that are Windows 8 compatible are using the Windows 7 hooks that are built in. It was only about a month ago that Microsoft actually released the Windows 8 framework and hooks for developers. Avira didn't want to use the Windows 7 hooks as these are not compatible with any device using ARM (i386 hooks don't work on these) and also as Microsoft has said that they will eventually remove these from Windows 8. No one knows when, but it is up to them. I don't foresee it happening anytime soon, but you never know. Avira support has said that the BSOD issues should be fixed in a matter of weeks, possibly even shorter.

 

The questions been asked on Avira's forum. They say they never said is was going to be compatible this year (2012) and never posted anything on their web site to lead anyone to believe it would be. I'm paraphrasing the remarks but thats the jist of the message. Then the thread was shut down. http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=149794

 

LSPs and TDIs are still a no go in Windows 8, these were marked for deprecation since Vista. As for the Windows 7 hooks; I think they are trying to get certification (so they can put the logo "works with Windows 8"), since this probably requires the software work on ALL versions of Windows 8.

I still think they should have done a band-aid for the moment and delivered a compatibility fix using the existing hooks for Windows 8 32/64-bit versions; as it goes this is very bad for customers and not good for Avira in the long run.