kaspersky antivirus 6.0 beta released & a new KIS released

Hi mele,

Seems like the memory optimization features are not working in this build or they have been removed for this build?

I'll post on the forum.

BTW, i have setup my system to use only ONE avp.exe.

I use WinXP and did this:
Set the AVP service to startup type manual
Edit the Startup entry to start with the command line avp.exe /gui /bl

 

I don't know Mele, but i use Kav2006 and none of the issue's i had with .183 are so far seen in .195.

It does use around 25-30mb, but this is not a problem for me and it is in fact very fast, faster than 5.0.

 

I can confirm Don's observations on KAV 2006. Overall, it is the best pre-beta build I have tried so far.

The only initial problem I had was in trying to carry out a FULL on-demand scan. Everything froze and there was very high CPU usage. Eventually managed to reboot where an error Window from DEP came up stating that it wanted to close KAV! Reverted DEP back to default and all was well.

Memory usage is higher than earlier builds at around 26MB VM but no apparent slowdowns and it appears relatively "lightweight". Further, the startup scan seems to be a lot faster now even though the number of files scanned are the same as with KAV 5. Just waiting now for the Web Scanner bug to be fixed.

Bodes well for the future if this is still only a pre-beta version.

 

The memory is higher because KAV doesnt seem to be freeing the memory at intervals like the previous builds. As i posted on the KAV Forums (I have a different nick there: Afrodude)

 

I decided to take a look at KIS 2006 beta on my spare partition. I pulled everything except BOClean off and installed the KIS 6.0.13.195 build. This looks to become a very nice package. As Don notes, clearly faster than the 5.0 variant. I haven't put it through a detailed day of work, which I shall, but this version may be at a level where even I would view the impact on system responsiveness as inconsequential. In any event, for a user looking for a single source suite-style solution, it's looking good.

No beta issues thus far. Still have to verify that it coexists with the remainder of my system.

Blue

 

Just trying KAV Beta on Windows x64 and all seems fine except Windows Security Centre doesn't seem to know that KAV is an AV product and tells me I have no AV installed. Anyone else getting the same?

 

I installed KAV2006 on a fresh install on XPProsp2 and WSC recognized it without any problems.

 

I'm also getting KAV crashing at the end of an on demmand scan. Don't think it's ready yet. Oh well, back to NOD32, Unfortunately!

 

Memory usage is now at 41,000K!

ProActive Defense just blocked all items in my downloaded programs file as threats. I thought I checked the box to allow all but I guess I checked deny all. I can't read the tiny font. The only reason I didn't buy 4.5 was the tiny font in the GUI. This is even worse. So tiny the font that I simply have to guess at what it says. I won't be using KAV 2006 if Kaspersky persists in not wanting anyone who doesn't have perfect vision to use their product. I just had to turn off ProActive Defense. It alerted on a Proxo filter from Kye-U that I just downloaded and said it was a threat. Then it started looking at every file in my downloaded programs folder and declared all threats. I tried to stop it and that crashed explorer. I got everything running again and opened the downloaded programs folder again and ProActive Defense went nuts again. The earlier version did not do that. It wouldn't let me right click on a newly downloaded file and have KAV scan it. It stopped me before I could do that.

I guess I should post this in the beta forum. I can't see how to clear ProActive Defense or how to get that box back that I should not have checked so I can uncheck it. I can't install any programs from the downloaded programs folder now unless I turn off ProActive Defense first. Otherwise, invalid handle is returned when I try to install a program from that folder.

 

I wouldnt call the font used by KAV exactly "small". It seems standard practice to use 10pt in most software applications.

Whats the size of your monitor? Screen resolution? DPI?

 

This build is definitely NOT releasing memory or optimizing at all. My computer is very sluggish now. I had no slow down with 4.5 like many users did. Of course, I can't really compare my experience with 4.5 to my current experience with this build of KIS 2006 because I installed 4.5 on my host computer that has 1024RAM at 3.0Ghz. I have KIS 2006 installed on a guest virtual PC on the host box. The virtual PC only has 256 RAM allocated to it. So, I am really feeling the RAM usage from this build.

For me, the earlier build was better. The only thing I find improved in this build is that I can now download all messages in Outlook Express instead of just one message, close OE, open OE, download one more, close OE, etc. However, I can't use the email scanner at all because with this build all messages are downloaded to the Main Identity instead of to the correct identity. So, OE is more messed up with this build than the earlier one.

I have a lot more problems with this build than the build before this one. That is sort of strange since most are reporting the opposite.

 

I don't think that is 10pt. It looks like 6 or 8 at most on my monitor. But I use 14 or larger. I have a 19" flat panel LCD digital monitor. I use a 120dpi for Windows and 96 dpi for Firefox. I detest tiny screens. Why scrunch up the GUI in a tiny screen in middle of my nice, large monitor? Why is maximize grayed out? Why did I bother to spend a lot of money to get a large monitor if applications insist on using such a tiny portion of the screen? I find that icons are usually way too large and fonts are way too small. I don't need or like large icons. I can tell what an icon is for even when really tiny but I can't read small print especially on this monitor at 1280x1024.

I'm older and I know that a huge number of people over 40 have, or will soon have, the same problem I do and with baby boomers rapidly reaching the age where they will start to have this problem in large numbers, this needs to be addressed by application writers. I use Fx mainly because I can use an extension called Text Zoom that sets the default text size for all text on the page at what ever size you want it. IE can't do that. Opera can but it costs $40.

I don't like the new Bit Defender free that was just released because its GUI has a much smaller font size that 7.2 did. I can't read it either without straining and putting my nose right up to the monitor. The overall size of the GUI for version 8 is smaller than for version 7.2. I've been using it (7.2) for about nine months on my host box but the version 8 is very hard for me to use. Application writers seem to be going backwards and that makes no sense with the large number of persons entering the age group where they will begin to need larger fonts. I suppose if you get special glasses just for the computer, that might work but I was just told that doesn't really help. My opthamologist told me to just enlarge the font. But I can't do that on application GUIs although I can for a browser (at least Fx and Opera) so it is frustrating. Plus, many applications persist (like CounterSpy beta) in using a windows font that is not True or Open type. That means the fuzzies for anyone using an LCD monitor as Clear Type for XP on LCD monitors can be applied only to True or Open fonts.

 

I have to agree on the best pre beta, I have had no issues posted in this thread and have even done a full system scan while doing other light task with no side effects.
But I have only had it installed for about 8 hours.

 

I tried that. It does start just one instance of AVP but now I have no GUI, no icon in the systray but Task Monitor shows AVP (system) running.

 

Some initial impressions on KIS 2006 beta after a few hours of stress testing:

• Clearly pre-beta material. Casual users should wait at least for the formal public beta before downloading.
• Overall seems like a nice package. Not sure I'd convert from my current set-up, but for a suite it's well done.
• The completeness of the package is both its strength and weakness. It incorporates most of the tools that many of the more equipped of us use here, that's the strength, but a casual user will need a lot of guidance during the initial set-up and learning phase with this product.
• The process guard module of the proactive defense component is rather noisy. Not more so than competing standalone products (e.g. ProcessGuard), but equal, and I see this as an issue for the masses. For example, a simple update of Firefox yieled a flood of dialog boxes as each updated dll was recognized as such. Hopefully KL will arrive at a less sensitive/noisy default state and the ability to do global operations on the main control categories would help.
• Slowdowns are apparent on a webpage with a high level of active content - for example the initial comcast.net HOME page with my comcast account.
• The anti-hacker firewall module needs work. Tweaking settings on the firewall resulted in a pair of BSOD's. Not sure what happened, nothing was munged in the process. In a broad stroke, this module really doesn't seem to function well. I've disabled this module since it was maddening.
• I ran into a couple of instances of system stalls. No idea whether it was an internal issue or compatibility issue. Only other security app on the partition is BOClean, and it seems to get along fine with that.
• Navigation of the entire GUI is very easy and fast. Tweaking settings is easy and fairly easy to follow.

I think the AV component looks excellent even now. How it all comes together needs work. Compatibility with other security applications may be an issue based on what I've experienced. However, at this stage of development, it is looking to be a clear improvement over KAV 5.0

Blue

 

Just to provide a bit of a quantitative comparison on my machine, KAV/KIS 2006 is running almost twice as fast on demand scans on my machine as KAV WS 5.0 did during last years beta. This was with iStreams/iChecker disabled. The released product ran with roughly the same speed.

In terms of comparison with NOD32, KAV 5.0's demand scan speed was roughly 40% that of NOD32's last year (with the version of NOD32 out at that time). That value is now approximately 70% with KAV/KIS 2006 beta. Note, this is with the current version of NOD32.

Just trying to put some rough numbers around the general impression that KAV/KIS 2006 is running faster than the 5.0 variant. NOD32 still leads, but the gap has closed by a substantial amount for this type of task.

Blue

 

I presume that the difference between the two is the greater unpacking ability of KAV?

But let's hope this initial greater scanning speed of KAV 2006, compared to previous versions, holds up for the gold release

 

I'm sure there will be some optimizations of the engine yet before the "gold release".

Its only natural in a developement stage to work on the features first, then bug fixes and optimizations.

 

FYI, for anyone concerned about the memory usage and such, from grnic, the KAV 2006 Project Manager:

 

Again a new version of KAV/KIS is out, developer's build KAV/KIS v.6.0.14.200.
Link here,

ftp://kav2006:Fynb02dbhec60@data.kaspersky.ru/6.0.14.200 temp for hardcode testers/

Best regards,
Firefighter!

 

Carefull with this one. Grnic seemed reluctant to release it as they were working with stability issues. See this thread for details: http://forum.kaspersky.com/index.php?showtopic=4440

 

Are you saying that this beta version is worse than the former one, why that is published then?

Best regards,
Firefighter!

 

It was only "released" to satisfy those betatesters who is ready for a new build/challenge and know the risk involved. Don't download this one unless you are prepared for anything, a build will be released next week.

 

If you read the thread, they are working on reducing the memory footprint and with that comes new issues. They originally weren't going to release it, but as Don said they put it out there, with a warning, for the diehards, for something to chew on, over the weekend.

 

From what I have saw, the new version of KAV will be great...