avast REALLY Needs Update in Progress Indicator

[Chim]

Grrrrrrr!  After an avast reinstall, I might have wasted 2½ hours.
I couldn't tell whether avast was or wasn't downloading the Virus Definitions Updates.
There was no particular indication by the Hard Drive Activity LED that the Update might have been in progress.  Finally after 2½ hours I decided to log off to see IF I would see the dreaded Popup informing me that the Definitions Update had failed to complete.  Sure enough ... THERE was that dreaded Popup.  Grrrrrrr!  #$%@

In a case like this, will the Definitions Update revert to start back from scratch upon the next log in?  Or will the Update resume where it left off upon previously logging off?

So yeah ... Bring back the Update in Prgress Indicator.
It can't be THAT difficult.
The avast 4.x series had it for Pete's Sake.

And why was the "fresh & latest" copy of avast that I downloaded yesterday straight off of the avast Servers ... so out of date?  It is from 11-28-2011.  Yikes!

[DavidR]

It only had a progress indicator when an update was in the process of being downloaded. In your case here, even if avast 6 had this it wouldn't have been a help if it failed before any download was in progress.

The update as far as I'm aware won't resume from where it left of as it is an incremental update (so should be small). There would be no way to validate what had been downloaded and marry it up with a remainder.

For the update it checks what VPS version you have against what is available and downloads the incremental element, that has to have a verification sum assigned to it to ensure that the update sent is correct. I can't see how that could be done with separate parts.

[Chim]

Nnnnggg, I'm not sure where you were going in the 1st paragraph.
All I'm saying is ...
No matter what time of the day it is, if a Virus Definitions Update has started and is in progress, it'd be great to see a sign of some kind somewhere on the page.  This way if I sense a sluggishness in my Browsing / Navigation speed, I can know whether it's because a Virus Definitions Update is in progress.  Then I don't go logging off to try logging back on ... only to get the dreaded Failure to Complete the Definitions Download Popup.

Or when sometimes I see some mysterious heavy Hard Drive Activity going on when I'm not exactly doing anything, I can feel at ease if I know a Virus Definitions Update is in progress and that it is NOT some Malware making itself comfy in my Hard Drive.

[Chim]

For example, now that I've logged on again, I can only ASSUME that PROBABLY avast is downloading the Virus Definitions Updates ... based only on that the last time I did get the Failure to Complete the Download Popup ... so that meant that it HAD been downloading them the last time around.

But, I have no assurance.  All I can do is stay Online and hope that before bedtime the Definitions ARE downloaded.

[ady4um]

I sincerely don't understand.

When you attempt a manual on line update, the main GUI opens and shows you the progress.

When the update is in automatic and the status bar options are correctly configured in avast, you see a tray notification.

When set to "ask", you see a tray notification when there is a new update available, so you can apply it manually when you want to.

There is no need for more notifications. Those are all needed.

If you want a progress bar for automatic updates, there is no much sense for that because of the size of the updates (between 10KB and 400KB each). The update would need more resources for just a few downloaded KB.

If you think that the bandwidth for 400KB (or less) is "too much", then set it to "ask" or to "manual" and then you can decide when to use that bandwidth.

[Chim]

When the update is in automatic and the status bar options are correctly configured in avast, you see a tray notification.

What EXACTLY does this System Tray notification of which you speak look like?
Everything is selected in my Status Bar options area and that I am aware of, there is NO System Tray notification that a Virus Definitions Update is In Progress.

I'm NOT talking about a PROGRAM Update via the GUI where a Progress Bar definitely comes up.
Let me recap.

Saturday afternoon, I went to my niece's house to use her High Speed Internet to download the supposed latest avast version and whatever freshest set of Virus Definitions Updates it came with.  I then came over to my computer and uninstalled my avast.  I then performed some thorough cleaning with CCleaner, JetClean and Glary Utilities.  THEN I installed the latest, freshest avast.

However ... that latest, freshest avast, as per the GUI Info, was over a month old as far as the Virus Definitions went.  So, naturally I would want to update the Virus Definitions.  Since I always have avast Virus Definitons set to automatic, I left avast to do its thing and update the Virus Definitions.  Since it was over a MONTH worth of Virus Definitions, that was obviously going to be a LONG download via my Dial Up.

And again ... that I am aware of, there is NO indication anywhere informing me that YES, avast did indeed start the automatic update of its Virus Definitions.  And that they are still in progress.  After 2½ hours, I still had no idea whether the updating HAD started and whether it was still in progress or had finished.

Sooooo ... again, what EXACTLY does this Virus Definitions Update IN PROGRESS indicator look like?
I'm NOT talking about the ORANGE avast symbol in the System Tray.
The 4.x avast series used to have I believe a circular symbol with 2 Arrows ... a Red one and a Green one indicating that a Virus Definitions Update was in progress.  It would be down there in the System Tray until the update was finished.  That was done away with when the 5.x avast series came out.

[mokkaman]

I too have experienced a similar case. Avast would be updating in background, but i dont know it as its not displayed in UI. I go and click update virus def button, then it remains in "Updating PLease wait" screen and doesnt contact server(as its already dwnlding from server). So as a temporary measure, i disabled auto updates and update manually to prevent any problems.  Auto update displaying on the UI would be good though. Hope they add this feature

[DavidR]

It isn't a system tray notification as such, but a small toaster style pop-up.

When set to Ask, the pop-up is the same style, but says that an update is available, clicking on the pop-up would download it. Ignore the pop-up and it would go away and you would then do a manual update when you are ready.

[ady4um]

@Chim,

DavidR already posted 2 examples of avast tray notifications. You need to read closely what I wrote.

I didn't say avast will show you the progress, but the status. It depends on 2 (or 3 ) settings: update (auto/ask/manual), Pop ups (and in a few certain cases, also Status Bar).

If you perform a manual on line update, avast main GUI will show you the progress (avast main GUI -> maintenance -> update).

Now, let's say a month passed with no updates in your system. For the sake of this example, let's assume each day the definitions were updated twice, and each time the update was 400KB. Then

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30 days x 2 times a day x 400KB per update = 24000KB (in reality, the sum won't be that much, as many updates are much less than 400KB). Your concern would be valid if you would need to download around 24MB of updates, but that's not the case. Even in this hypothetical example, your update (after a month without updating your system) is going to be much (much, much) less. Avast doesn't need each and every "intermediate" update. It skips the unnecessary ones . It may be bigger than 400KB for that one time, but it is NOT going to be 24MB.

Once in a while, when the whole set of cumulative updates is "too big", the update might be a one time big update. This case is VERY infrequent (almost never).

So watching a progress bar for a regular update is unnecessary, as it takes a few seconds, even with a slow dial up connection.

If you still want to see it, open avast main GUI -> maintenance -> update and perform a manual update from there. You will see the progress bar. But for automatic updates, there is no need, and you should see the final tray notification only.

[Chim]

I see what you and David are saying regarding the GUI Status / Progress Bar indication and the Toaster style Popup, ady4um.  But, as I think I saw ... those work only when you go the Ask or Manual route for the Virus Definitions Updates.  Those indications, as far as I know, will NOT be available when you have your avast set to Automatic, right?

Ehhh, anyway, I decided to from now on, when I have to perform a HUGE Virus Definitions Update like after an avast reinstall, I'll just set my avast to MANUAL, like I finally did last night.  Or maybe the Ask setting as y'all are suggesting.  I'll try to stay away from the Automatic setting there at the beginning.  I'll change it back to Automatic once the HUGE Update is finished.

I'm contemplating a different option, which I'll bring up in a different Post.
It MIGHT be the best option IF it works like I THINK it might work.
Y'all can confirm it then.

I'll address in that Post whether last night's HUGE Update was really huge or not.

[DavidR]

Wrong, the first image I posted is what happens after the auto-update is downloaded and installed.

[ady4um]

Wrong, the first image I posted is what happens after the auto-update is downloaded and installed.

David, yes, but he is looking for PROGRESS bar DURING the download of the update, which is anyway being displayed inside the GUI, as already explained.

[Chim]

Wrong, the first image I posted is what happens after the auto-update is downloaded and installed.

In that case, those images have nothing to do with addressing my issue.
I'm certainly aware of those Toaster style Popups.  I see them 2 to 4 times a day.
And I've seen the dark Red ones as well.

The keywords in my issue are "In Progress" and having to do with "Automatic" Updates.

But, no sense beating a dead horse.  I was really hoping someone from avast would see this thread.
I'm sure it's really just wishful thinking though.  In reality, the chances of avast reincorporating the "Virus Definitions IN PROGRESS" Icon in the System Tray are slim and none.

[BTIsaac]

Oh for the love of...
Just press Ctrl+Alt+Del and click the Processes tab in the Task Manager. If you see an Avastsetup.exe or something like that on the list then Avast is updating.

Also I have no idea why you have to uninstall the old version of Avast AND remove all it's registry entries, when all you want to do is install the latest version. Installing the latest version of the program should just overwrite the old one.

Also, periodic database updates are attempted every 4 hours by default or whatever you specified. You can estimate wether an update should be underway or not by how much time went by since the last startup (i.e. if the computer has been started up exactly 4 hours ago there's a good chance an update is to be expected) - you can check how long the computer has been running by looking at the bootstat.dat file in your Windows folder: the last modified parameter is the exact moment you last logged on. Or you can look at the Maintenance tab in UI which always displays the time of the last update attempt. If it's around 4 hours an update can be expected. If it's much less (a few minutes) then you won't be expecting an update attempt for a long time.

But if that's still not enough for you, set updates to ask or manual.
Even with a slow connection, an update shouldn't take more than a minute. Avast will not implement a tray icon just because a few people are too lazy to take a look at the GUI. Tray icons are their own processes. As such they consume sysyem resources. A single user being able to tell when an update is in progress is not worth the trouble implementing a fancy yet completely pointless gimmick like that, regardless of how many new threads he makes on virtually the same subject.

Oh and one more thing. Using onomatopeia in your posts to express anger and dissatisfaction is the sign of immaturity. For your own sake, don't do it again.