Author Topic: Can I temporarily disable Avast?  (Read 20987 times)

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shu-hi

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Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« on: October 21, 2008, 01:40:08 AM »
When I download Windows Updates, it would be nice to temporarily disable my Avast software. Anyway to do this  ???

Online DavidR

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2008, 02:38:05 AM »
Well you shouldn't have to disable avast for windows updates, I don't.

Why do you feel this is necessary ?

You can pause the standard shield or right click the avast 'a' icon, select Stop on-access protection, thought I wouldn't recommend doing either.
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Offline alanrf

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2008, 05:18:05 AM »
I must agree with David ... I have never disabled avast for the download and installation of Windows updates in the 4 years that I (and those I support) have used avast.  Leaving avast running has never been a problem for any of us and - for reputable updates - why would it be?

Online DavidR

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2008, 03:06:46 PM »
My major concern is if you drop your defences whilst a windows update is going on, you are exposed whilst on-line and being unprotected on the internet is high risk.
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xkyborg

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2010, 08:53:40 PM »
My major concern is if you drop your defences whilst a windows update is going on, you are exposed whilst on-line and being unprotected on the internet is high risk.

Why you say that? When you install/reinstall fresh Windows you also have no antivirus installed while you are online until you download and install Antivirus software.

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2010, 09:00:37 PM »
Why you say that? When you install/reinstall fresh Windows you also have no antivirus installed while you are online until you download and install Antivirus software.
Some people are paranoid enough to not boot the computer with Internet until they install an antivirus.
Then update the antivirus and go for MS updates...
I've done this already :)
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xkyborg

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2010, 10:11:51 AM »
My major concern is, if Windows Updates modifies core/kernel files or other important files, registry entries, Antivirus software can interfere with successful installation. How to be 100% sure, that installation was successful (somewhere I read, that even if software says that installation was successful, but in reality it is not)?

silviucc

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2010, 02:14:25 PM »
Hi,

Well, you cannot be 100% sure of anything can you now, however, a long time ago AV companies used to modify the Windows kernel in order to give them an edge over the nasty stuff that users may have unintentionally installed. This worked but also made system very prone to BSOD and general instability. Currently AV makers employ other means to identify and get rid of threats.

Along with an AV you should be using other ways to protect your data , like backups, either just simple file backup or system snapshots (images), which, in case something goes wrong will allow you to diminish the downtime caused while trying to restore your system. You don't need to be scared of your PC, you need to be in control.

Directly to the point: I also do not turn off Avast! while using Windows Update and one should not have to turn off AV protection to update system critical stuff.

xkyborg

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2010, 10:11:44 AM »
Hi,

Well, you cannot be 100% sure of anything can you now, however, a long time ago AV companies used to modify the Windows kernel in order to give them an edge over the nasty stuff that users may have unintentionally installed. This worked but also made system very prone to BSOD and general instability. Currently AV makers employ other means to identify and get rid of threats.

Along with an AV you should be using other ways to protect your data , like backups, either just simple file backup or system snapshots (images), which, in case something goes wrong will allow you to diminish the downtime caused while trying to restore your system. You don't need to be scared of your PC, you need to be in control.

Directly to the point: I also do not turn off Avast! while using Windows Update and one should not have to turn off AV protection to update system critical stuff.

I don't know how about regular updates, but for example, before installing Service Packs, Microsoft allways recommends to disable AV (so, I think it includes also and regular windows updates). And before installing any programs, that recommends to temporarily disable AV, I think that software developers knows better how their software works...

Online DavidR

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2010, 04:22:14 PM »
I think that software developer is less likely to know how all different AVs work and how their product might interact with an AV. If they aren't doing anything suspect (or might be considered suspect) then why would they insist on disabling your AV.

This is historic nonsense/myth/legend/FUD stemming back from the 80s that really shouldn't have a place 30 years later, the time that you need your AV most is when installing new software as you have absolutely no idea what it is going to do.

Not all AVs act in the same way (HIPS/Behaviour/Heuristics, etc.), so a blanket statement from a software manufacturer is ludicrous; if they have a genuine reason why this is necessary then they should spell it out clearly. Then they should also allow the end user the choice to ignore such warning and proceed without disabling their AV at their own risk, after all it is their PC.
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Offline Lisandro

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2010, 10:01:58 PM »
Never disable the antivirus. This is the rule.
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streetskater

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2010, 10:50:40 PM »
Well you know,   All due respect to the Uber Techocrati here there are indeed valid  reasons someone may have  to really disable a resident realtime AV program.

I'm been using Avast, happily, for two years aafter many years of using Symantec Corp ED.   Currently I'm scoping out what's out there afresh and will decide on what is the best protection available.  May well be that I decide to upgrade to Avast 5 Network from 4.8.  I may also find something I like better.  

While I test drive other Anti-virus apps---and again I'm not talking about simple scanners...I'm talking about other resident real-time malware protection apps and suites.   One should NEVER have two of those puppies in play at the same time.  They can cause each other all sorts of grief.  

I am experiencing that now as I test dirve  Symantec Endpoint.   The system is constantly deadlocking--and my guess is because there are still Avast services running in conjunction with Endpoints.    I have figured out how to go in and individually terminate most of Avasts shields and scanners and a few other things--whcih is helpful.  Doing it that way, they stay shut down until you activate them again.  

There are still "interactive Processes" that run and that under normal circumstance cannot be "disabled" as services--There are low-level locked.     I think I've got that worked around.   Either boot up in safe mode and disable them or if that isn't a low enough level control   Boot from an alternative environment like Winternals, which will let you load your registry but still give you God's own permission over it.   I.e., you can reset the permissions on any registry entry from Winternals and then change that service from "auto" to disabled.


I'm in the middle of doing that now.  What I won't know till I re-start that machine is whether or not Avast will reset those service permission at boot.   There are very valid and good reasons that a realtime AV has a lot of protection to prevent some malware from disabling it---and infections that do just that have been some of the most obnoxious to deal with over the years.   STILL we don't need to be so "protected" that we can't be the ultimate arbitrators over what does and doesn't have jurisdiction and dominion over our own computers at any given time.

This isn't just Avast not playing nice.  Symantec. is notorious for it.  I still have tons of legacy orphan reg entries from when I ran SAVCE 10.  Deleting it by no means purged the registry of it's progeny and if you go in and manually delete them---your system simply won't boot.  It's as though they are virtually grafted to essential windows services for ever.

Anyway, I'll pose the question to those in the know---since I've only just turned my attention to the task of disabling Avast---I don't actually WANT to uninstall it:
IS there a graceful way to temporarily turn it ALL THE WAY OFF completely, for WHATEVER reason a user might want to do that.  It's a simple enough question and it has a simple yes or no answer in terms of whether the Application is designed NOT to take that need into consideration.  No need to second guess motives and "Computer philosophy".  We don't all operate out of black holes of ignorance.

« Last Edit: August 10, 2010, 10:52:40 PM by streetskater »

kiwiguy

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2010, 11:29:44 PM »
Although I have only been using Avast for a short time, it looks like a great product (certainly one of the better AV packages I have played with), but I totally agree with streetskater and believe he has put the case very well. There is a huge amount of paranoia out there about viruses and other forms of malicious software, and while I agree that some people derive a sense of comfort from putting all their faith in AV software to protect them from these nasties, some of us don't want the performance impediment and potential clashes with other software that inevitably comes with having all of this monitoring continuously running in real time, and the great difficulty associated with temporarily turning it off - completely. It seems to me the difference between real-time AV and manually initiated AV is not well understood. What I would like in the software settings is an option with a simple warning followed by the ability with password confirmation to completely turn the application off; everything; services, bootchecking, startup registry keys, - the lot, and then have the chance to manually launch the application, have it do a web based check of the application and virus register update status, then of the critical Avast files (basic integrity check to ensure no viruses are in these) then to do a full AV scan of my PC. That would be really cool. So does anyone know how to do this :) ?

Offline Pondus

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #13 on: August 20, 2010, 11:34:16 PM »
maybe an on demand only scanner is the thing for you?

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Joe S

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Re: Can I temporarily disable Avast?
« Reply #14 on: August 21, 2010, 04:43:48 AM »
I would say it is rarely necessary to disable Avast rather than never. One application I've had problems with on more than one occasion is updating tools in VMware Workstation guests XP, Vista and Windows 7. If avast is running there are problems. I think it it's because of the complex things VMware tools do. It creates the virtual sound card,video card, network cards to name a few things being changed by something other than Windows. If I leave Avast on for the update then the video is messed up on reboot the screen won't resize.  If I shut Avast off the update works fine. This happened with Vista and Windows 7 hosts and on different versions of VMware Workstation both 6.5 and 7.0 and the revisions.
Joe