Avast WEBforum

Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: JeanieG on December 20, 2009, 04:24:10 AM

Title: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: JeanieG on December 20, 2009, 04:24:10 AM
 :-\  HI - this is my first post so be gentle please.  I was under the idea that Avast contained both 32 and 64 bit versions and that the correct version would be chosen by the installer.  I am running Win 7 64 bit.

OK that said,  whenever I start up "Task Manager", all of the Avast processes that I can identify show as being 32 bit processes - ie they have the "*32" after their name.

Am I viewing this incorrectly in "task Manager"?

Can someone please clear this up for me ?

I apologize if this has been asked in the past but I did a search and could not find anything.


JeanieG
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: Tarq57 on December 20, 2009, 07:28:57 AM
Hi, welcome to the forum.
Avast is not a 64 bit application. It will run on 64bit systems, except that some of the features - particularly the boot scan - will not work.
Subsequent version of Avast 5 (maybe 5.1?) will have this working.
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: YoKenny on December 20, 2009, 12:03:50 PM
I am running Windows 7 64 bit and avast! runs just fine and as Tarq57 indicates that boot scan does not work right now but will in the future.

All file accesses read and write are scanned by the File System Shield so a boot scan is really only necessary to insure an infection free system when avast! is first installed.

On my XP Pro system I run a boot scan only when there is an update to avast! program.
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: essexboy on December 20, 2009, 01:47:10 PM
Is the main Avast folder in C:\Program Files (x86) or C:\Program Files

If it is in the first it is 32 bit if the second then 64 bit

Avast 5 for me on windows 7 resides here C:\Program Files\Alwil Software so that would suggest that it is running in 64bit mode
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: Hermite15 on December 20, 2009, 01:58:20 PM
Is the main Avast folder in C:\Program Files (x86) or C:\Program Files

If it is in the first it is 32 bit if the second then 64 bit

Avast 5 for me on windows 7 resides here C:\Program Files\Alwil Software so that would suggest that it is running in 64bit mode

it's just a folder; could have been installed on J:\my favorite AV\... if you wanted to. The avast setup must give a wrong signal to Windows so that it gets installed by default in the folder normally reserved for 64 bit apps (program files)...and people feel better  ;D but the processes are 32 bit, there's nothing running on 64 bit in Avast 5 or 4, they're just compatible with 64 bit OS, like hundreds of other apps. See screenshot below... (at the contrary, CIS processes are true 64 bit)
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: WhiteZero on January 09, 2010, 06:55:11 AM
What concerns me is what was said back on the 4.5 changelog (http://www.avast.com/eng/whats_new_in_avast_v.html):
Quote
Support for 64-bit Windows

The new avast! 4.5 Home/Professional now fully supports the 64-bit Windows platform (avast! Server Edition has been supporting Win64 (both AMD64 and IA64) platforms since version 4.1). ALWIL Software is anticipating a massive take-up of this platform as Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will support up to 32 GB of RAM and 16 TB of virtual memory, enabling applications to run faster when working with large data sets. Applications can preload substantially more data into virtual memory, allowing rapid access by the 64-bit extensions of the processor. This reduces the time for loading data into virtual memory or seeking, reading, and writing to data storage devices, making applications run faster and more efficiently.

Regular (32-bit) antivirus applications are unable to operate correctly on the 64-bit Windows platform because they rely on 32-bit kernel-mode drivers. The new avast! uses native 64-bit drivers, delivering the same level of protection as in the 32-bit Windows environments. The installation package is the same for 32-bit and 64-bit versions - the setup program automatically detects the operating system it is running on and installs all necessary files.

So even though the program itself is running in 32bit mode, the drivers that take care of the stuff behind the scenes are 64bit which make everything work fine?
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: Hermite15 on January 09, 2010, 08:36:25 AM
What concerns me is what was said back on the 4.5 changelog (http://www.avast.com/eng/whats_new_in_avast_v.html):
Quote
Support for 64-bit Windows

The new avast! 4.5 Home/Professional now fully supports the 64-bit Windows platform (avast! Server Edition has been supporting Win64 (both AMD64 and IA64) platforms since version 4.1). ALWIL Software is anticipating a massive take-up of this platform as Windows XP 64-Bit Edition will support up to 32 GB of RAM and 16 TB of virtual memory, enabling applications to run faster when working with large data sets. Applications can preload substantially more data into virtual memory, allowing rapid access by the 64-bit extensions of the processor. This reduces the time for loading data into virtual memory or seeking, reading, and writing to data storage devices, making applications run faster and more efficiently.

Regular (32-bit) antivirus applications are unable to operate correctly on the 64-bit Windows platform because they rely on 32-bit kernel-mode drivers. The new avast! uses native 64-bit drivers, delivering the same level of protection as in the 32-bit Windows environments. The installation package is the same for 32-bit and 64-bit versions - the setup program automatically detects the operating system it is running on and installs all necessary files.

So even though the program itself is running in 32bit mode, the drivers that take care of the stuff behind the scenes are 64bit which make everything work fine?

quite possible after all that the drivers are 64 bit, I never checked that...
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: YoKenny on January 09, 2010, 01:28:07 PM
@ WhiteZero

You reference avast! V4.5 changelog and avast! is now at V4.8.1368:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-4-home_pro-revision-history.html

Please see:
http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2010/01/07/some-observations-on-rootkits.aspx

Where at the bottom they say
Quote
• Run 64-bit Windows
for the time being, it appears that currently, users running 64 bit Windows are less likely to be compromised by rootkits. While the threat landscape is constantly evolving, for now you can breathe a lot easier if you're running 64-bit Windows. If you have a choice, go with 64-bit.

So having Win7 64-bit and avast! is a winning combination.

Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: WhiteZero on January 09, 2010, 05:19:21 PM
@ WhiteZero

You reference avast! V4.5 changelog and avast! is now at V4.8.1368:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-4-home_pro-revision-history.html
Well aware of that. But I'm sure such a major addition, such as 64bit drivers, have remained in Avast since 4.5...
I was simply referring to the first mention of 64-bit support that I could find.
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: dannyg on January 09, 2010, 06:51:44 PM

I was using Avast 4.8 with Vista 64 bit, other than boot time scan doesn't work, and the email icon doesn't pop up when scanning pop email......other than this works perfect.

I recently upgraded to windows 7 64 bit, same as above, perfecto.


Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: Lisandro on January 09, 2010, 07:06:30 PM
dannyg, boot time scanning is not supported (yet) on x64 systems.
Title: Re: Avast 64 bit.
Post by: dannyg on January 09, 2010, 09:59:02 PM

thanks, i've had very good success with the home version, so i upgraded to the pro version a few months back. I'm really looking forward to version 5 just for it to get a little more modern lookin. :)