A comment from Grogan on PCQandA forum

[MWassef]

"I'm sorry, but Avast is worse than useless to me. Not only does it miss a lot of malware, and catch things after the fact and be unable to remove them, but it often partially removes things leaving crippling components behind. I still see this kind of crap when I see Avast on computers. (most of them aren't from me anymore!) I installed it on a lot of computers years ago and have been sorry, eventually, in every case. Just when I think I'm finally at the end of all the computers I put it on, I hear from someone."

I need a reply from alwil people plz 

[Bluesman]

"I'm sorry, but Avast is worse than useless to me. Not only does it miss a lot of malware, and catch things after the fact and be unable to remove them, but it often partially removes things leaving crippling components behind. I still see this kind of crap when I see Avast on computers. (most of them aren't from me anymore!) I installed it on a lot of computers years ago and have been sorry, eventually, in every case. Just when I think I'm finally at the end of all the computers I put it on, I hear from someone."
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I need a reply from alwil people plz 

Reply for what? He haven't much right there in what he say! If avast! was so bad, we should not be so many members left in this forum...and it would not get "Advanced+" on the test from Av-comparatives

avast! is very stable, and it's a great software! If he don't like it...then he just can use another software, simple as that.

[Lisandro]

Mina, an answer for what? The user just complain, does not give details (problems, files infected...). What I can say is that this is false:

miss a lot of malware

Detection on avast is not perfect, but it is very very very good.

[DavidR]

<snip>
I need a reply from alwil people plz 

The reply you need, is one you can provide yourself, e.g. how long have you been using avast (a long time) and what are your 'personal' experiences ?

We haven't got a clue how this person has their system set-up or the sites they visit or the software they use, generalisations are no good, only specifics can be answered.

It is more of a rant than anything else and we have no idea when they last used avast or the version, so you can't comment on zero information, but perhaps that is the idea.

[wyrmrider]

part of the problem not part of the solution
If there are undetected items they are most likely not Virus

[MWassef]

The reply you need, is one you can provide yourself, e.g. how long have you been using avast (a long time) and what are your 'personal' experiences ?

I need alwil to post a reply on PCQandA   

[DavidR]

Why, what is there to counter, when there is zero information to reply to.

All you would have is a tit for tat exchange which is pretty pointless. Which is likely to develop into a well your from Alwil so you are bound to say avast is very good, etc. etc.

Grogan's is one point of view and your is another from someone that is using the latest version of avast, which is likely to have better functions and detections, etc. from when Grogan was using it and got a flea in his ear. So your experience is no less valid based on your experience.

I don't like AVG, but it is over four and a half years since I last used it so I wouldn't dream of making comments on the latest version. Having said that there are enough AVG users saying as much by voting with their feet and switching to avast. The same is also happening to a lesser degree with some AntiVir users, Grogan's flavour of the moment.

[Lisandro]

I need alwil to post a reply on PCQandA   

Maybe they post there... but maybe they won't as it won't be a forum that they visit... here will be the correct place to complain about avast.

[ardvark]

Hi MinaCross...

You're missing Egypt's flag on your posts.

Best Regards...

[warlock]

Unfortunately I would have to agree about the removal part. If I clean PCs that got infected before the virus got in the virus database, Avast can detect and delete the actual virus, but it leaves behind a lot of registry entries and what's more of a pain it often misses the downloader/dropper part of the virus, so the virus reinstalls itself. Sometimes it even happens that the virus is already in database, but the downloader/dropper isn't, so Avast is blocking the installation of the virus and shows hundreds of alert windows, but the actual cause of this - the downloader/dropper - goes completely unnoticed. I have to use SuperAntiSpyware or manually create an Avenger script to get rid of it.
Of course I'm sending those files to Alwil, so that they can add it to their database. But from time to time I don't send it and store it on my system to see, how long it would take before Avast is able to detect them and there are some samples that are still not detected even thou they are over a year old.
So the removal part could use some improvements and detection of downloaders/droppers too.

[Lisandro]

what's more of a pain it often misses the downloader/dropper part of the virus, so the virus reinstalls itself.

There is no sense on missing the dropper part... or it is detected and removed or it's a variation and it's not detected (yet), imho.

Sometimes it even happens that the virus is already in database, but the downloader/dropper isn't, so Avast is blocking the installation of the virus and shows hundreds of alert windows, but the actual cause of this - the downloader/dropper - goes completely unnoticed.

Do you have samples of these droppers? If you send to virus (at) avast (dot) com you'll be helping improving detection.

Of course I'm sending those files to Alwil, so that they can add it to their database.

Alwil come on... hurry up :'(

[wyrmrider]

It's Avast Antivirus
If it is not a Virus I would not expect too much from this product
Adding definitions for non virius without the engine to support the detection is about as useful as Kespersky without removal capability paid up
AVG bought EWIDO to obtain an antimalware engine
BOClean has bought an Antivirus engine
Microsoft bought Giant Anti Spyware
Symantec just bought PC-Tools
Sunbelt rewrote Counterspy completly to add AntiVirus- one of the few apps with two components integrated not lumped together.
Adding anti-malware,spyware, rootkit, phishing, keyloggers, etc. are all non-trivial additions
let's see what version 5 brings- in the meantime use other specialized superior solutions from qualified vendors to add these other necessary layers of protection

[Lisandro]

Adding definitions for non virius without the engine to support the detection is about as useful as Kespersky without removal capability paid up

I suppose you're talking about the online scanning...

AVG bought EWIDO to obtain an antimalware engine
BOClean has bought an Antivirus engine
Microsoft bought Giant Anti Spyware
Symantec just bought PC-Tools
Sunbelt rewrote Counterspy completly to add AntiVirus- one of the few apps with two components integrated not lumped together.

Alwil has developed itself the antispyware module (scanning) and has bought GMER for antirootkit detection.

[wyrmrider]

I have no Idea what level the antispyware module is
are there any independent tests?

[DavidR]

Well av-comparatives includes data on detections other than virus detections in its results and they are independent.

That however, is just the on-demand detection of files and that is a limited test. As far as I'm aware there is no anti-spyware specific tests and if that is for resident or on-demand, then you have the scan of the registry (which avast doesn't do) and the cleaning of the registry after infection, which avast does to a limited degree, it looks for occurrences of registry entries for that detection.

So I think you can see there is no clear cut answer to your question and why I would always recommend the use of a specialist anti-spyware application to increase overall detection rates.