Question about "ask when update is available" in Settings/Updating/Program

[Will91]

Hello friends..

Tonight when I right clicked on the "a" ball to check for program updates, I found there was a new program release - 4.7.1029.  While Avast was downloading the new program update, I was curious as to why I was not prompted about the new update so I checked under Settings/Updating/Program to discover I had originally selected "ask when update is availabe" under Program.  Hovering the question mark over this option indicates Avast is supposed to prompt me when the new update is available - which it never did.  Perhaps the release came today so I had not yet received the alert??

Anyways, during the course of reviewing my settings while the new program update was downloading, I seemed to have stalled out Avast because I got an Internet Explorer message about "error has occurred, do you want to send a message to Microsoft...".  I said "no" and then right clicked on the "a" ball again for Program Update and it said 4.7.1029 was already loaded.

Three questions:

1) Is the new version really properly downloaded?  I was surprised that since Avast had stalled out in during the download that now it says it is complete.  ??
2) Why didn't I get the alert from Avast about the new update?  Perhaps I should just select "automatic" and not worry about this in the future like I have my antivirus updates set to "automatic"
3) Prior to allowing the update, Comodo Firewall told me the "cryptographic signature of avast has changed OR a trojan/virus was attempting to connect".  Since I got this message right before I clicked on update, I presumed it was OK to proceed with downloading.

Thanks!

[DavidR]

The program updates are different from the VPS updates in they are cycled over 7 days to balance server load because they are much larger than VPS updates. So at some point in the 7 day cycle you would have been asked to update.

Since you don't give details of the microsoft Internet Explorer error I can't say what it might have been about. However the avast update doesn't use 'any' browser to update, so it may be unrelated. Check the windows event viewer that should give more details.

1. check about avast it will tell you what version you have and it seems it was installed, you would normally be asked to reboot after the installation.
2. explained above.
3. comodo will notify if elements change and one of those will also have been avast.setup the element that controls the download and update, so it would be correct to allow it (assuming it was avast.setup you were notified about).

[Will91]

Thanks DavidR!

Yes, I checked under "about Avast" and the latest version is showing as installed.  Also, I did get the notification to reboot.

I had some concerns whether the new version really did install because it "looks" the same (at least as far as the control panel you use to launch a virus scan) so I'm trusting all the changes were internal rather than "cosmetic" so I can be confident things installed correctly.

Thanks again.

[DavidR]

The changes are internal not cosmetic.

You can check the changes that are made here, http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-4-home_pro-revision-history.html.

[Will91]

Thank you again, DavidR.  When I tried a manual update nothing happened.  Then I thought about what you said about Comodo.  You were right about the avast.setup file.   A quick check of Comodo revealed somehow this file was permanently "denied".  I removed the rule and now I can manually check for updates (as well as enjoy the automatic update option I leave on by default).  Everytime I have checked manual updates in the past, it is already up to date, thanks to automatic updates, so Avast is doing its thing!

[DavidR]

Your welcome.

Having deleted the rule, if you try a manual update Comodo should have asked for permission ?

You should allow avast.setup and have Comodo remember your decision.