Avast interface gets worse with every update

[KNRover]

I'm using the latest version of Avast! free (2014.9.0.2011). It's been a long time since I've run a boot-time scan, so ran one today. To my shock, I saw the screen go completely blank and stay that way for the entire time of the scan, which has been running for 45 min. on my laptop as I write this. The screen provides no indication of what's going on, the progress. . . nothing, like it used to. After running the same scan on my desktop (which finished in just a few minutes because my primary drive is a SSD), I wanted to look at the log for that scan. It took me a while to even find out where it's now storing the logs, but when I finally did, the boot-time scan is not listed. Is that because boot scans do not create a log? Is anybody else unhappy with the current user interface?

[NoelC]

You're not alone.

Though I haven't done a boot-time scan, I have to agree with you that the UI is somewhat degraded as compared to prior versions.  I've been using Avast since 2005, and this is the worst I've seen it look and interact.

I've been interacting with the Avast UI over the past couple of days WAY more than I wanted to, and while I've finally started to figure out where things are, it's certainly not been an intuitive process to find what I need.  Whomever decided windows on the desktop should have no borders and look entirely different from the system theme (however bad Microsoft made it) should be demoted, IMO. 

On the positive side, setting the buttons in the main UI box (which is unresizeable!) to the four things I do most has been helpful.

-Noel

[zorgon]

Whomever decided windows on the desktop should have no borders and look entirely different from the system theme (however bad Microsoft made it) should be demoted, IMO. 

+1
But I think this is going to be a requirement from Microsoft going forward, especially if Microsoft eventually requires any program be installed through the Microsoft store.

[cavehomme2]

Whomever decided windows on the desktop should have no borders and look entirely different from the system theme (however bad Microsoft made it) should be demoted, IMO. 

+1
But I think this is going to be a requirement from Microsoft going forward, especially if Microsoft eventually requires any program be installed through the Microsoft store.

Avast and other vendors should deal with this problem by having two versions of their product, one for the horrible Win 8 and touch screens and one for Windows 7 users who use a mouse and keyboard and need / want granularity and appropariate stale / themes. Avast had better get used to the idea that Win 7 users are going to be around until at leat 2020 and will go to another product who fulfills their needs if Avast cannot.

[seeker15]

Whomever decided windows on the desktop should have no borders and look entirely different from the system theme (however bad Microsoft made it) should be demoted, IMO. 

+1
But I think this is going to be a requirement from Microsoft going forward, especially if Microsoft eventually requires any program be installed through the Microsoft store.

Avast and other vendors should deal with this problem by having two versions of their product, one for the horrible Win 8 and touch screens and one for Windows 7 users who use a mouse and keyboard and need / want granularity and appropariate stale / themes. Avast had better get used to the idea that Win 7 users are going to be around until at leat 2020 and will go to another product who fulfills their needs if Avast cannot.

+1

[igor]

It's certainly not normal that the boot-time scan doesn't show anything - nothing has changed about this.

The boot-time scan report should be present in Scan / Scan history (if the boot-time scan has been run).
Corresponding text reports are stored in C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\report\aswBoot.txt

As for a (debugging) log file, it is created in C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\log\aswBoot.log

[hake]

There is an alternative for Windows 7 and back.  It's the lovely Avast 8 UI.  It looks pretty, is much simpler to navigate and reveals information without a struggle.  I can find my way around the Avast 9 UI but it's not an uplifting experience and is a hindrance to managing Avast. 

In fairness, Avast, aesthetically pleasing or not, provides good protection for my Windows XP PC.                                                                                           

[irongod]

To me they lost a little the direction for they UI after the v5-->v7 versions ... with v8 and v9 it seems to me that "rebooted" twice the UI almost completely in 8 months! not the best to get users used to the interface... v9 is not completely bad, but certain ideas are not really good for the HMI!

To me one issue is the HMI that fully responsibility of Avast and another is the Style that is probably is due also cause of Microsoft "genial idea" to move WM7 UI to WIN8 desktop!!

Still UI is not the biggest issue of v9, after a while got used... but the program itself is completely unstable!!!! 

[Robert_M]

Avast and other vendors should deal with this problem by having two versions of their product, one for the horrible Win 8 and touch screens and one for Windows 7 users who use a mouse and keyboard and need / want granularity and appropariate stale / themes. Avast had better get used to the idea that Win 7 users are going to be around until at leat 2020 and will go to another product who fulfills their needs if Avast cannot.

+1

[NoelC]

but the program itself is completely unstable!!!! 

The going advice seems to be to completely uninstall the botched first versions of Avast! 9 and install a fresh clean copy from their current release.

Whether it will botch itself up in subsequent updates remains to be seen. 

It seems to have moved away from "set it and forget it", which is where it needs to be.

-Noel

[irongod]

  I tried all the releases of AIS v9 with my XP Sp3, updated from UI or clean install, AVASTClear, RevoUninstaller + manual cleaning + registry cleaning ... and the result is more or less the same: the system randomly hangs completely... only the HARD RESET works! Usually it happens with Skype Calls, WMP access to MP3 library, Flash videos etc.. v2006/7 were the worst, but still v2008 and v2011 don't fix this issue (and I cannot work with a PC that may hang anytime!!). My main concern is that it happens even with all the shields off, thus I think is a problem in the way the Avast "core software" handles the different processes on the machine...

Now v2011 shows some MemLeak as well and this new system of EMUpdates (as you said) might deteriorate the Avast behaviour even without running a program update... (indeed seemed to me that v2011 was better in the first coupe of days, but that's just my impression)