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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: madmax25 on September 05, 2012, 09:00:50 PM

Title: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 05, 2012, 09:00:50 PM
Hi folks!  :)

I'm on XP Home SP3, running Avast free 7.0.1466.
Often, updates are performed while my screensaver is running, so I don't see the update popups.

Sometimes, when I'm working on my computer, and the screensaver ist NOT running,
I get these green update popups combined with advertising messages.
Strangely, those ads don't appear each time.
But sound is ok, i.e. no double messages.

I can't post a screenshot, because "Show last popup" is grayed out right now
and because the last popup I saw was without an ad anyway.

Advertising in the settings window of Avast is ok for me, but absolutely not in the popups.
Pleeeease, Avast developers, stop this or tell me what I can do to get rid of these terribly annoying ads?

A repair installation didn't help, btw.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: jadinolf on September 06, 2012, 01:40:24 AM
Never saw them before. When you can see a screenshot, grab one.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: DavidR on September 06, 2012, 03:49:44 AM
They are periodic and not all of the time.

Is it something like this one I captured some time ago.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 06, 2012, 08:09:45 PM
Yes, exactly!
The ad is below the ordinary update message.
But it can have some different content from ad to ad.

Anyway, it's extremely annoying.
I did NOT replace Avira with Avast to just face the same crap.  :(

Another question:
Why the heck do I have to enter this silly captcha, even after being registered and logged in?
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: CraigB on September 06, 2012, 08:13:40 PM

Another question:
Why the heck do I have to enter this silly captcha, even after being registered and logged in?
It's only for the first three posts.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 06, 2012, 09:09:33 PM
OK, so at least this will stop after this post now.

EDIT:
Now, my 4th post is online and it looks like you were right.
Thank you!
Still, there's the popup issue to be solved...
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: norel on September 07, 2012, 04:58:27 AM
The ad isn't going away. People have been complaining about if for a long time now. You'll have to a) live with it, b) disable that slider, c) use sound only, or d) check definition version manually. But personally, I have a feeling we're gonna be seeing a lot more advertising, not less.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 07, 2012, 09:37:32 AM
Sound only? That's possible?
How do you do this, please?
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: norel on September 07, 2012, 04:05:46 PM
I'm not 100% positive it's possible, but you can try disabling the definition update slider: Settings>Updates>Details>Show notification update after automatic update. Keep sound enabled and see what happens. It may not work but you could try it.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 07, 2012, 05:55:56 PM
I once disabled the slider, but as far as I remember, there was no sound either.
Not quite sure about that though...
I quess, I should try once more to verify.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: norel on September 08, 2012, 05:56:57 AM
It doesn't work. I tried it and it seems they only work together.

My solution to the annoying ad was to disable notifications. It's easy enough to check manually to make sure I'm current.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: Para-Noid on September 08, 2012, 08:36:55 PM
Since avast gets all of their "paid" subscriptions by word of mouth and not by pre-installing their products I see no harm with advertisements. They do have a right to make a profit. Try GUI>Settings>Pop-Ups. Or Settings>Community
There is one line of thought I see and that is when I go anywhere I am bombarded by advertising. Be it billboards, or signs of any kind.
If the pop-up bugs you that much click on the "x" in the upper right corner of the pop-up to close it. Like I said avast has a right to make a profit. A pop-up is a very tiny price to pay for the superior protection that avast offers.  :)
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 08, 2012, 09:47:31 PM
Sorry, to disagree but Avast has ads in the GUI already and no-one complains about that.
But those ads in the GUI should be enough.
Additional ads in the popups, that's no advertising, that's just begging and terribly annoying.
And as long as I get annoyed like this, I would never ever consider to pay for this or any other product doing the same.
Nowadays you get bombarded with ads everywhere, so massively, that it's driving you totally nuts.  >:(




Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: Decker on September 09, 2012, 12:55:17 AM
I have no problem with the current type of Ads in the free version.
But I would expect the paid version to be ad-free.

If the ads get a fraction as bad as some free software providers-companies had gotten (NetZero) back in the 90's (before the dot com bubble burst), then I would also move away from Avast.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: marc-d-l on September 09, 2012, 01:10:33 AM
Whats a couple of seconds.If you don't want to wait,click the little red X.   So you lose a second of your life by clicking the X  (WOW)
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: Decker on September 09, 2012, 01:27:40 AM
I just remembered, I set the number of seconds on my popup ads...
For Green and Blue I set them to a few seconds, and set the Sounds for all events except Auto-update.
Red and Orange popups are 999 seconds. (which I hope means never auto hide)
This works in Avast 7 for me.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: CraigB on September 09, 2012, 07:40:35 AM
Sorry, to disagree but Avast has ads in the GUI already and no-one complains about that.
But those ads in the GUI should be enough.
Additional ads in the popups, that's no advertising, that's just begging and terribly annoying.

You should only ever see the popup ads once maybe every couple of months and there placed there for the users that never open the GUI, there are some ads that contain a checkbox which you tick to never show again and any others you can set to a shorter time period or simply X out of it.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: madmax25 on September 09, 2012, 06:38:18 PM
...there are some ads that contain a checkbox which you tick to never show again and any others you can set to a shorter time period or simply X out of it.

...and that's the problem, because you have to do something to get rid of these ads.
That doesn't happen in the GUI.

Why would you never open the GUI?
At least, if you want to check the version of the installed virus definitions or the one of the program, you will open it for sure.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: bloatware on September 13, 2012, 05:14:48 PM
Since avast gets all of their "paid" subscriptions by word of mouth and not by pre-installing their products I see no harm with advertisements. They do have a right to make a profit. Try GUI>Settings>Pop-Ups. Or Settings>Community
There is one line of thought I see and that is when I go anywhere I am bombarded by advertising. Be it billboards, or signs of any kind.
If the pop-up bugs you that much click on the "x" in the upper right corner of the pop-up to close it. Like I said avast has a right to make a profit. A pop-up is a very tiny price to pay for the superior protection that avast offers.  :)

Sure, you are right that Avast has a right to make a profit.  Don't be surprised if people get fed up with the ads though and move on to a new solution.  I get Avast advertising pop up twice a day, one on top of the other.  I used to participate in the Avast community (via GUI settings), but if I'm going to be annoyed in such a manner then screw that.  I consider letting Avast collect anonymous statistics in return for me using their freeware acceptable, I don't consider being bombarded with ads acceptable.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: Lisandro on September 13, 2012, 05:42:18 PM
I don't consider being bombarded with ads acceptable.
The frequency is not a bombing. You can try other solutions... and you'll be surprised about the bombing frequency :)
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: Aventador on September 13, 2012, 06:10:37 PM
Avast has ads. AVG has ads and a toolbar with search engine. Avira has ads. Comodo tries to make you buy Geek Buddy. All the top FREE antiviruses have ads. Avast is NOT alone. Does Avast Free provide superior detection? Yes. Even new comer Roboscan has ads. If you want a complete free antivirus with no ads then get MSE. But then you will sacrifice detection rates. I don't get any ads what do ever cause I already use Chrome as my main browser.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: greyowl on September 15, 2012, 05:04:47 PM
I just remembered, I set the number of seconds on my popup ads...
For Green and Blue I set them to a few seconds, and set the Sounds for all events except Auto-update.
Red and Orange popups are 999 seconds. (which I hope means never auto hide)
This works in Avast 7 for me.

Thank you for sharing your settings.  I tried setting the red and orange popups to 999 but find that any setting over 180 seconds causes the box and number to turn red.  What does this mean?
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: DavidR on September 15, 2012, 05:41:45 PM
I would think that it is an invalid input; why you would want it to stay there all of the time is debatable when you only have to right click on the avast tray icon and select 'Show last popup message.' If you need more time to view it, you can also use the pin icon to keep it there when displayed.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: greyowl on September 15, 2012, 07:13:00 PM
Wow!  Thanks for the information.  I did not know about those features.  They will work well if I need more time to study the popup.
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: DavidR on September 15, 2012, 08:01:23 PM
You're welcome, avast is still one of the most configurable AVs out there ;D
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: bob3160 on September 17, 2012, 08:52:36 PM
Maybe the following will help you achieve a Quieter avast!
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=93544.msg796558#msg796558 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=93544.msg796558#msg796558)
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: optiflex on November 10, 2012, 05:20:15 PM
"Wow!  Thanks for the information.  I did not know about those features.  They will work well if I need more time to study the popup."

Perhaps you need to have an Avatar of yourself holding a paper sign that says Sarcasm in order for the helpful mod to understand?

Guys I started a web search in Google. I typed in Avast a.... and it completed what I was going to type as it's #1 guess...which was Avast annoying popup . Meaning...probably 1000's of other Google users had typed that, too.

I got up this morning, there was a center popup, I closed that down, the two rose up on on the right. 30 seconds later they reappeared. a few minutes later, the center popup returned, as did the two on the right.

Guys..there are VIRUSES that are less annoying than this!
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: bob3160 on November 10, 2012, 10:18:01 PM
Quote
I got up this morning, there was a center popup, I closed that down, the two rose up on on the right. 30 seconds later they reappeared. a few minutes later, the center popup returned, as did the two on the right.Guys..there are VIRUSES that are less annoying than this!
I've only used avast! for 10 years and have never experiences what you described.
What settings changes did you make to cause this behavior ???
Title: Re: Annoying ads in update popups!
Post by: bobo1 on November 10, 2012, 10:46:40 PM
If it is annoying just reduce the green popup settings to 1 sec in main settings. Then in one blink of an eye the popup will be gone!!!!!!! :)