Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: thany on February 13, 2014, 12:24:30 PM
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On the status screen, it says there's a new program version available. Excellent, only it doesn't update.
When I click the link "Update" on the status screen, and then click the big gray "Update" button to the right of PROGRAM (not sure why it's in capitals, it just is), just nothing happens. It doesn't even seem to try to do anything. Absolutely *nothing* happens. I can update the VIRUS DEFINITIONS (again, not sure why it's in capitals, it just is) perfectly fine.
Under Settings (in the PROGRAM pane) it is set to "Ask when an update is available" (I like it that way).
Currently using Avast Free 2014.9.0.2011 with definitions 140213-0 on Windows 7 x64.
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See if a repair solves it.
Control panel > programs > avast > add/remove < choose repair
If it doesn't:
1. Download Avastclear, Rejzors uninstall tool and the appropriate Avast program edition.
Here are the installer links. Note: You need to be ONLINE during this install.
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_pro_antivirus_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_premier_antivirus_setup_online.exe
Avastclear : http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avastclear.exe
Rejzors Uninstall tool: http://rejzor.wordpress.com/avast-cleanup-tool/
2. Uninstall Avast by control panel [If you don't have Avast in control Panel go to #4]
3. Uninstall in Safe Mode using Avastclear.
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
4. Run Rejzors Uninstall Utility in Normal Mode (removes traces avastclear doesn't) - reboot.
http://rejzor.wordpress.com/avast-cleanup-tool/
5. Be Sure Too Check Once Uninstall is Complete:Device Manager>View>Show Hidden Devices
If there is anything related to Avast with a yellow triangle then uninstall it (highlight, right click) and reboot.
6. Install the version you downloaded.
7. Reboot.
offline installers:
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_pro_antivirus_setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_premier_antivirus_setup.exe
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Of offense, but I'd rather not wipe away Avast and reinstall it. I'd rather fix the problem than reinstall the problem.
I did try the repair install, but it doesn't help.
What, *exactly*, is needed in order for pogram update to work? Services? Settings? Anything?
I forgot to mention, UAC is enabled on my system...
Maybe Avast forgets to UAC me so it can't update (because that would undoubtedly require elevated privileges).
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Try temporarily switching UAC off and try again. It will at least eliminate that avenue.
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That doesn't help, sadly. I did do the mandatory reboot after disabling UAC. So for now, I re-enabled it (and rebooted once more).
Can anyone tell me *axactly* what is neccesary for the update function to work? Someone must know what it depends on, even if it does work, right? I mean, *someone* programmed it...
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As Eddy has mentioned try a repair but if that fails to fix the problem then a re-install will be in order.
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Yeah I know, but seeing how recent this installation is, I'd just be reinstalling the problem, like I said before. This installation is less than a month old, and was a fresh download at the time.
I need to know what *exactly* the update mechanism needs in order to work, so I can actually work out why it isn't working, and make sure it keeps working should I ever reinstall the program.
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Well you are using an old version anyway so really not worth troubleshooting, best option would be a clean install imo but you can try a direct install over the top with the version you need found here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=145192.0
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I have the same problem.
This is obviously a problem on the server side and may only affect people connecting to a specific server.
You can clearly see the server side errors when you copy the urls it is trying to access and view them in your browser.
Also, WTF doesn't avast use HTTPS for server connections? Anti-virus using insecure http? Really?
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<snip>
Also, WTF doesn't avast use HTTPS for server connections? Anti-virus using insecure http? Really?
Why should they - it doesn't make any difference, the updates are carried out by avast and it has an integrity check function built in on the downloaded virus definitions.
In one way http is better than https, avast monitors/scans http traffic but not https traffic.
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Yeah I know, but seeing how recent this installation is, I'd just be reinstalling the problem
You can only know if the problem is still there after you have done as I suggested. Saying you would just reinstall the problem doesn't make any sense at all. Since you are two versions behind, a clean install of the most resent one doesn't hurt at all. Especially not since 2014.9.0.2013 has some important bug fixes.
You can clearly see the server side errors when you copy the urls it is trying to access and view them in your browser
Ofcourse you are getting errors, avast prevents people from just opening the urls in a browser. Guess you haven't notice the letter/number combination in the url. It is different each time avast connects to a update server.
EDIT:
2014.9.0.2011 was released on 2013-12-17
In terms of security, that is not recent at all but a long time ago.
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Yeah I know, but seeing how recent this installation is, I'd just be reinstalling the problem
You can only know if the problem is still there after you have done as I suggested. Saying you would just reinstall the problem doesn't make any sense at all. Since you are two versions behind, a clean install of the most resent one doesn't hurt at all. Especially not since 2014.9.0.2013 has some important bug fixes.
You can clearly see the server side errors when you copy the urls it is trying to access and view them in your browser
Ofcourse you are getting errors, avast prevents people from just opening the urls in a browser. Guess you haven't notice the letter/number combination in the url. It is different each time avast connects to a update server.
EDIT:
2014.9.0.2011 was released on 2013-12-17
In terms of security, that is not recent at all but a long time ago.
The problem was a server error on Avast's side as stated in another thread.
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You can clearly see the server side errors when you copy the urls it is trying to access and view them in your browser.
Not clearly. Like I said, pressing the Updte button does nothing. NOTHING. Not. A. Thing. There is no ay for me to see what it's trying to do at all!
You can only know if the problem is still there after you have done as I suggested. Saying you would just reinstall the problem doesn't make any sense at all. Since you are two versions behind, a clean install of the most resent one doesn't hurt at all. Especially not since 2014.9.0.2013 has some important bug fixes.
I'm not two versions behind. I'm two very minor updates behind. Two versions behind would mean I'm on Avast 2011.x.x. Which I'm not. Let me repeat myself: this is a CLEAN installation one month ago. That's neither old nor outdated. On top of that, the update mechanism has always worked for years on end.
The problem was a server error on Avast's side as stated in another thread.
Apparently it was not. The update still doesn't work. No errors, no nothing. Ab-so-lu-te-ly no-thing happens.
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Found it. Slient mode was on.
That's a bug:
When silent mode is on, the program will never update. Not even when manually clicking Update.
@Avast, I hope you're reading along, so please fix this bug ;)
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With silent mode on, avast is still updating.
Just won't prompt/showing a message.
What you have (as it seems) is a corrupted installation.
Perform the clean installation as I said.
Almost 100% sure that the problem is solved after doing so.
avast 2011.x.x? I think you mean 2014.9.0.2011
Yes, you are using a old version.
As I said:
2014.9.0.2011 was released on 2013-12-17
In terms of security, that is not recent at all but a long time ago.
You came here asking for help.
We are trying to give you the help needed.
We are only asking you to follow the instructions.
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Found it. Slient mode was on.
That's a bug:
When silent mode is on, the program will never update. Not even when manually clicking Update.
@Avast, I hope you're reading along, so please fix this bug ;)
I can cofirm this.
Icon indicated that program was outdated, but upgrade button did absolutely nothing.
Downloaded some 30mb+ file and tried to update manually. Launched it and after a few seconds it claimed that Avast was now upgraded. Of course, it had done nothing.
Then like you, I tried disabling silent mode. Instantly updating worked like it should.
-jbugger
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I gave avast 2011.x.x as an example of what would be old, as my installation was indeed a 2014.9.x version, which - as stated multiple times - had been downloaded and freshly installed a month ago, and is not old at all.
Anyway, the problem is solved. My installtion isn't corrupt at all. Why would it be? The program simply doesn't update during silent mode. Or at least not on my settings. Maybe it's a bug, maybe it's a setting. Either way, I do appreciate your concerns (@Eddy), but it's no longer neccesary. Avast is up-to-date now. I'll keep silent mode disabled for now, and see how that goes.
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Found it. Slient mode was on.
That's a bug:
When silent mode is on, the program will never update. Not even when manually clicking Update.
@Avast, I hope you're reading along, so please fix this bug ;)
I can cofirm this.
Icon indicated that program was outdated, but upgrade button did absolutely nothing.
Downloaded some 30mb+ file and tried to update manually. Launched it and after a few seconds it claimed that Avast was now upgraded. Of course, it had done nothing.
Then like you, I tried disabling silent mode. Instantly updating worked like it should.
-jbugger
I made an account just to quote and confirm this bug as well. I had silent mode on, and as soon as I turned silent mode off, I was able to update the program.
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I made an account just to quote and confirm this bug as well. I had silent mode on, and as soon as I turned silent mode off, I was able to update the program.
And me too... nothing happened when I clicked the Update button until I turned off silent mode.
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Found it. Slient mode was on.
That's a bug:
When silent mode is on, the program will never update. Not even when manually clicking Update.
@Avast, I hope you're reading along, so please fix this bug ;)
Wow... I'm glad I found this thread. I had the exact same problem as you described. Turning silent mode off resolved it instantly.
Hopefully Avast will address this bug!
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Silent mode is designed to prevent popups, changes affecting games/presentations etc.
If someone has program updates set to auto and halfway through a game or full screen app, your AV suddenly goes through an update , then reboots, you wouldn't be too pleased.
So, is this a bug, or there by design?
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Silent mode is designed to prevent popups, changes affecting games/presentations etc.
If someone has program updates set to auto and halfway through a game or full screen app, your AV suddenly goes through an update , then reboots, you wouldn't be too pleased.
So, is this a bug, or there by design?
Right on with your explanation.
As a presenter, I've had it happen once, before I remembered the silent gaming mode function, that I was "rudely interrupted"
during a presentation by avast! while doing it's job of keeping me safe.
Since there are 2 options withing the Silent Gaming Mode Function:
(http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/screenshots/u/Lh/1393678156157-52511.png)
You need to decide which will work for you.
For me in most instances, what's currently checked does the job since my Powerpoint Presentations are in Full Screen Mode.
This setting also does NOT prevent the update function of avast!
In circumstances where I do a remote presentation and share part of my screen, I have to choose the Silent Gaming Mode
to prevent all pop ups from avast! but, I also reset this setting once I've finished my remote presentation.
As I see it, there isn't a bug in avast!. We just need to do our part and change things back to normal after using a function
that's designed for only a specific purpose..
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Silent mode is designed to prevent popups, changes affecting games/presentations etc.
If someone has program updates set to auto and halfway through a game or full screen app, your AV suddenly goes through an update , then reboots, you wouldn't be too pleased.
So, is this a bug, or there by design?
We're not talking about automatic updates here... We're talking about manually clicking the "Update" button in the Avast client window, which is silently rendered inoperable by "silent mode". If it IS by design, then it's an awfully poor one.
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Silent mode is designed to prevent popups, changes affecting games/presentations etc.
If someone has program updates set to auto and halfway through a game or full screen app, your AV suddenly goes through an update , then reboots, you wouldn't be too pleased.
So, is this a bug, or there by design?
We're not talking about automatic updates here... We're talking about manually clicking the "Update" button in the Avast client window, which is silently rendered inoperable by "silent mode". If it IS by design, then it's an awfully poor one.
You are the one that decided to prevent all popups. You can't update without popups. Since you made the change,
why not change it back when you're ready to do something that requires popups. ?
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Maybe a useful feature would be to have a reminder show up that Silent Mode is on for situations like this.
Windows tells you CapsLock is on for passwords , a text notice like that when you try to update would help.
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At the 2014.9.0.2011 program level (Win XP/SP3) I had the same problem as Thany. Exactly the same. It’s not a server side problem because the Update button does absolutely nothing, just as Thany explained. It doesn’t update or even think about it, the button does NOTHING. After seeing this post, I did what Thany did and turned Silent Mode OFF. The update button then worked just fine, I am now at the newest level. After turning Silent Mode back on, the update button still works and tells me I am at the latest level. Just as Thany said, there is a blatant bug at the 2011 level and it appears to be fixed at the 2013 level. Dear Thany, I too am tired of overkill catch-all solutions to basic software bugs. This should have been caught in testing. I wish I had your tenacity in software forums!
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Found it. Slient mode was on.
That's a bug:
When silent mode is on, the program will never update. Not even when manually clicking Update.
@Avast, I hope you're reading along, so please fix this bug ;)
Reported to dev team - definitely a bug ;) Thanks for catching it.
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Found it. Slient mode was on.
That's a bug:
When silent mode is on, the program will never update. Not even when manually clicking Update.
@Avast, I hope you're reading along, so please fix this bug ;)
Reported to dev team - definitely a bug ;) Thanks for catching it.
I can confirm that this bug was still present in version 2014.9.0.2013. I had silent/gaming mode on and clicking the upgrade button didn't do anything. Once I turned off silent/gaming mode and clicked on the the upgrade button, it started to update and successfully updated to version 2014.9.0.2016.
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I've been having the exact same problem so came here to see if there was a solution. THANK YOU thany!
And the only reason I logged in was to express my annoyance with so-called "experts" who can only reccommend uninstalling, reinstalling, or that the problem must be with the user, not the program and refuse to accept the idea they might be WRONG. Not just here, far too often in far too many situations.
I have been able to right-click "update" and then update the program, while in silent mode until after the previous update. And I keep up to date with my antivirus programs, I'm anal about it. So, thany's solution is THE solution. Simple, quick and effective. Thanks again.
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I want to thank Thany as well for this solution. This bug has been annoying me so much I was planning on un-installing all my Avast products from all the PC's/mobile devices under my control due to this annoying bug and the horrific suggestions that we need to wipe everything throughly in safe mode followed by a fresh install... and the rest of that BS.
I now have much less confidence in the avast products lines and this is a shame. This is not the only thread this problem has been reported at, and only Thany found a decent solution.
When you cannot update a program even manually...then the devs should be all over this problem!
There should be a temporary solution to this...where the program should notify you that you need to switch silent mode off in order to update even manually. Having to go through a number of threads regarding similar problems until I found this solution by Thany, was a waste of my time.
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There should be a temporary solution to this...where the program should notify you that you need to switch silent mode off in order to update even manually. Having to go through a number of threads regarding similar problems until I found this solution by Thany, was a waste of my time.
Since this is an actual bug that was just acknowledged by Avast, the simple solution is to not use the silent gaming mode on a permanent basis till the problem has been fixed.
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There should be a temporary solution to this...where the program should notify you that you need to switch silent mode off in order to update even manually. Having to go through a number of threads regarding similar problems until I found this solution by Thany, was a waste of my time.
Since this is an actual bug that was just acknowledged by Avast, the simple solution is to not use the silent gaming mode on a permanent basis till the problem has been fixed.
Since the whole point of the silent/gaming mode is not to bug you with popups or audible notices, having a popup/notice sort of breaks that isolation whilst gaming, etc.
I think working out a temporary fix even if possible, essentially that would break the point of silent/gaming mode; they should make it a priority to get it fixed. And as Bob said, just use the silent/gaming mode whilst actually gaming.
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I was also unable to perform a manual program update of Avast until I disabled "silent" mode.
I keep it in silent mode all of the time, regardless if a full screen application is active or not.
Thanks, glad I found this thread as well :)
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Add me to one of the many "unwashed" would could not update the program until silent mode was turned off.
A bit frustrating to read this thread and all the advice you knew would not work UNTIL, Thany came up with the solution.
Surprised it has not been fixed yet. But, for a free program, guess we can't complain much.
Anyway, again, many thanks to Thany....
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Silent mode is designed to prevent popups, changes affecting games/presentations etc.
If someone has program updates set to auto and halfway through a game or full screen app, your AV suddenly goes through an update , then reboots, you wouldn't be too pleased.
So, is this a bug, or there by design?
Clearly there is a difference between an automated popup message and the user manually clicking on Update in the Avast interface. So yes it is a bug and you should not have had to be told that. 2 seconds of thought would have given you the answer.
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Silent mode is designed to prevent popups, changes affecting games/presentations etc.
If someone has program updates set to auto and halfway through a game or full screen app, your AV suddenly goes through an update , then reboots, you wouldn't be too pleased.
So, is this a bug, or there by design?
Clearly there is a difference between an automated popup message and the user manually clicking on Update in the Avast interface. So yes it is a bug and you should not have had to be told that. 2 seconds of thought would have given you the answer.
Welcome to the forum.
It's always nice to welcome someone who is perfect and never makes a mistake or overlooks anything.
You should be a great asset on this help forum. :)
I look forward to seeing you're helping comments.