Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: nightshade on May 13, 2008, 05:54:46 PM
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My Zone Alarm Program Control Settings Entry Detail After Update To 4.8.1195 are as follows
avast antivirus update version 4.8.0.0
avast email scanner service 4.8.1184.0
avast web scanner 4.8.1195.0
Do these look correct for the recent 1195 update?
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Have you rebooted after the update ?
I can't see where ZA got these version numbers from as the minimum I would have though would be 4.8.1169 as that was the previous release version before 4.8.1195 and I can't recall there being even a beta build of 4.8.1184. There might have been an internal Alwil version build 1184 be we never saw it.
See the images, just hover the mouse pointer over the files and you will see the file information or right click and select Properties.
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Have you rebooted after the update ?
Yes.
I have removed the Avast related entries, and I then clicked on my web browser, and an alert for a changed program popped up, so I allowed it.
The settings are now as follows -
avast antivirus update version 4.8.0.0
avast email scanner service 4.8.1169.0
avast web scanner 4.8.1195.0
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I haven't got a clue what ZA is doing, I'm not a fan of it to say the least since I abandoned ship well over 4 years ago I have been with Agnitum's Outpost, first the free version (old and no development) and then I bough the Pro version on a good lifetime license deal.
Have you actually done as I suggested and just hover the mouse pointer over the files and you will see the file information or right click and select Properties.
That takes the information directly from the files, I wouldn't rely on ZA it doesn't even recognise avast as an anti-virus so how is it going to get anything else right.
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Do you mean hover over the Avast windows folders etc?
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Yes, in windows explorer, hover the mouse over the avast files (all in the avast4 folder) in my images and that will tel you what the file information is, version, etc.
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Yes, in windows explorer, hover the mouse over the avast files (all in the avast4 folder) in my images and that will tel you what the file information is, version, etc.
I cleared the ZA internet logs folder and re-booted, the settings in ZA are now as follows -
avast antivirus update version 4.8.0.0 - last modified date 13/05/08 - file size 2456kb
avast email scanner service 4.8.1195.0 - last modified date 12/05/08 - file size 241kb
avast web scanner 4.8.1195.0 - last modified date 12/05/08 - file size 337kb
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I am sure it was tech that said it was ok for the avast antivirus update version 4.8.0.0 - last modified date 13/05/08 - file size 2456kb to show as 4.8.0.0 as it doesnt recognise the executable version or something like that, perhaps Tech could confirm this.
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Stop looking in the ZA logs they are clearly wrong.
I mean you even quoted my reply to use windows explorer to check the physical files in the avast4 folder and not the ZA Logs.
If you want the correct information go to the source, the files them selves and either right click on them and select Properties and then the Version tab and File version, or the simple way I said at first just hover over the file name in windows explorer.
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Stop looking in the ZA logs they are clearly wrong.
I mean you even quoted my reply to use windows explorer to check the physical files in the avast4 folder and not the ZA Logs.
If you want the correct information go to the source, the files them selves and either right click on them and select Properties and then the Version tab and File version, or the simple way I said at first just hover over the file name in windows explorer.
I checked the files in the Avast folders and I could see they were the correct versions, apart from the avast.setup, which shows as version 4.8.0.0, there is no 1195 beside it.
I was having problems with ZA, so the only way to sort it was to delete the ZA internet logs and start afresh.
Having done this I have added those correct files to ZA and they show as 1195, apart from the Avast antivirus update, avast.setup that is which as I have said before is showing as 4.8.0.0, and it's also showing as that in the set up folder within Avast.
It was igor that mentioned something about this here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=34730.msg291493#msg291493
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You shouldn't be able to find avast.setup it isn't a permanent file, it is created to carry out the update and once complete it is removed, so I don't know where you found that ?
You will possibly have noticed that I didn't post an image for avast.setup as it isn't there and it doesn't live in the avast4 folder when it is created, the setup.ovr file generates the avast.setup file in the setup folder (you will notice it is the same file size).
Now I have just made myself a liar as I have just checked and for some weird and wonderful reason avast.setup is sat in my setup folder and the version matches the one you posted. So I don't know why it isn't being removed after the update any more, but it looks like it has been there for a while created 10/2007, see image, when your years it was just deleted after an update. I wonder why, possibly because some firewalls have some difficulty allowing permission for a temporary file ???
Igor's answer related to a beta build where version numbering isn't a huge priority, but for a regular program update the versions numbers are updated. However this doesn't look the same based on my finding an 'old' copy of avast.setup sitting in the setup folder.
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So where do I go from here then, should what I have reported be ok then?
Not sure what you meant by you found an old copy, I thought that you said you found the same file as I did in your current avast setup folder.
Can you perhaps mention this to vlk and see what he can come up with.
I have sent him an actual email myself, so I don't know if he will reply or not but you could ask him anyway.
Thanks.
EDIT
When I right click the file I see the creation/modified date as 13 May 2008 16:23:53,
There are 29 files in my set up folder, well actually 28 are visable one system file remains hidden as per my windows view options config.
If there is ever an update to a 4.9 version then I would expect to see that version in that setup file, and perhaps it just updates itself each time but never being removed as it maybe should be.
I've just noticed that I can copy the entry detail here.
Product name avast! Antivirus
File name C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\avast.setup
Last policy update 13/05/08 21:04:16
Version 4, 8, 0, 0
Last modified date 13/05/08 16:23:48
File size 2456 KB
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Hi David,
do not know if it helps but my avast.setup seems to date from the installation of build 1074 (late evening 10/26 2007 my time).
That seems very close to the time of yours.
I assume that now avast.setup will have the creation date/time of the last full clean installation of avast or the date we have, whichever is later.
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@ nightshade
Don't worry about the avast.setup file it seems that the policy to remove it after an update has changed and your version number matches mine. If the physical version numbers of the other files are as you reported match the current version 4.8.1195 then you have no problem with the files installed.
By an 'old copy' of avast.setup I talk of, I class it as being old as it previously wouldn't have been there and its creation date verses its last modified date was old, but it is perfectly valid if as I suspect the policy on this file has changed, e.g. it remains after an update.
As to where to go from here, forget checking the ZA logs they seem to be telling lies, when you want file information it is always best to go to the source (the physical file) and not a third party log, especially on like ZA as we have seen in the past it doesn't recognise avast as an AV and now we are seeing it can't correctly report the file version details.
I can no more mention it to Vlk than you can, I don't work for Alwil, besides that there really is nothing to mention as this is a problem with ZA and not avast.
@ Alan
I too now assume we will have a permanent copy of avast.setup as it would appear that the policy on this file has changed. So yes in light of those who have had avast for a while the creation date will be in my case 27/10/2008 because of the time zone difference or there abouts and new installations would be the installation date.
So we would have the Date Modified which would coincide with any update which required the avast.setup to be modified, mine still shows a date modified of 12/05/2008 22:38 so nothing changed in the avast.setup in the last couple of VPS updates that were downloaded.
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The version number (in the PE resource section) of the file avast.setup doesn't get updated (for each subversion) - it is indeed showing 4,8,0,0. This is by design.
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Yes, but are our assumptions correct about the policy change, in that the avast.setup no longer gets removed after it has done the update, it will remain a permanent file in the setup folder (not being created from the setup.ovr file each time) ?
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Well, sort of, we're not deleting it anymore. But it can still get overwritten at any time (that's up to the updater to decide).
This is a part of the many "optimizations" made in the 4.8 version of the updater (especially for the automatic/background updates). We try to do only the bare minimum, to minimize the CPU cycles (and disk reads/writes) needed to perform the background update.
Cheers
Vlk
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Thanks for the update Vlk.
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Well, sort of, we're not deleting it anymore. But it can still get overwritten at any time (that's up to the updater to decide).
This is a part of the many "optimizations" made in the 4.8 version of the updater (especially for the automatic/background updates). We try to do only the bare minimum, to minimize the CPU cycles (and disk reads/writes) needed to perform the background update.
Cheers
Vlk
Thanks for the update vlk, although I did send you an email about this, and I wondered if you did receive it?