Hi.
A question and a note and come comments from somebody who has used Avast 6 for a good few years now.
My main query is this: is Avast 6 still fully functional insofar as virus detection and removal is concerned (I'm more concerned about viruses contained in email attachments and files than I am with viruses that come from web pages and pop-up ads etc.)? I mean to say: the virus definitions are still being updated for Avast 6 so where's the problem (if any)? The reason I ask is this: at some point I downloaded Avast 7 and that was a total "mess" so reverted back to Avast 6. This week I thought I'd "take the plunge" and give Avast 8 a try. But another "mess" e.g. having to do all sorts of things MANUALLY to get the Ad Blocker installed and working in Google Chrome and Firefox, it NOT working in IE8 at all (I'm running Windows XP SP 3 by the way), the Avast 8 user interface informing me (in "Browser Integration") that some of the modules were NOT installed and yet I could clearly see that they WERE installed in each browser (and visa versa). This type of thing. YES: there are "fixes" and "workarounds" on these and the support forums but why should this be necessary (yeh I know: one COULD say the same for Microsoft too let's face it). Anyway and I really don't mean to be "rude" here: but it really appears to me as though Avast has somehow "dropped the ball" since Avast 6. Avast 6 "just works". I cannot say the same (in my experience anyway) for Avast 7 and Avast 8 unfortunately. Be that as it may though: given that I really hardly ever browse sites that are of a "dubious" nature and really only access sites that are familiar to me would you (somebody, anybody) say that Avast 6 is still "good to go"?
Now this is concerning (and hopefully useful to others):
For ONCE in my life I had to try and find some software for somebody and DID INDEED have to browse sites of a "dubious" nature. After finding what I was looking for: I did a full boot-time scan (with all setting on "high") with Avast 6 and it found nothing (no problems at all). I did a full system scan with Avast 6 as well (just to be sure): and still nothing was found. I also ran the latest version of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool. Again: nothing. I then (as I noted above) installed Avast 8 this week and performed the same scans. STILL nothing. I again ran Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool. STILL nothing. But here's the "corker": I downloaded and installed Microsoft's Safety Scanner and guess what??? No less than EIGHT files were reported to have malware in them (and, well, as I suspected, it just so happens that these were the files that I downloaded from "dubious" sites). Microsoft's Safety Scanner removed the files and everything is great. But it's rather concerning (in my opinion) that neither Avast 6 nor Avast 8 (nor Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool) didn't find these files.
It get's even MORE interesting. I happened to offer to "sort out" a notebook for somebody the other day (running Windows Vista for Business). They had Avast 8 installed and all the definitions were updated. Avast 8 was run (on the same basis as noted above) and found nothing. Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool ALSO found nothing (latest version). Microsoft's Safety Scanner ALSO found nothing. The "corker" HERE: "just for fun" I downloaded and installed Microsoft Security Essentials and, well, it found three infected files and removed them. Go figure. The only reason (by the way) that I suspected that there was something "not right" with this notebook was that because of its hardware configuration etc. it should have been "flying" but it was VERY slow and CPU utilization when IDLE was constantly hovering between 80% and 100%!!! After the files had been removed by Microsoft Security Essentials: the CPU utilization dropped to 0% when idle (well: it now hovers between 0% and 2% with the occasional spike above that when idle).
So I don't know what to make of all of this to be honest. Any thoughts, input, a discussion maybe (that may be useful to others) would be welcome here.
Regards,
Dale.
