Author Topic: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears  (Read 57556 times)

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Offline SSunnergren

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #30 on: October 22, 2013, 04:41:47 PM »
Just an fyi... I also ran into this with the business edition...upgraded two machines to Win8.1 and lost Avast!. Submitted a trouble ticket and received this in response...

"Hello,  Current Business Client version is still 8.0.1490, Windows 8.1 supporting version will be releasing soon
http://www.avast.com/release-history-business.  Thanks"

...so they obviously know of the issue. I also believe, however, that it is strange that they fix the free version before supporting those that have paid for this product to protect their business systems.


Dewg

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #31 on: October 22, 2013, 04:54:58 PM »
I get where you're coming from SSunnergren, but I can also understand Avast's approach.  The Free/Pro users are the beta testers - they get the latest releases and have to deal with stability issues.  Once everything is stable on a large install base, they release it to paying business customers.  It sucks not to get the latest and greatest quickly, especially paying for the software - but I'd much prefer to have a flawless experience for my users and support staff.

All I was looking for with this thread was to help others not fall into the same blue-screen problems - and to get a response from Avast on when the latest stable build will be released to support Windows 8.1.

Offline SSunnergren

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #32 on: October 22, 2013, 05:06:19 PM »
Agreed about having it tested by Freebies, but I think it could have been handled better. As soon as they found that they had an issue, I think proper customer support would have included an email to their paying customer contacts that they should not upgrade until the fix is available. I guess I was lucky in that neither of my machines blue-screened, but they could have been a little more proactive so their customers don't waste their time and so that they know that the issue is being addressed. If I had that email, I could have waited...

Dch48

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #33 on: October 22, 2013, 09:52:50 PM »
The problem still is, at least in part, Microsoft's fault. The 8.1 update destroys registry entries for other software as well, including Comodo, Classic Shell, and ATI/AMD video drivers. I'm sure there are others too. They advertise that the update will leave all your existing things intact when in fact, it doesn't.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2013, 12:13:14 PM by Dch48 »

Offline strgzr69

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #34 on: October 23, 2013, 06:39:10 AM »
Wahh! It's " Microsoft's fault."
This upgrade has been in the works for several months now. Does avast have people working on the problem or not? I don't think it's MS's problem! It's avast's problem if their stupid development team can't keep up with MS's upgrades. What the hell are they doing down there, Sleeping??? Wake up. And I'm counting every day that goes by and I expect some compensation. I didn't pay money for avast to go to sleep on the job! Damn I hate people who blame others for their own incompetence!

Offline lukas.hasik

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #35 on: October 23, 2013, 11:51:49 PM »
Wahh! It's " Microsoft's fault."
This upgrade has been in the works for several months now. Does avast have people working on the problem or not? I don't think it's MS's problem! It's avast's problem if their stupid development team can't keep up with MS's upgrades. What the hell are they doing down there, Sleeping??? Wake up. And I'm counting every day that goes by and I expect some compensation. I didn't pay money for avast to go to sleep on the job! Damn I hate people who blame others for their own incompetence!

How can we assure a compatibility of our old product with future products from other company... Avast 8 doesn't work on Windows 8.1. We are negotiating some improvement with MS however it's not that easy.
Quality is also a feature.

nannunannu

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #36 on: October 24, 2013, 04:28:13 PM »
How can we assure a compatibility of our old product with future products from other company... Avast 8 doesn't work on Windows 8.1. We are negotiating some improvement with MS however it's not that easy.

Test your old product on the pre-release code, identify incompatibility, release a new product....  Like you did with the Pro version. 

Quote
build 8.0.1497 reportedly works with Windows 8.1.  However, the current release of the Business products is 8.0.1490

Offline MegaRich

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #37 on: October 24, 2013, 07:31:09 PM »
It's not just the upgrade, I did a fresh, vanilla install of 8.1, installed avast enterprise only, rebooted and got a bluescreen after the install. On two computers.

Only way to get it to boot up was to go into safe mode and type this:
sc config aswsnx start= demand

Frankly this is something that most home users can't/won't do.

Whether or not they admit it, Microsoft is probably removing avast on purpose because they know that if they leave it installed, they'll get even more support calls and complaints about a hung update, or worse, a bluescreen after the update. (For the record, on RTM day, I couldn't even upgrade my home pc from 8 to 8.1 until I removed Avast entirely, otherwise the process would hang at a "Getting things ready..." screen and the update would rollback - I tried three times, then removed Avast and it just worked. Properly.)

I'm sure that they're doing it this way to ensure that their update completes successfully, and to highlight the fact that everything works fine until you re-install avast. Then it goes downhill and you have a clear picture of why.

Sure, finger-point and blame the Microsoft upgrade process, but at some point you guys (Avast) need to realize that Avast Business doesn't work on 8.1 at all and given how open the access was to the preview version and the RTM, you have to take some responsibility. Furthermore, the fact that the free version works when the business versions don't is a joke.

This is like the Windows Update Please Wait loop all over again - yes, I get that you think that MS should change how they're implementing pieces of their software, but news flash, they won't. Why would they negotiate or work with you when there's a ton of other antivirus vendors who manage to get this stuff right without handholding from Microsoft. Even if you think they should do it better, there's obviously ways to make it work without their intervention.

On that note, since Microsoft's strategy seems to indicate that yearly updates are going to replace service packs, I can't afford to wait for avast to negotiate with Microsoft everytime an RTM blows up your software. It's unrealistic and will delay implementations. As a avast partner, I'm not going to start telling my customers that they can't upgrade their OS because avast doesn't support it yet - the response to that will be: "Well, I want the latest and greatest os. What about ____(insert competitor's product here)____? Will their product work?"

You need to understand I like avast, I'm proud to support it and promote it, but when you do stuff like this, it's embarrassing. Standing by and recommending your product when you make such obvious misfires will eventually make my customers come to second-guess my suggestions. I don't want to sell your product, I want to deliver my customers the best possible solution. For many years, it was easy to do both. I could sell avast and sleep at night because it was the best possible solution. This was win-win. Now, I'm not sure and neither are my customers.

If I didn't like avast, I wouldn't even bother posting - I'd already be looking at other products, but you need to understand that this criticism is valid and that I validly want to see you succeed. To that end, you need to lock this down and figure it out before 8.2 or 9 or whatever comes out or I suspect that I (and many others) will start looking for products that aren't going to delay my software implementations or bluescreen a fresh install.

NetPotion

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #38 on: October 25, 2013, 06:22:41 AM »
Well I'm using Windows 8 Pro and just updated to 8.1

Avast Internet Security really messed my system up. I tried reinstalling it and it messed it up even worse. My keyboard quit working completely, and Avast threw an error with any attempt to uninstall. Compatibility mode did not help at all.

I was lucky enough that my computer didn't blue screen and I had a system restore point set prior to another Windows update. I rolled it back and that fixed my keyboard, but Avast does not show up in uninstall programs at all - yet it should.

My laptop is slower than snot now and Avast lost a paying customer. This is entirely unacceptable.

To those who are blaming Microsoft for this, you don't know what you are talking about. Avast is responsible to make sure their software works with the latest versions of any given OS, not vice verse. If they cannot even manage that, how are they to be trusted for keeping up with the latest virus's?

Dear Alwil - this is ridiculous and you know. At a minimum you should respond to this thread. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

deckie49

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #39 on: November 01, 2013, 09:32:27 PM »
I tend to agree with Eddy. I had absolutely no problems with Avast or any other program with Windows 8. Once I downloaded and installed the free update to 8.1 I completely lost Avast and my firewall program. I have not yet checked other programs. I was able to reinstall the firewall, and was in the process of reinstalling Avast when I found this thread. Now, I'm somewhat leary of reinstalling Avast for fear that I will further screw up the system. God, how I hate Windows 8!! This is my wife's laptop. She doesn't care about OS's etc as long as she can run her desktop programs. Me, I am staying as far away from 8 as I can on my computers.

nannunannu

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #40 on: November 01, 2013, 10:03:11 PM »
I tend to agree with Eddy. I had absolutely no problems with Avast or any other program with Windows 8. Once I downloaded and installed the free update to 8.1 I completely lost Avast and my firewall program. I have not yet checked other programs. I was able to reinstall the firewall, and was in the process of reinstalling Avast when I found this thread. Now, I'm somewhat leary of reinstalling Avast for fear that I will further screw up the system. God, how I hate Windows 8!! This is my wife's laptop. She doesn't care about OS's etc as long as she can run her desktop programs. Me, I am staying as far away from 8 as I can on my computers.

Assuming this comment is about a fre/pro version and not a business version on your wife's laptop - in which case avast 8 v8.0.1497 or avast! 2014 will work fine on her computer... 

That, however, has very little to do with why we are upset that they have failed to release a version for paying business customers with the same level of windows 8.1 compatibility.  Which is what this thread is about.  :/

mjld

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #41 on: November 02, 2013, 11:11:56 AM »
IT IS STILL ON MY MACHINE - BUT I ONLY KNEW AFTER STUMBLING ACROSS IT!
After installing windows 8.1 as an update to windows 8,  I hadn't realised AVAST had disappeared for some hours, until I tried to virus-check a download.  I couldn't see AVAST on my machine despite searching in Program Files and Program Files x86,  so saw this correspondence and decided to download and install avast 2014.   Only later did I discover a folder called Windows.old with a number of subfolders including (Windows.old\)Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast  !!!

PS where's Speak Like a Pirate in Avast! 2014?

clangers

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #42 on: November 02, 2013, 06:52:40 PM »
This is such an unprofessional and pathetic excuse. You've had Windows 8.1 RTM for how long? Three months or so. Let's not forget the numerous pre-release versions of Windows 8.1. As a software developer who works on a well known product you've had months to identify issues and have let down your business customers completely.

Your excuse of 'it's Microsoft's fault for releasing a new version of an OS' is astounding. Perhaps you should argue that Avast was originally developed for XP and it's unreasonable to expect it to work on anything else and awful Microsoft keep releasing new versions of their OS every few years. Why can't they just stay with the same OS forever?

Get your act together, stop making excuses for your own failings and for ripping off your customers.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2013, 07:25:03 PM by clangers »

clangers

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #43 on: November 02, 2013, 07:24:02 PM »
Wahh! It's " Microsoft's fault."
This upgrade has been in the works for several months now. Does avast have people working on the problem or not? I don't think it's MS's problem! It's avast's problem if their stupid development team can't keep up with MS's upgrades. What the hell are they doing down there, Sleeping??? Wake up. And I'm counting every day that goes by and I expect some compensation. I didn't pay money for avast to go to sleep on the job! Damn I hate people who blame others for their own incompetence!

How can we assure a compatibility of our old product with future products from other company... Avast 8 doesn't work on Windows 8.1. We are negotiating some improvement with MS however it's not that easy.

As has been stated that's part of the development cycle, you've had access to several pre-release versions of 8.1. How have you managed to update the free and pro version in time but not the enterprise versions?

Can I have a refund? I have a number of PC's that need to run 8.1 and as a company in the business of 'protecting' PC's your not much use if your product doesn't work out of the box on current OS's. Perhaps we should just turn off our PC's and shut up shop until you get your act together?

Dch48

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Re: Windows 8.1 Upgrade - Avast disappears
« Reply #44 on: November 02, 2013, 09:57:20 PM »
IT IS STILL ON MY MACHINE - BUT I ONLY KNEW AFTER STUMBLING ACROSS IT!
After installing windows 8.1 as an update to windows 8,  I hadn't realised AVAST had disappeared for some hours, until I tried to virus-check a download.  I couldn't see AVAST on my machine despite searching in Program Files and Program Files x86,  so saw this correspondence and decided to download and install avast 2014.   Only later did I discover a folder called Windows.old with a number of subfolders including (Windows.old\)Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast  !!!

PS where's Speak Like a Pirate in Avast! 2014?
That windows.old folder is created every time you do an in place upgrade of Windows from one version to another.  It is a backup of the previous version and settings and can be useful if there are problems with the upgrade although it never has been anything but a waste of HDD space for me. It can be 6GB or more in size. If you have no problems after upgrading, that folder can and should be removed by the disk cleanup utility's advanced options. Google for removing windows.old and you will find clear instructions for doing so.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2013, 09:59:08 PM by Dch48 »