Staying with 2014.9.0.2008

[sdluthier]

Is there any reason why I cannot continue using this version of the program rather than updating to 2104.9.0.2011? I have had no problems and it's working just fine. It seems like I have to do the occasional manual update, but when I check the component status under statistics there are always over 120 updates in the last 24 hours.
If I do not update can the program update automatically even if I have manual update checked?
Thanks for any replies and Happy New Year to all.
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[jwoods301]

No reason at all...

I rolled back a Windows XP SP3 system and a Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 system to 9.0.2008 and there are no issues with either one.

I certainly hope that Avast learned the lesson from the recent chaos caused by no advance notice to users that some systems would be automatically updated because of a conflict with Windows Updates.

[NoelC]

Is there any reason why I cannot continue using this version

As stated above, no technical reason, but...

Anti-malware technology MUST evolve to handle the latest threats.  Taken to an extreme (staying with a "comfortable" version forever), it would cause you to fall so far out of date that your anti-malware software might completely miss newly crafted threats.  And thus you could be infected with a virus or worm or worse and the whole reason for having Avast and it's auto-update facilities would be lost.

Having the Avast team keep on top of threats so we don't have to is a very powerful thing.

Just something to keep in mind.

-Noel

[gotty]

Anti-malware software does have to evolve, but if the cure is worse than the threat then something is seriously wrong ... and that is where I find Avast has reached.

Just updated to 9.0.2011 and a whole host of things aren't working on my computer - including Internet Explorer (which crashes).

Add this to the fact that dozens of programs that I've written now end up being flagged as threats, this is the end of Avast for me (and many others).

I have about 120 users of the software, of which I've encouraged the majority to use Avast and these all are having problems. So we're in the process of uninstalling Avast and will install an alternative AV product.

[NoelC]

...dozens of programs that I've written now end up being flagged as threats...

That wouldn't be "Win32:Evo Gen [Susp]" would it?

From everything I've been reading, the "[Susp]" part implies "a suspicious similarity to many samples of malware that have been reviewed by some kind of program Avast uses to try to distill out the essence of malware".  Unfortunately you're not alone in seeing this false positive. 

That said, I've reported a false positive, then found that a later update no longer detected it.  It does point out a gaping hole in Avast's strategy though...  For so long they've been so good at finding actual malware that they're really not set up to allow customers to deal with false positives very well.

-Noel

[gotty]

That wouldn't be "Win32:Evo Gen [Susp]" would it?

Indeed it is. Of 39 programs (written either in VB6 or Delphi), 37 are now being flagged as suspicious (originally it was only 8 of them). I can't submit them as they're written under agreement and contain proprietary information.

And the fact that IE no longer works is now making ongoing web development a nightmare.

[Para-Noid]

If you either stay with or roll back to 2008 be sure to make the program auto-update "manual".
If you have it set on auto-update you will go to 2011. FWIW 2011 has bug fixes which 2008 lacks.

edit: IE works if you disable the AOS plug-in.

[NoelC]

And the fact that IE no longer works is now making ongoing web development a nightmare.

IE11 works fine for me with the web shield in place.

Having the mvps hosts file to block parasites is a good first defense, as well as deconfiguring IE's out-of-box promiscuity (it will run ActiveX from anywhere with default settings).

-Noel

[NoelC]

I can't submit them as they're written under agreement and contain proprietary information.

This is an IMPORTANT point in the argument for getting Avast to provide better "expert" options, such as the ability to exclude a particular rule (e.g., until the next update, or from now on).  Or to ignore this particular detection and allow things to continue.

With things like [Susp] detections, there is no longer a cut and dried "yes, this is malware" determination, and the user needs to be able to control the behavior better.

-Noel

[sdluthier]

No reason at all...

I rolled back a Windows XP SP3 system and a Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 system to 9.0.2008 and there are no issues with either one.

I certainly hope that Avast learned the lesson from the recent chaos caused by no advance notice to users that some systems would be automatically updated because of a conflict with Windows Updates.

Thanks for that. And of course I understand that a newer version should better address evolving issues, however the older one will still update virus definitions. My question would be how can I turn off the annoying pop-ups insisting that I update to the newer version?
Thanks to all who replied on this thread.