7.0.1466 updated to 9.0.2021

[Asyn]

If someone can tell me how to regain use of my computer whilst using Avast! 2014 I will continue to hate the look of it so long as it does the job I've always trusted it to do. I'm using XP Pro SP3, FF v30 with no add-ons.

Start a new topic, we'll help you there.

[REDACTED]

If someone can tell me how to regain use of my computer whilst using Avast! 2014 I will continue to hate the look of it so long as it does the job I've always trusted it to do. I'm using XP Pro SP3, FF v30 with no add-ons.

Start a new topic, we'll help you there.

Stating all your problems in a new topic might help us figure out what is the matter with your sis. As you can see Asyn and I are running the latest and the Beta version of avast! with XP spk 3 with no problems at all.

[RejZoR]

That's like intentionally turning off your passengers airbag in a car, basically...

Why on Earth you hate v2014 so much that you want to stick with an outdated WORSE version from 2 years ago? People keep on raging about it yet i'm still waiting for a logical answer. Because not using the very latest AV version is the most illogical thing you can imagine...

[REDACTED]

I do recall that after a clean installation of windows your system immediately got infected at the moment you connected to your ISP if you had no av installed.
You would get the message "Windows is shutting down in 60 seconds"

hmm wasn't it Blaster or something?

Da.  iroc9555 pinged it.

But see https://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=Windows+is+shutting+down+in+60+seconds+malware&cat=web&pl=ie&language=english and https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Windows%20is%20shutting%20down%20in%2060%20seconds%20malware.

In every hit, we see (usually) Blaster picked up from some vector--web page, email, whatever.  I do recall several noteworthy people saying things like "The only virus on this disk is Windows"    It wouldn't be the first time people have compiled dodgy media to pirate Windows and... accidentally?... included some malware 

Anyhow, it looks like this thread is nearly exhausted, I'm feeling very pleased with myself, and some gardening awaits.

@drake127 - gotta lite, and can I has skins?

Gordon.

[REDACTED]

I don't normally take time to post petty objections to software updates. But the forced update to Avast 2014 is absolutely worth time to comment.

Reading every reply in this thread I agree with most every viewpoint expressed! Bloat, difficult, ugly, unsightly, worthless and not the leader of the pack! Wow if I were
a developer my feelings would be trashed at this point. I looked everywhere to find nice comments about 9.0.2021 but none to be found.

Lets face it - over the last few years Avast (trusted and relied upon by millions) has fallen short of the goal of protection in favor of what appears to be changes which
will allow for increased revenue generation whereby pop up adds may start showing up in our system tray. Coupled with hiding all settings deep within dialog boxes
nested in dialog  boxes. Even going so far as to assume we want all actions to be automatic by default when something is found and not asking for user input at all.
Wrap it all up in 1 dimensional Windows 8 UI and it doesn't take 30 seconds after the upgrade to realize you've been bamboozeled!! We cannot turn off individual services anymore given the choice of ALL or NOTHING.

My personal interest is motivated by the hundreds of computers I manage for small businesses and personal customers who I've been recommending and installing
Avast for over 10 years. 1 computer to 10 computers at a time and now I will spend hours reconfiguring this software for each customer on each computer for FREE!
Not that I want to mind you but I cannot charge for each hour or so per computer to configure Avast individually. Not to mention the 8 computers at my business which
will take more than a day to uninstall all the things others complained about. Grime Fighter, Browser Integration, etc., and change all the settings to ask what should be
done.

As many have stated before we have looked for previous version installers which met our needs. Version 7.0.1464 seemed to be my all around savior. Yes I could jump
ship and move to a different product. Many antivirus products have come and gone over the years. Some have become integrated nightmares offering firewalls,
dishwashers, and "gee let me help you with that cuz you know nothing about computers" crap! Avast has remained within the top 3 rated products for years until
recently with streamlined precision. Why jump ship when over time using Avast is an investment in saving our bacon.

My plea to the developers as well as everyone who has posted in this thread is clear - if you expect to survive this rather large oversight in your development prowess several things MUST change. If a much superior product is being offered to us you really wouldn't have to underhandedly force this update! Instead what looks like a ploy to force all of us onto your new pop-up advertising campaign must stop and an apology offered. Along with the following three items addressed:

1. Allow all users who are forced to upgrade to have control over advanced install options so we can feel like the bloat is minimized.
2. GUI options must be offered to those running touch screens or desktops as well as Windows 8 or previous Windows versions. On size does NOT fit all!
3. Stop nesting simple program settings within dialog box after dialog box. If I want to turn off sound for automatic updates I shouldn't have to search all day for the
answer or watch a youtube video to help entering a simple global exclusion for scanning. Allow turning on and off of certain modules individually is a must when developing apps. We are not asking for
something we didn't already have.

[REDACTED]

So what if you get an updated db an hour or two before I do, because I am checking once every two hours and you are having them streamed? What are the chances that in that 2-hr window (the longest window possible in this context) you are going to get one of the exact viruses included in that particular update, in that 2hr window?  Close to ZERO. Especially if you are a savvy user who does not engage in unsafe behaviors.

There is certainly nothing wrong with streaming updates if someone prefers them, but if you think that makes you significantly safer than checking every 2 hours, you must be constantly courting disaster.   

When the bad guys start spread malware with mail / facebook it goes fast, and then evry infected computer start spreading the malware, so it goes faster and faster.....that 2 hour window can be the difference of infected/not infected when that mail arrive in your inbox

If you are engaging in FB and other social networking, and using Web-based HTML-enabled email, then anything is possible because those ARE risky behaviors courting disaster. I don't do social networking and I use a stand alone email client config'd to text mode only... and always have. I don't even use the Mail shield in AVAST as I don't need it.

 

[REDACTED]

I don't normally take time to post petty objections to software updates. But the forced update to Avast 2014 is absolutely worth time to comment.

Reading every reply in this thread I agree with most every viewpoint expressed! Bloat, difficult, ugly, unsightly, worthless and not the leader of the pack! [...]

Thought i would repeat this since a handful of fanboys here can't seem to keep track of all the reasons some users dislike the new AVAST and want to stick with v7. So boys.... read it all one more time. And the next few paragraphs I snipped for brevity, too.

As many have stated before we have looked for previous version installers which met our needs. Version 7.0.1464 seemed to be my all around savior.

It hit the sweet spot for sure, given the alternatives...

Yes I could jump
ship and move to a different product. [...] Some have become integrated nightmares offering firewalls,
dishwashers, and "gee let me help you with that cuz you know nothing about computers" crap!

I feel your pain.

Avast has remained within the top 3 rated products for years until
recently with streamlined precision. Why jump ship when over time using Avast is an investment in saving our bacon.

I got so frustrated I tried out a few others just this morning... two of the current 'top three' ...but I like v7 of AVAST and am going to stick with it for now.

My plea to the developers as well as everyone who has posted in this thread is clear -[...]

1. Allow all users who are forced to upgrade to have control over advanced install options so we can feel like the bloat is minimized.
2. GUI options must be offered to those running touch screens or desktops as well as Windows 8 or previous Windows versions. On size does NOT fit all!
3. Stop nesting simple program settings within dialog box after dialog box. If I want to turn off sound for automatic updates I shouldn't have to search all day for the
answer or watch a youtube video to help entering a simple global exclusion for scanning. Allow turning on and off of certain modules individually is a must when developing apps. We are not asking for
something we didn't already have.

+1 And

1. Please put back the OPT-OUT option still included in v7, for those privacy-conscious users who do not want information gathered and submitted anywhere, for any reason, anonymous or not. (The notice one could opt-out of data collection was missing from the installation screen of v8, so unless it's been included in later versions...)

2. Make cloud services optional with the ability to have at least the basic File scanner done on-premise if one so chooses (i.e. the traditional model), for those who do not want to use cloud services. If certain features require cloud services, make those features optional (such as Web rep which is the kind of bloat I disable anyway).

[REDACTED]

[...] i can't understand why people use old outdated versions of antiviruses where being up to date at all times is top priority above anything else. Otherwise you may just as well not use any antivirus...

The db is up to date. If you think using AVAST v7 is no different than not using any AV at all, imagine any of the independent labs testing a machine with no AV, and one with AVAST v7.... (noodle that a minute).

Now imagine them testing a machine running AVAST v7 and AVAST v10.

If you think the difference would be anything but marginal, then by all means use v10.

[REDACTED]

Especially if you are a savvy user who does not engage in unsafe behaviors.

A "savvy" user will not be using outdated security software.

Someone who uses the newest version of any software just because it's new, even if it doesn't meet their needs, is not savvy, but foolish. Maybe v10 meets your needs. It doesn't meet mine. Nor any vers since 7.

And an AV is only a safety net to a savvy user, not their primary security. Primary security is always user-minimized risk.

[REDACTED]

So what if you get an updated db an hour or two before I do, because I am checking once every two hours and you are having them streamed? What are the chances that in that 2-hr window (the longest window possible in this context) you are going to get one of the exact viruses included in that particular update, in that 2hr window?  Close to ZERO. Especially if you are a savvy user who does not engage in unsafe behaviors.

There is certainly nothing wrong with streaming updates if someone prefers them, but if you think that makes you significantly safer than checking every 2 hours, you must be constantly courting disaster.   

When the bad guys start spread malware with mail / facebook it goes fast, and then evry infected computer start spreading the malware, so it goes faster and faster.....that 2 hour window can be the difference of infected/not infected when that mail arrive in your inbox

If you are engaging in FB and other social networking, and using Web-based HTML-enabled email, then anything is possible because those ARE risky behaviors courting disaster. I don't do social networking and I use a stand alone email client config'd to text mode only... and always have. I don't even use the Mail shield in AVAST as I don't need it.

I use all those things,  including HTML email (I couldn't stand it any other way), and have never been infected by anything in 15 years on line. No matter what AV I was using all the attempts were prevented.

[Eddy]

For all those that are whining about version 2014 being slow on XP, look at my system specs.
2014 is running very smoothly, just like previous versions did.
If it doesn't on your system, you should get your system/software setup properly.

[REDACTED]

Re: FB, social networking, HTML-enabled mail, etc.

I use all those things,  including HTML email (I couldn't stand it any other way), and have never been infected by anything in 15 years on line. No matter what AV I was using all the attempts were prevented.

You are either really lucky or just plain old exceptional. I would never want HTML-enabled mail (funny how we all have our preferences ) even if it wasn't risky.

I have been online since 1988, when everyone used 300 baud modems and the hottest ticket in town were privatized services like Prodigy, CompuServ and AOL... plus the local bulletin boards. Then when the Internet went graphic in 1994-5 Netcruiser came out, the first Windows-based software and browser for cruising the net. Yahoo! was the search engine and the entire contents of the Internet was indexed on the main homepage like a book index with categories. 

In those early days viruses were famous for erasing the hard drive (all 20MB ... yes that's *MB*) ...or wiping certain critical files. Screwing up your system somehow so you'd have to reinstall everything... which back then took about 45 minutes, and that's if you had a lot of tweaks and stuff you'd do afterward (hello Win for Workgroups, 3.11). But while I reinstalled plenty of times it was never due to a virus.

My AVs found a few low-grade infections here or there over the years though. Nothing serious and could have even been false positives. But nothing for quite a few years now. Though I don't leave myself open so it it's not surprising. But overall my record, while not clean like yours, is pretty darn good for 26yrs online!

[bob3160]

Nothing wrong with using HTML email or Facebook or Skype and any other popular social media.
Remember that there are also safeguards to be set up in social media.
Beside, avast! also has your back while your on social media.
Using outdated software is dangerous enough. Using an outdated AV is flirting with disaster.
It's your machine so it's your choice. I've made mine.  

[REDACTED]

Hello,
As I refuse on principle that anyone changes the contents of my computer without my permission, I made this operations to continue to operate under older version of Avast:
- Delete the updated 2014 version with the uninstall utility
- Install Zone Alarm firewall in manual / learning mode
- Download the installation soft of the chosen old version of Avast
- Disconnect the computer from internet
- Install the old version and parameter updates to manual
- Reconnect the computer to the internet
- Supervise Zone Alarm popups : Allow everything EXCEPT "EMERGENCY UPDATE" which must be banned / memorize the ban.

For now it works, I hope this will help.

That's pretty much what I did except that I allow the "emergency update" but stop the "avast_upd" I think it was that actually dowloads the new version.

FWIW I use an old version of ZA because it gives me much more control over what comes in and goes out through the firewall. They unfortunately went down the same bloatware route about 5 years ago.

[bob3160]

Hello,
As I refuse on principle that anyone changes the contents of my computer without my permission, I made this operations to continue to operate under older version of Avast:
- Delete the updated 2014 version with the uninstall utility
- Install Zone Alarm firewall in manual / learning mode
- Download the installation soft of the chosen old version of Avast
- Disconnect the computer from internet
- Install the old version and parameter updates to manual
- Reconnect the computer to the internet
- Supervise Zone Alarm popups : Allow everything EXCEPT "EMERGENCY UPDATE" which must be banned / memorize the ban.

For now it works, I hope this will help.

That's pretty much what I did except that I allow the "emergency update" but stop the "avast_upd" I think it was that actually dowloads the new version.

FWIW I use an old version of ZA because it gives me much more control over what comes in and goes out through the firewall. They unfortunately went down the same bloatware route about 5 years ago.

So you removed your protection and then went to the internet to download the older version of avast!
Going on the internet without any protection is pretty risky business.
If you insist on using the older version, then at least download all of the programs you need
to remove what you currently have and the installer for the version you intend to use.
Once that's done, you can disconnect from the internet and do the changeover in a safe environment.