Some weird things about Avast! Free 2015 (new version) is this normal?

[REDACTED]

So after installing the newest version of Avast! Free today I've noticed some weird things/settings and maybe some bugs with it.

Is there any particular reason why the ability to remove the store and certain advertisements on the UI was removed? I could have sworn on version 2014 (2021) that there was a setting... "Show recommended features" and there was some ability to untick it, which removed the store and annoying advertisements from the UI. Why was this ability removed? Now I constantly have to see these annoying things all the time.

Also... the main issue I've been having is with the new Web Shield, specifically this new setting within it. The HTTPS scanning option... I remember version 2014 had no issues with web-scanning at all and it scanned most things on the page without permissions... but now when you have the HTTPS scanning setting off, it scans pretty much nothing on sites such as Youtube, Paypal, Facebook, Twitter and I could go on. Pretty much any site with https protection.

Whenever I turn this setting on I get a completely new problem, well... I don't know if it's a problem or just whether it's the way this new version is coded but whenever I watch a single video on youtube or even try to load any https based website, the amount of physical RAM my computer uses goes up quite significantly... now I watch Youtube very very often, infact... every day... and I'll sometimes leave playlists playing for a while but I can't do this right now as after playing about 6-7 videos the RAM Avast! uses goes beyond 130ish MB from like 70.. is this behavior normal?

I check how many files are being scanned by the Web Shield by using the Statistics tab in the UI to bring up the details... after a night of scanning it normally averages at about 1000+ files but even after about a few hours its only scanned like 80.

Why was this HTTPS setting added in the first place? There seemed nothing wrong with the way these shields were implemented during version 2014...

[RejZoR]

Yeah, the option to hide store was removed. I liked it as well, but that's the way it is now. To be honest, it's not really annoying. Store button is there, but if you never click it, all you'll see is that button and nothing else. Not really annoying unlike in most other AV's where you get "fake" buttons everywhere that just show what you can get if you buy a full version but they don't really do anything when you're a free user. I frankly don't mind it since i've started using avast! 2015 BETA back in august. I think you'll forget about it as well in no time.

The reson why Web Shield no scans so much stuff is because so many sites are using HTTPS by default now (loads of forums, blogs, Facebook, everything from Google etc). And old HTTP scanner was unable to scan any of that. That's why they incorporated HTTPS scanner, so they can also scan those connections. Before HTTPS scanning was added, any encrypted page skipped the Web Shield and was only scanned by the File System Shield once connection alreagy got through the browser. Web Shield scans it befor it even enters the browser. That's why it's better to scan stuff before it enters browser to prevent exploits and stuff.

As for memory usage, it can temporarely increase, because it has to scan more stuff now. Plus decrypting HTTPS connections also requires memory, though i don't think that should be the case, because HTTPS has to be decrypted before it can be used and that is always done either by browser itself or avast!. So that shouldn't make any difference i think.

[REDACTED]

Yeah, the option to hide store was removed. I liked it as well, but that's the way it is now. To be honest, it's not really annoying. Store button is there, but if you never click it, all you'll see is that button and nothing else. Not really annoying unlike in most other AV's where you get "fake" buttons everywhere that just show what you can get if you buy a full version but they don't really do anything when you're a free user. I frankly don't mind it since i've started using avast! 2015 BETA back in august. I think you'll forget about it as well in no time.

The reson why Web Shield no scans so much stuff is because so many sites are using HTTPS by default now (loads of forums, blogs, Facebook, everything from Google etc). And old HTTP scanner was unable to scan any of that. That's why they incorporated HTTPS scanner, so they can also scan those connections. Before HTTPS scanning was added, any encrypted page skipped the Web Shield and was only scanned by the File System Shield once connection alreagy got through the browser. Web Shield scans it befor it even enters the browser. That's why it's better to scan stuff before it enters browser to prevent exploits and stuff.

As for memory usage, it can temporarely increase, because it has to scan more stuff now. Plus decrypting HTTPS connections also requires memory, though i don't think that should be the case, because HTTPS has to be decrypted before it can be used and that is always done either by browser itself or avast!. So that shouldn't make any difference i think.

Thanks for the reply. That sucks about the store thing... I hate seeing it to be honest but I guess I'll just have to deal with it. The UI and stuff in general does seem a lot more responsive and such, the shields seem stable but I'm still a little worried about the amount of RAM my computer uses when HTTPS scanning is enabled. It seems to increase with every https site visited too, one after the other and after exiting the browser... some of the memory that was taken is returned but not all of it.

Would it just be better to leave it unticked? It seems to use about as much memory as version 2014 did when unticked so I don't know if this was the default setting or not as it was a fresh install of 2015 but... is it advised to turn this particular feature on? I mean it is one of the new features.

Did something also happen to the way the UI is coded? Because AvastUI.exe is also using more memory than before, I mean I'm not worried really about that because it's a new version and they've probably coded it differently but in some aspects certain things seem to be hogging memory more than before, which is counter-productive if you ask me.

[RejZoR]

I frankly never observed memory usage since switching to Windows Vista like a decade ago. I have a tablet with 2GB of RAM and i've never realy checked the memory usage. It just works fine.

[DavidR]

@ Braver
Did you do a clean install of 2015.10.0.2206 ?

I haven't done a clean install for some considerable time and I can't see this Store button you mention. Possibly because I unchecked that option some time ago and it hasn't come back on a program update from the avastUI.

[REDACTED]

@ Braver
Did you do a clean install of 2015.10.0.2206 ?

I haven't done a clean install for some considerable time and I can't see this Store button you mention. Possibly because I unchecked that option some time ago and it hasn't come back on a program update from the avastUI.

I did, yes. I did just an update at first from the previous version but I have this weird problem where whenever I install a version over another version or even when using the AvastClear.exe to fresh start, it deletes the Avast Emergency Update client from my scheduled tasks, thus I have to do a fresh install until it reappears.

I know the reason that the store tab has appeared, is because my settings were basically set to default upon reinstalling it fresh, thus my previous settings from 2014 (including recommended features off) were gone and there is now no setting for removing the store or any sales advertisements from the UI. Unless there's an .ini setting I can change?

[Para-Noid]

I did a clean install and the avast store isn't there.
Just as in v2014 you can change the tiles on the GUI by right clicking.

[REDACTED]

I did a clean install and the avast store isn't there.
Just as in v2014 you can change the tiles on the GUI by right clicking.

Well when I first installed 2015 I didn't actually fresh install it, I installed it over 2014 so it kept all my original settings from 2014 and the store wasn't there. But I was having some problems with the overinstalling removing Avast! Emergency Update form my scheduled tasks... which is a common occurrence for me... even when using AvastClear... it always uninstalled everything but that task and I have to manually delete it from my task scheduler. I had to do a fresh install for this service to return but upon doing this all my setting were referred back to the default settings.

And the Store tab is now there... and I can't get rid of it like you could in 2014 where there was a setting to remove it and the ads... "Show Recommended Features", but that is no longer an option.

I didn't know about being able to change the icons in the GUI, that's useful information. But I'm not sure why you don't have the store there, but I do... I didn't back up my old settings when I reinstalled so...ehhh...