Author Topic: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?  (Read 43502 times)

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Offline ondrejz

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Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« on: October 06, 2015, 06:58:21 PM »
Avast SafeZone browser is a substitution of the old SafeZone component and is now a fully-fledged web browser. However it offers much more things and improvements. We have added many built-in security layers to make it the most secured browser.

The SafeZone Browser is now part of Avast 2016 Beta and supports the following features:

  • Pay Mode - SafeZone Browser automatically opens banking sites in Pay Mode. This isolates the session and protects it from possible keyloggers or other malicious software secretly lurking on your computer. With Pay Mode you can perform all your financial transactions in peace, without fear of your password or other personal details being stolen. Pay Mode can be also turned on manually directly via browser UI.
    We are still tuning the whole flow with Payment gateways as for now these are not switched to Pay Mode. If you face any issues - for example that some bank site was not opened in Pay Mode automatically or any other then let us know here in this thread.
  • Ad Blocker - The browser comes with built-in Ad Blocker that blocks all those annoying online ads and banners
  • Video Downloader - Another cool feature is built-in Video Downloader that allows you to download online videos and store them to your hard drive. Now we support just limited amount of sites -  youtube, vimeo, stream.cz, metacafe, yahoo and some others.
  • Shielded Window (unstable) - The browser allows you to open suspicious sites in Shielded Window. This isolates the site from your computer so that no malicious content can invade it. Shielded Window does not keep any browsing record on you machine, so there’s no record of which sites you’ve visited or what files you’ve downloaded. Shielded window is kind of what you always wanted your InPrivate/Incognito/Private mode to be ;-). It is based on Avast NG (secure virtual machines) therefore it will probably not be available and working on all machines. It requires CPU virtualization enabled.
  • Built-in HTTPS scanning without MITM certificate

We work really hard on adding some other cool features for the 2016 release that will be available in following beta releases...

Now you have a chance to try it and discover the features! You can find the SafeZone Browser in Avast UI - Tools. We would also really appreciate your feedback and experience you have with the SafeZone Browser Beta. Please fill in the Survey, it should only take 5 minutes.

SURVEY ->>> http://goo.gl/forms/1bw90wPtIi



Call for Testers!

Would you like to become a tester for a while? Do you want to help us to make the product better? We prepared several test scenarios for you. We are curious whether you are able to pass through them and whether SafeZone browser works well on your environment.

TEST SCENARIOS ->>> http://goo.gl/forms/jQOtztSw9M

Thank you!



Known bugs:
  • Web Reputation, Do-Not-Track and Safe Price features are not functional.
  • Avast Passwords extension and Shielded window feature are currently under heavy development and are not well integrated into the browser.
  • Ad Blocker sometimes needs restart of the SafeZone browser to start working
  • It is impossible to deactivate the Pay Mode for sites which are automatically switched into this mode



Avast 2016 Beta forum thread, download links: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=177126.0

Offline RejZoR

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2015, 07:54:35 PM »
Why are there 8 SafeZoneBrowser processes if I'm not even using it? It's closed! I know I have 32GB but still, the behavior is unwanted.
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Offline bob3160

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2015, 11:28:42 PM »
Why are there 8 SafeZoneBrowser processes if I'm not even using it? It's closed! I know I have 32GB but still, the behavior is unwanted.
I don't see anything running unless I open the browser ???
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Offline Be Secure

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2015, 05:17:04 AM »
Is pay mode only for online banking?Can i use it in Online shopping also?I do not see safe mode option in Avast SafeZone browser.
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Offline ondrejz

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2015, 09:12:17 AM »
Why are there 8 SafeZoneBrowser processes if I'm not even using it? It's closed! I know I have 32GB but still, the behavior is unwanted.

Hi RejZor, thanks for the report,

this is unwanted behavior for us too :).. It usually happens when the browser lose connection with Avast. With this beta1 it happens when you try to open Shielded Window.. Restart of the computer should fix it..

If this is not the case, can you confirm that the AvastUI and Avast Service is running? Thanks.

Offline ondrejz

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2015, 09:20:38 AM »
Is pay mode only for online banking?Can i use it in Online shopping also?I do not see safe mode option in Avast SafeZone browser.

You can use it for any operation that you want to protect from possible keyloggers, screenshoters or any similar malware.

Use cases can be:
* switch to pay mode before you write down your personal data (login, passwords, address, credit card number...)
* switch to pay mode before you do some shopping (it is important to switch before you login into a shop because cookies are not currently transfered from normal mode to pay mode)
* switch to pay mode before you login into an online banking

Offline Be Secure

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2015, 09:41:28 AM »
Is pay mode only for online banking?Can i use it in Online shopping also?I do not see safe mode option in Avast SafeZone browser.

You can use it for any operation that you want to protect from possible keyloggers, screenshoters or any similar malware.

Use cases can be:
* switch to pay mode before you write down your personal data (login, passwords, address, credit card number...)
* switch to pay mode before you do some shopping (it is important to switch before you login into a shop because cookies are not currently transfered from normal mode to pay mode)
* switch to pay mode before you login into an online banking
Why This is not automatic for shopping sites?Is it for all version?
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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2015, 09:44:24 AM »
Seems to work fine on my system (Win10 x64) which is a huge improvement from the previous version of SafeZone (which never loaded any web pages at all).  Keep up the good work!
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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2015, 04:55:38 PM »
Just crashed Avast :) 

Open task manager
Open the GUI
Select Safe zone Avast freezes no safe zone

Windows 10 build 10547

Who crashed report :

Quote
On Wed 07/10/2015 14:25:48 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\AvastUI.DMP
This was probably caused by the following module: Unknown ()
Bugcheck code: 0x0 (0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: CUSTOM_ERROR
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error.
Google query: CUSTOM_ERROR

Support package generated and the only way out is to shutdown/restart

File ID : WPGLV

Report name : 20151007_1431_WPGLV_2522169840.zip

Offline Be Secure

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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2015, 12:08:33 PM »
It would be great to add a virtual keyboard in Avast SafeZone Browser for banking and shopping and social networking sites(Facebook,Twitter).
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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2015, 03:01:39 PM »
It would be great to add a virtual keyboard in Avast SafeZone Browser for banking and shopping and social networking sites(Facebook,Twitter).
Why aren't you using the one that's already part of Windows 10 ???



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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #11 on: October 08, 2015, 03:09:18 PM »
Yes i use this from start of windows10.But i am not sure that it protect me against Keyloggers :-\
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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #12 on: October 08, 2015, 04:20:13 PM »
Yes i use this from start of windows10.But i am not sure that it protect me against Keyloggers :-\
That's one of the reason it's there. :)
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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #13 on: October 08, 2015, 04:39:35 PM »
Safe zone now not working at all for me...  Which is weird as it was when I first installed the Beta


Now it totally locks up the UI and I can do nothing with Avast if I start from the GUI or right click the icon .....


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Re: Avast SafeZone Browser - How do you like it?
« Reply #14 on: October 08, 2015, 04:51:54 PM »
Safe zone now not working at all for me...  Which is weird as it was when I first installed the Beta


Now it totally locks up the UI and I can do nothing with Avast if I start from the GUI or right click the icon .....
Strange, working fine here on Windows 10 latest build:

Maybe time for either a repair  or clean install ???
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