Sorry, but your product and whole company is one big mess

[Giraffe]

Unless something (else) goes wrong I'll stay with Avast for now. I deselect most thins, so running are the 3 shields and Browser Protection (not sure about that one...).
I'd stayed with v9 until Win 7 Pro was up and running. Now 1261 seems to be OK (touch wood!) and the promised quicker start does seem to happen - hey, 1 out of 10 ain't bad 
What upsets me is that Avast used to be one of the best-functioning programmes available (along with ProperOpera); I could install Beta and RCs with confidence. Now I read a few pages of posts re. a new version then, with much trepidation, try it and hope 

Where now, RejZoR?

[Vlk]

RejZoR, I will talk to you directly. Thanks.

[Charyb-0]

RejZoR, I will talk to you directly. Thanks.

What about other people who share the same opinion of the direction Avast has chosen and have many of the same problems? Don't they deserve the same opportunity to be part of the discussion?

[skinnypops]

Amen Charyb

[REDACTED]

This is it, I kept giving avast! a try in a hope they'll fix the mess they made in the last year or two, but after seeing ongoing (current) trainwreck of broken product updates and functions, I'll just stop bothering with avast! entirely. The product is unreliable, immature with continually mediocre protection performance and protection features that you just can't rely on because their reliability is best described as "random". Words I'd never dare to use in the past to describe avast!. Developers-users communication is pretty much non existent now and the whole company is apparently more concerned with counting the money and building new awesome headquarters over doing a quality product (I guess this is the downside of getting big financial shareholders who only care about profit at any cost and nothing else), something their whole existence is based upon. I don't know what the hell happened, but this isn't the company or a product I joined 12 years ago. No, I'm not an avast! employee, but I was a long time supporter, tester, bug reporter, community helper and this just isn't avast! anymore. Hasn't been for quite a while...

Farewell avast!. And good luck. You'll going to need it...

This has been by "rants" for awhile now.......most of my PCs still on V9 because I cannot "trust" the releases coming from Avast.
Not sure which scares me more......new A/V program releases that break more than they fix or silent installs with forced reboots of my PCs that have security holes and can bork my machine.
You hit the nail on the head........the priorities of Avast have changed.........it is very evident......if you want to see a company that develops/documents/releases/protects the proper way look at how MalwareBytes is running......very well done and the highest of credibility.  Funny thing is.........I've been a Avast "FREE" user for years and the thing that prevents me from paying for other parts of their products is most of it is cr@pware and I can find other products online that are free or I pay one-time lifetime fee for that simply work.  Ironically, I'd pay for JUST Avast's A/V if I was assured it was clean, rolled out with proper documentation (not just hand full BETA testers which while I applaud their efforts seem to be more of Avast's "Alpha" testers), and all the other bundled crud was firewalled from the clean running A/V. I've said it before and will say it again.......Avast sees their large "install" base as a untapped cash-cow and just like insurance companies or Vegas casinos they are betting they can make more money from the "masses" while being able to absorb the collateral damage of statistically the small user base they tick off and push away....it's a #s game to them.  The cold fact is that is true.......but not forever......just look at Symantec....but as I've seen in most companies the Execs don't care about that because it'll take years before things really start falling off and by then they've made their money and are gone to retirement or another company....only to leave the wreckage behind.

It is sad.......I have not given up on Avast totally yet....as long time user I'm hanging on to V9 until I can hopefully see a solid V11/12/13 that works with W10 without risk of forced crud.
However, I think the advent of other A/Vs now working on integrated anti-crypto may be my jumping off point with Avast......time will tell.......but time is definitely ticking down.

For me while I stick around and "wait" (hope) I enjoy helping where I can on the Forum....I feel a sense to help when PCs do get borked...I know how painful and hopeless the average user can feel at that point. Over the years seeing folks like RejZoR/Bob3160/Essexboy/Asyn/Eddy/DavidR/others help motivates me to stick in here and help where/when I can.

[REDACTED]

What really tipped me over was NG in build 2260 where it worked and then they released 2261 hotfix that broke it again. After waiting for months, I had a functional NG for 1 day. And now it's broken again.

IMHO a user would be crazy to run Avast's NG/Virt feature......it is playing Russian Roulette with your PC.
Virtualization has too many variables in the hardware and O/S builds to run correctly to have an A/V that turns and burns versions.
Trust me, as former IT Manager which we had CAD systems with virt environments it is a VERY managed thing on a individual PC (for us was CAD station) basis.
Running this on a users PC that is not a SUPER ADVANCED person is just dangerous.........all be it I do "get" what Avast was trying to do going from Deepscreen to NG.

[RejZoR]

RejZoR, I will talk to you directly. Thanks.

If I'm brutally honest, I'm not in the mood for that anymore. We've talked with avast! team members months ago about things that are broken, wrong and just bad and things kept getting progressively even worse since then without any hints of any improvements. And it wasn't just bugs and glitches, it's how your entire product as a whole is being developed in recent months and years. I don't know what you can possibly do now that you haven't had done in the past months and even years now that would address any of that. I've made my share of explaining here and also in other places like Wilders (which also got me banned because they can't stand honesty apparently). Read what I've talked about for the last weeks and months and get the idea what all is wrong with avast!. You may also want to talk to others here who are still willing to invest time with avast!. I am unfortunately past that point now. I'm already on some competitor product which, despite its own stupidities is at least something I can rely on that it'll work for what it offers and has consistently high scores in amateur and professional tests. Unlike avast! which has for very long time provided tons of features that turned out to be non functional, very badly and buggy implemented as well as less effective than the name and tech behind it would suggest based on my experience with such tech found in other products. And that also reflects in tests. You may disagree, but when certain products consistently sits in top 3 places in all tests with nearly 100% or sometimes even 100% scores for the given test and avast! is just half way down the entire chart and is consistently stuck there, it's very hard to have much confidence in it. And even if I still have it, there are no empirical ways to make others believe that, if numbers don't support those claims. When I lose confidence in a product, there is no way I can with all honesty recommend it to someone else.

The point for posting this thread was a wake up message. Because, like some other user suggested, if leaving of very long time users and supporters isn't enough of a big wake up call, then I don't know what else it can be. I'll gladly return to avast! and support it again, but currently this just isn't possible. Good luck.

[schmidthouse]

How many have left over the years and simply didn't and don't waste their time complaining.
I've read unresolved and simply "unanswered" warnings and concerns for over 4 years now.
The Arrogance is stifling.....But then who cares; it's just a piece of software!

[Patrick2]

I'm on the fence myself at giving up on Avast, so far still installed though as I try to determine which product to possibly go with,  been with Avast since 2006 almost steady, did try MSE and was a tester of MSE in 2009 thru Windows 8.0 Release, though other PC"s at the time kept Avast installed.   Lately seems like Avast lost it's customer friendly support, pushing safezone down folks throats, almost last straw for me, which by the way upstairs Windows 7 32 bit system updated via GUI yesterday, and despite safezone NOT installed previously, silently installed--on reboot popup comes up try Safezone browser or skip this Window.  Well hello was already installed at that point. 

I know version 2261 was suppose to stop that behavior, well seems like didn't.   Though that machine is less used one, so don't really care for the moment.   

Not sure what Avast can do now to make things better for long time users and new customers, but maybe I will stick it out a while longer, not sure yet.

[Be Secure]

I'm on the fence myself at giving up on Avast, so far still installed though as I try to determine which product to possibly go with,  been with Avast since 2006 almost steady, did try MSE and was a tester of MSE in 2009 thru Windows 8.0 Release, though other PC"s at the time kept Avast installed.   Lately seems like Avast lost it's customer friendly support, pushing safezone down folks throats, almost last straw for me, which by the way upstairs Windows 7 32 bit system updated via GUI yesterday, and despite safezone NOT installed previously, silently installed--on reboot popup comes up try Safezone browser or skip this Window.  Well hello was already installed at that point. 

I know version 2261 was suppose to stop that behavior, well seems like didn't.   Though that machine is less used one, so don't really care for the moment.   

Not sure what Avast can do now to make things better for long time users and new customers, but maybe I will stick it out a while longer, not sure yet.

What Avast can do now to make things better for long time users and new customers:Remove those nusty Ad on GUI,stop delivering unnecessary stuff+unfinshed and useless staff and improved their Protection,totally remove NG/SVM.Back to AD FREE WORLD.It is a AV company not an AD  AGENCYstop promoting android things on a pc antivirus.But Avast! not think about those points.

[stibi]

RejZoR, I will talk to you directly. Thanks.

That's exactly the answer some of the Avast users do not wait for.

I can only speak for me - I need a virus protection tool that I can trust. I don't want advertising and crap besides the main function. At this moments some debates about unwanted pop-ups seem children's games compared with the actual situation.
 
And a special bonus program installed without my knowledge with functions I cannot trust is not only worthless; it's annoying and potential dangerous.
Example: another thread writes that the nice sandbox function of your Safe Zone browser can be unwantedly disabled by a simple switch in "error handling". Something that only few people would await.
Also annoying: the long lasting debates here about what we users accept in your EULA. That doesn't meet the point which users wrote.

Dear Vlk - your team should think about the points your users complain. And give us an answer how we can be sure using your product.

At he moment I am still hoping.

[Dwarden]

I'm worried too about Avast! future / quality / offerings and it's sad to see decade old veterans like Rejzor 'quitting'

for now i offered my feedback, findings (e.g. on SZB weaknesses) and suggestions
and only in the 'Evangelist' part of forum (read not-freely-access-able) to avoid ,,public drama'' concers

i had/have my own share of bugs/issues with Avast! especially in latest iterations
yet w/o question i remember bugs even in old v3,v4 (and i loved 4.x, the basis of Avast! fame)

as I'm in game/software development area where security matters too (web ,netcode/files I/O, anti-cheat w/e)
then I fully understand that isn't easy when security goes into the lowest-levels possible (actually it shall go even lower!)

same goes about product issues with 'expand feature offering' while trying avoid 'bloat-ware' syndrome

this isn't simple and it's usually million dolar question (of course answer)

what's now most important is how Avast! will face those 'problems' and speed of resolution to address them

[Vlk]

It breaks my heart to read those comments, especially given most of them come from our most loyal users (some of them with Avast for 10+ years!).

I understand that any forward-looking statement about upcoming improvements will likely not sound very credible at this point, so let me just say that I will personally do my very best to win RejZoR (and all others who have left us) back. And I think I will need y'all's help with fixing the 'mess' -- do you think you could help us?

Thanks
Vlk

[Secondmineboy]

It breaks my heart to read those comments, especially given most of them come from our most loyal users (some of them with Avast for 10+ years!).

I understand that any forward-looking statement about upcoming improvements will likely not sound very credible at this point, so let me just say that I will personally do my very best to win RejZoR (and all others who have left us) back. And I think I will need y'all's help with fixing the 'mess' -- do you think you could help us?

Thanks
Vlk

You just want to not loose users, thats why you say you will try to get him and maybe others back.

Fixlist:

1. Fix DeepScreen and Avast NG flippin finally.
2. Stop with all the bloatware and add security features again. Same with Android apps.
3. Improve the detection rate again.
4. Get the HIPS finally working, its not doing anything right now, except FPs.
5. Get Ransomware and automatic Exploit protection in, youre way too late to this.
6. Fix all of the other bugs that Avast contains right now, just search the forum for them.
7. Get the communication between Avast devs and users back. (Maybe reopen a Feedback site where everyone can leave feedback)

Now one more thing:

Please forward this to the IT department:

Many of your servers (your blog and the my.avast.com servers for example) run really dated web servers and or WordPress
you need to update these, youre putting the data of millions of users at risk!!!!!

And you may want to update to PHP 7 as well to speed things up considerably.

Also i would suggest moving to Incapsula fully or partially to get better security and speed for your customers.

And Finally: The only reason why I am still using Avast is the fact that this laptop cant keep up with many other AVs and the fact that i have a 500+ days Avast Premier license still.

AND PLEASE, fix the stupid forum bugs or get a much better forum software like Invision Power Board.

PS: Im an Avast user since version 7, Version 8 was a really big step forward for you and was maybe one of the best versions, except the UI was a bit of a mess. But thats pretty much the way you should go.

[REDACTED]

I have had no luck whatsoever with 1) trying to unsubscribe to auto-renewal and 2) sending a request for a refund. What a F'ed up way to do business.