Avast for Business - new version 2.27

[Martin Svoboda]

Hello everybody,

new version of the Avast for Business console is here.

This version brings an ability to control (install/uninstall) Antivirus components via a settings template, so you do not have to install/uninstall components device by device any more but you can quickly do that via your settings template. Sometimes you still need to make an exception for some of your devices, therefore you can still install/uninstall components also on device details which will have higher priority than assigned settings template.

What's new

• Ability to install/uninstall antivirus components via settings template (no need to install/uninstall them device by device).
• The "Port Scan detection" is now turned off by default (as this option previously caused problems to several users).
• Information about the version of program and virus definition are displayed together on device detail tab "Overview".

What has been fixed

• Fixed problem (when switching from expired trial to paid product) that the shopping cart allows buying fewer licenses than the amount of currently installed devices which customer has on his console. This caused that customer was not able to "activate" his bought license after the purchase.

New way how to install/uninstall antivirus components
Previous behavior
Previously you were only able to install/uninstall components of Win antivirus device by device. So for example when you wanted to uninstall firewall component you had to open details of each device in the Console and uninstall it one by one. That was simply time-consuming.
 
How it works now?
Newly are all components managed by settings template. That means that you do not have to install/uninstall components device by device but you can do that via settings template. All device with assigned template then initiates installation or uninstallation of components based on this template.


What if I want to install/uninstall component just for one device?
You do not need to create new settings template for that, all you need to do is just open device detail and on the tab Components you can see new toggle called “Customize component installation settings”.
 

• The toggle is ON - when turned ON, you can install/uninstall antivirus components solely just for this single device. In other words, installation/uninstallation via assigned settings template is ignored for this device. Ability to enable and disable components is still drive by settings template even for this device.
• The toggle is OFF - when turned OFF installation and uninstallation of components is managed via definition in the settings template. In case the toggle is switched from ON to OFF state all components for this device will be installed/uninstalled in couple of seconds (if device is online) based on the definition in assigned settings template.

[REDACTED]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the advantage of uninstalling a component instead of just disabling it in the settings template? 

[misak]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the advantage of uninstalling a component instead of just disabling it in the settings template?

Good question. Component Uninstall is useful in case of conflict with any other software. All our real-time protection shields, firewall and some other components has kernel drivers loaded by Windows kernel. Just turning the component off will not unload the drivers.
For example: You are happy with Windows firewall, so good idea is to uninstall the firewall from all your endpoints. Since console version 2.28 & AV 17.4 you can do it from the Settings for all devices at once.

[REDACTED]

Excellent answer @misak  I didn't think about kernel drivers and makes a lot of sense. 

However, the (rhetorical) question then becomes how to tell if you have a conflict and knowing to uninstall an Avast component in that situation.  Not an straight-forward thing to diagnose I'd say