Release history with notes (2020)

[MartinZ]

20.9.2437
2020-11-10

Here’s what’s officially new:

• CyberCapture results - Miss a notification? Now in your notification center, you can see all results for suspicious files you’ve sent to our Threat Labs
• More versatile Password Protection - Along with Chrome and Opera, we now support Microsoft Edge and, our personal favorite, Avast Secure Browser (Premium Security only)
• Vote for features -  Vote for your favorite premium features, or submit your ideas for new ones. Simply go to Menu > About and let us know your preference (Premium Security only)
• Performance improvements - Your antivirus components should now load even faster thanks to simultaneous loading of our main service and VPS

And some other under-the-hood improvements:

• Moved Do Not Disturb module to separate “tools” service for better performance
• Minor accessibility adjustments (e.g., added tray shortcuts, improved confirmation dialogs when disabling shields, etc.)
• Corrected some issues with Sensitive Data Shield on x86 systems
• Sensitive Data Shield also now protects manually added files without having to restart your PC
• Fixed minor bug so Behavior Shield doesn’t duplicate detections already covered by File Shield
• Fixed a rare case where Firewall would trigger an ask dialog for already stopped processes
• Fixed a rare case where switching languages could fail
• Fixed some licensing hiccups with Cleanup and VPN wallet keys when being activated by AV
• Optimized scanning of QUIC connections
• ...and about 100 others

20.8.2429
2020-09-30

Here are our biggest improvements:

• Improved accessibility - Our interface is now better suited for impaired users
• Safer web browsing - Web Shield now supports scanning for threats in Google’s QUIC protocol
• Friendlier CyberCapture - If you stumble upon a file we can’t identify, CyberCapture can send it to our ThreatLabs for a detailed analysis. We’ve updated this entire process to make it easier than ever
• Better Remote Access Shield - Not only do we now support Windows’ Samba protocol, we’ve also added logs to show all remote connection attempts to your computer. (Avast Premium Security only)
• Firewall recognizes VPNs - Firewall now knows when you’re using our VPN and won’t classify this as an unknown network. (Avast Premium Security only)

And here are just some of the 100+ issues we also fixed:

• Stomped a pretty nasty UI bug that made AV pop up randomly
• Edge case fixed where Password Protection didn’t recognize supported browsers
• Text encoding of an exclusion created from detection dialog
• Shredder can now properly shred read-only files
• Fixed service crashes that happened when uninstalling the Wi-Fi Inspector component
• Remnants of configurations are now properly stored in the registry (instead of avast5.ini)
• Firewall no longer blocks ping (this was an edge case)
• Fixed the excessive memory usage of process monitor caused by Behavioral Shield hooking
• Fixed OS boot problems when running smss.exe as virtualized
• Plugged a memory leak in RegistryChangeWatcher
• Fixed aswToolsSvc.exe initialization issues upon version update and before OS restart
• Fixed serviceDLL monitoring and removal
• Repair action now properly fixes hooklib.dll
• Remote Access Shield detection window no longer appears if you’ve disabled its notifications in settings

20.7.2425
2020-09-01

Official notes:

• Signing in via Google or Facebook - If you choose one of these to sign in, we’ll now redirect you to their websites instead of doing it inside of our app
• Fixed shield statuses - The on/off statuses for Password Protection and Remote Access Shield are now properly reflected in your UI. (Avast Premium Security only)
• Improved performance - Your antivirus now runs even smoother thanks to tighter integrations with the Windows registry and boot optimizations

Something extra for out beta users:

• In the latest 20.7 BETA version, you can now try GUI in the updated design (based on our Avast Omni edition). Just go to Settings -> General -> Troubleshooting -> Theme. Please note that some UI parts are still in the original design and that there are improvements yet to be made in navigation. Though we would like to hear your opinion in this early stage.

From 100+ tasks related to this release, here’s some highlights of things we’ve fixed and improved:

• The incorrect yellow dashboard state after a new version was released, even though auto-updates were on
• The incorrect "expired" dashboard status after an upgrade from free to paid [AVG only]
• SmartScan stopping caused UI freezing in some cases
• Firewall Public mode was not blocking ICMP responses while scanning, but now it does
• Fixed impact of new CEF on IPM content and IDP
• Fixes in restoring settings from backup files
• Changing language needed you to restart, which was not intended
• The incorrect handling of file size in virus chest was preventing more files to be added
• Rescue disk now checks for USB drive size

20.6.2420
2020-7-30

Official notes:

• Payment notification - If for any reason your payment fails during an automatic subscription renewal, we’ll now let you know on the main dashboard
• Simplified privacy settings - We've updated our privacy settings to make it easier to manage your privacy
• Other fixes and improvements - Just the usual bug cleanups and performance tweaks to keep things running smoothly

What was fixed:

• Malfunctioned Chrome distribution upon install
• Nasty Passive mode error (frozen UI, disabled service)
• Some more rare Rescue Disk creation failures
• IDP incorrectly stating that detection can/can't be removed
• Handle leak
• Heap corruption fix
• UI issues when Remote Access Shield or Real Site were disabled as custom install components
• Tray icon misbehavior when enabling/disabling components
• Disabling confusing Firewall toaster on Unidentified network

20.5.2415
2020-7-2

Official notes:

• Introducing Remote Access Shield - Enjoy even stronger protection against hackers. This new feature lets you choose who can remotely access your computer and lets you block the rest. (Premium Security users only)
• Ransomware Shield is now free - We’re now offering this feature to Avast Free Antivirus users to maximize their ransomware protection
• Easier USB drive protection - We’ll now ask you to scan USB drives when you plug them into your computer. (You can also turn this off in your notification settings)
• Improved taskbar icon - There’s no need to keep your antivirus open during scans. You can now see your scan progress from the Avast taskbar icon
• Better botnet protection - Web Shield is even better about stopping malware from connecting to malicious servers

Things to note: 

• We are no longer releasing new versions of Internet Security and Pro. Every Pro/IS user updated to 20.5 version will end up on Premium Security to enjoy the full feature-set of paid version.
• Teaser for our dedicated forum users: We've added support for scanning Google QUIC protocol in Webshield, though it's enabled only for some users at the moment. We plan to full scale it in the upcoming version.

...and from about 110 other smaller or larger tasks, we pick here the fixes of:

• corner cases when Firewall was consuming too much CPU in correlation with VPS requests
• Cleanup install detection upon switching to x64 version (Congrats to Cleanup team and sorry when the app was being offered to you even if you had it already)
• bugs in protecting passwords stored in Firefox and Chrome that were installed after Avast AV
• some RescueDisk failures when being created on USB
• UI glitches for enabling/disabling shield in Protection section

20.4.2410
2020-6-3

• Safer web browsing - Web Shield can now block malicious sites based on their site certificates
• Improved support - Our support team can now help you send them logs to diagnose problems.

Some other fixes:

• We've fixed several reported vulnerabilities (e.g. CVE-2020-13657)
• Avast Firewall is now compatible with Microsoft Wireless Display adapter
• Sleep mode works with the latest Windows Spring 2020 Update
• Behavioral shield improvements
• Better internal tracking of license activation errors in order to improve the activation process
• Switching Free to Paid (and back) is now smoother
• URL exclusions security improvements
• ...and dozens of the usual minor crashes and internal stability improvements

20.3.2405
2020-5-4

• New alerts - Get alerted when new devices join your network (Useful for catching both hackers and freeloading neighbors)
• More privacy - You now have the option to be protected from shady websites even in browsers that use the DoH protocol to encrypt the Domain Name System (DNS). Premium Security users can turn this on in their Real Site settings
• Improved Wi-Fi Inspector - We've updated your Wi-Fi Inspector so that it's a lot more stable

20.2.2401
2020-4-1

• Password Protection - This new feature automagically secures passwords saved in your browsers. Find it in your Privacy menu (Premium Security only)
• New statistics - Check out your security stats by clicking My statistics in the top-right menu
• Improved Firewall - We’ve added more fire to the wall for better stability (Premium Security only)
• Bug fixes - We've stomped a few pesky bugs to keep things running smoothly
• Coronavirus scam protection - Avast continues to protect you against phishing scams, including ever-increasing COVID-19 scams and malware

20.1.2397
2020-2-25

• Browser extensions - Improve your browsing with our latest extensions (just open Menu > Browser extensions)
• Fewer popups - If you already have Avast Cleanup Premium, you’ll no longer see offers for it (sorry about that!)
• Improved statuses - The status messages you see on the main screen are now easier to understand
• Fixed Rescue Disk - You can now use Rescue Disk again to restore your PC from advanced attacks
• Other bug fixes - We’ve stomped dozens of other bugs to keep everything running smoothly
• Fixed problem with logs not correctly rotating (logs had hundreds of MB in some cases)
• Fixed issues in Smart scan that performance scan does not find any problems
• Fixed issue with stuck Smart scan