Avast Free Antivirus suddenly asks to restart my computer!

[bob3160]

If you're on a Windows computer, Snipping Tool is part of the system.
I personally use Screencast-O-Matic.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I use printscreen. Or alt-printscreen if I just need a window. Paste it into whatever flavor of image viewer you prefer to save. Works fine. The point is that when I tried to make a screen shot, the popup dissapeared so now I can't show it here.

More to the point however is that is would seem even the paid users of Avast get nagged with front and center 'always on top' 'alerts'. Unless billygoat319 hasn't disabled ads in his/her paid Avast.

It does seem weird to me an Avast dev/employee needs to ask forum members what the popup looks like. Instead of asking internally if something like that was pushed recently. Someone had to make that screen.

[bob3160]

Knowing what the popup looks like would offer a clue as to when this
was created. Additional information about the OS, AV, etc. would probably be helpful.

[DavidR]

I use printscreen. Or alt-printscreen if I just need a window. Paste it into whatever flavor of image viewer you prefer to save. Works fine. The point is that when I tried to make a screen shot, the popup dissapeared so now I can't show it here.
<snip>

I think the problem lies in having to press the Alt key first, which kills the screen. 

I have a paid for Screen Capture product Snagit and image editor, it gives options on how to initiate it, I elect to use the standard PrtSc key and any avast alert or info screen/window remains.  I use that for all my screen captures in the forum.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I think so too. Alt killed the screen. I could've print screened the whole desktop and cut the message to size. Didn't think I would have to. Too bad.

Usually I have a bunch of windows open, and alt-printscreen is the way to go to avoid getting parts of other programs etc. in the image.

In my case it is Avast Free, latest build, on Windows 7 Ultimate.

[Rundvleeskroket]

That's another thing: these screens don't show up under notifications. Avast forces you to deal with them right then and there. So if you're actually interested, but not right now because you're in the middle of something, you click it away and it's gone. You can't get it back to read it when you have the time, and neither can you take a screenshot after the fact. It's vanished. Until the next nag.

Considering we're talking about an ad basically, this is very strange behavior. Obtrusive, unavoidable, yet fleeting.

[DavidR]

I think so too. Alt killed the screen. I could've print screened the whole desktop and cut the message to size. Didn't think I would have to. Too bad.

Usually I have a bunch of windows open, and alt-printscreen is the way to go to avoid getting parts of other programs etc. in the image.
<snip>

Snagit starts of capturing the active window (or whole screen if no active window) but if there are multiple windows open, as you move the cursor around it will shrink to one of the windows you have open. Or you can Left click and hold and drag to capture a subsection of that window.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I've used many tools in the past. In the days of Win95/98/2K. For image capture and a zillion other tasks. PowerToys. 3rd party. Etc. All kinds.
In the end I found I can do just fine without most of them and not clutter up my system. All these extra hooks into the OS/GUI/Context Menus, no thanks.

For tasks that aren't daily occurrences, I'll stick with the basics. A few tools that really add useful functionality, and that's it.

Alt by itself shouldn't do anything. Alt is a modifier key. But Avast is an outlier. Or maybe I accidentally hit space or something. Who knows. No way to recreate it and test.

[petr blatny]

Hello InvisibleMan, can you please share your logs? Send them via support tool and provide package ID or please copy and pack logs from c:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\log\ - feel free to send them directly to me: petr.blatny@avast.com
+I'm really sorry for your trouble, overseer should not cause reboots. It would be great to have your logs and check the cause.
Petr

@petr blatny

I restarted my computer. And it did it again right now!

I'm getting rid of this Overseer. That's it.

Also, it seems like it could triggered by updates of virus definitions.

But it never happened before. Why does computer suddenly require restarting every time I update virus definitions?

Is it because I use Windows 7 instead of most the modern one and nobody tested it on Windows 7? I don't know...

[bob3160]

@ Rudvleeskroket,
In Windows 10 and 11 the Windows key and the prntsc key take a picture of the entire screen
and auto save it to a folder under Pictures\Screenshots.
You can always trim the picture with another tool or simply post the entire screen.
I've never had that combo fail to take any picture.

[Rundvleeskroket]

Good to know. Might come in handy some day. Doesn't seem to work on Win 7 though.

[bob3160]

Good to know. Might come in handy some day. Doesn't seem to work on Win 7 though.

It works on Windows 10 and 11 as I stated.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I can read.

[bob3160]

I can read.

You're the one who mentioned Windows 7.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I didn't say I thought it would work in 7.

You said it works in 10 and 11. I said: "Good to know. Might come in handy some day."

You didn't have to repeat yourself. I can read. Thank you very much.

For that matter: I'm not sure why we're even having this whole discussion about taking screenshots. I've been doing that just fine for literal decades. The point is not how to take a screenshot. The point is that Avast pelts you with scary notifications, even explicitly calls them 'notifications', and yet you then aren't in any way able to recall said notifications under the notifications-tab. Nothing there. That's inconsistent behavior, sadly very typical for Avast communications and user interfaces. And members of the Avast team seemingly don't know the stunts their own marketing/upsell-department pull, so they ask us to provide proof via screenshots. What a weird and convoluted way to go about things... I dare say ass-backwards.