NEW Avast Version 22.5 (May 2022)

[ciprian.horge]

NEW Avast Version 22.5 (May 2022)
Hi, all. Please welcome the newest version of Avast AV: 22.5 (22.5.6015)
Major public announcement:

• [Premium]Email Guardian Email Protection across all your devices, ensured by Avast's Email Guardian. Right now, it's compatible with all Office365 type accounts (outlook.com, hotmail.com, msn.com, etc.) as well as any IMAP enabled Email Service.
• [Geek Area]HW Acceleration We‘ve activated a new Hardware Acceleration Feature in the geek:area and inviting advanced users to play around with it. Feel free to share any feedback with us about it, we'd really appreciate it.

Other notable improvements in the release:

• Fixed an issue with email shield detections
• Fixed an issue with booting Windows 10 (1607) where it wouldn't boot after AV installation
• Instup crash was fixed
• Other important issues and bugs squashed

Big props to the team for another successful release!
How to install:
1. Update from your existing Avast version via Settings -> Update -> Update program
2. Or you can download and install files:
Online installers (recommended):

• Free: https://bits.avcdn.net/insttype_FREE
• Premium Security: https://bits.avcdn.net/insttype_APR

Offline installers:

• Free: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_offline.exe
• Premium Security: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_premier_antivirus_setup_offline.exe

(In case the hyperlink here wouldn't work in your browser, just paste and copy the URL to the browser address bar)

[Asyn]

Thanks, spreading the news...

[DavidR]

When is there ever going to be something in the Program User Interface about this undocumented hidden area of the UI  ?

I have been banging on about this in the forums since it introduction.
How are regular Avast users to know about this undocumented hidden area  ?

Why is Avast afraid, not to document it  ?
If a user enters this area give a warning about changing settings can have an adverse impact on your security, etc.

Oh, by the way HW Acceleration has been in the main UI area (not hidden) Settings > General > Troubleshooting for years, certainly as far as 22.2
Why the sudden change to hide it in the geek:area  ?

Recently I have been holding back on program updates as it seems with every update something breaks (as can be seen in the forums).

[Asyn]

Oh, by the way HW Acceleration has been in the main UI area (not hidden) Settings > General > Troubleshooting for years, certainly as far as 22.2 Why the sudden change to hide it in the geek:area  ?

Hi Dave, it's not related to the other setting. (Screenshot)

[NON]

Thanks for the new release

[DavidR]

Oh, by the way HW Acceleration has been in the main UI area (not hidden) Settings > General > Troubleshooting for years, certainly as far as 22.2 Why the sudden change to hide it in the geek:area  ?

Hi Dave, it's not related to the other setting. (Screenshot)

Well good to know in this instance.

But as you know the unknown/hidden, undocumented geek:area is my pet hate and I really want to know why that is and what Avast fears that they have it hidden, undocumented.  I just live in hope that Avast will, A: acknowledge why it is hidden/undocumented and B: the reason why.  I would also add another if it is going to remain, it needs sorted and not a single level scroll fest.

These are more the reasons I posted, as I'm currently dragging my heels on program updates.  It just seems after every program update the volume of posts in the forums by people with problems also increases and people often have to pointed at the geek:area to resolve.

[loungehake]

OUCH! 

I updated my Toshiba P200 Satellite Pro (Intel Core Duo T5550 1.83GHz processor, 4GB RAM) from Avast free 22.4 to 22.5 and performance became very sluggish.  Seems to be taking twice as long to do things as compared with using 22.4.  I uninstalled 22.5 and reinstalled 22.4 and performance is back to what it was: tolerably leisurely but not bad for a 2006AD system.

Afterthought:  Could be a timing problem?  The issue does not seem to occur on my much more recent 2011 Toshiba C50 laptop.  I think I will give 22.5 a miss.  Let's see what goes with 22.6.

[chris...]

For info, the update was a bit complicated.
I had to reboot twice my W7 SP1 x64.
The first time : "you are not protected"&"something went wrong"
The 2nd time was very long (5 minutes to stop).
Now it seems OK

[Asyn]

For info, the update was a bit complicated.
I had to reboot twice my W7 SP1 x64.
The first time : "you are not protected"&"something went wrong"
The 2nd time was very long (5 minutes to stop).
Now it seems OK

I experienced/reported a similar issue during beta testing: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?msg=1687835

[loungehake]

For info, the update was a bit complicated.
I had to reboot twice my W7 SP1 x64.
The first time : "you are not protected"&"something went wrong"
The 2nd time was very long (5 minutes to stop).
Now it seems OK

I had similar issues with my only Win7 SP1 x64 system.  The main symptom wa interminable shutdowns.  I gave up with Avast on this system and have since been using Panda Dome Free 21.1.0 without any probllems.

Regarding the performance problem with Avast 22.5, I have repeatedly attempted to get 22.5 working properly on my ancient Tosh P200 laptop but am resigned to using 22.4.  There must be a flaw in 22.5 which becomes apparent when running it on an old slow PC.  Avast 22.4 works great on it.

[Asyn]

Regarding the performance problem with Avast 22.5, I have repeatedly attempted to get 22.5 working properly on my ancient Tosh P200 laptop but am resigned to using 22.4.  There must be a flaw in 22.5 which becomes apparent when running it on an old slow PC.  Avast 22.4 works great on it.

Hi, if you're willing to help, see: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=237567.0

[loungehake]

Thanks Asyn. I must do this as I do not want this issue to have implications for 'normal' performing PCs.

P.S. Job done.

[Kees1958]

I have not used Avast free for a long time. Noticed on AV-C and AV-T that the program start delay was reduced, so installed it again to see that Avast free launches first start of Edge browser faster than Microsoft Defender. Well done!

As an experienced user (and having some knowledge on UX) I really like the undocumented geek:area in new Avast UI. Problem with advanced options is that unexperienced users tend to enable them. Simply because people tend to overrate their own experience (I have the same problem, as you can see on the piucture looking at Ondrej's body language, he is not convinced :-) )

I would like to request another setting in the geek:area, assuming Avast hardened mode still throws a popup when it blocks an unknown / not-whitelisted program. Would it be possible to add a "hardened mode response section" in the Geek mode (as illustrated in the picture)?

Attached image explains it all

[Asyn]

Preparing a Gmail account for setup with Email Guardian
https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/use-antivirus-email-guardian/

• [Premium]Email Guardian Email Protection across all your devices, ensured by Avast's Email Guardian. Right now, it's compatible with all Office365 type accounts (outlook.com, hotmail.com, msn.com, etc.) as well as any IMAP enabled Email Service.

[bri]

Where is email guardian located in the avast premium ui,i diont see it?