Question About Upcoming Avast 5.0 !

[dukwhunter]

Hi Guys,
           I have a question about the upcoming Avast 5.0 !

I have read online that Avast is great at blocking & detecting viruses/malware , but only average at removing it !

Will this be improved in Avast 5.0 ?


                                                                           Thanks
                                                                                  JOEY

[DavidR]

Care to give some links to this comment ?

avast is generally very good at removing what it detects and unlike many other security applications you can schedule a boot-time scan to overcome instances of a) files in use by other applications, b) anti-rootkit scan, c) files protected by another process and d) files in system folders, etc. All this with 4.8.

So without specific information no one can say speculate on what they mean or what you ask of version 5.0.

[tuttle]

I have read reviews in publications such as PC World in which they tested anti-malware products. They said that while Avast was good at detecting and defeating the malware, it often left a lot of traces behind. For example, PCMag said: "Leaves many Registry traces and nonexecutable files when cleaning up malware." Here's another exerpt:

Avast! has certification for virus detection from both West Coast Labs and ICSA labs, but neither one gave it its higher certification for virus removal. Results from AV-Test in Germany were similar. That lab rated it very good (its top rating) at spyware detection, good at malware detection, and merely satisfactory at cleaning up infections. On that test, Norton and McAfee scored the same in those two detection categories but rated very good at cleanup. The labs seem to agree, then, that avast! is better at detecting malware than at removing it.

Avast often did not remove registry entries and other detritus left by the malware, whereas some other anti-malware products were much better at cleaning up. At least one review recommended that if you are infected, you use a product other than Avast to clean it up.

[DavidR]

Registry entries on their own without a file are inert, the current anti-spyware element does go looking for associated registry entries and where possible removes them. What it doesn't do like a specialist anti-spyware application is scan the registry in isolation looking for possible malware entries.

[dukwhunter]

Hi David ,
             Sorry forgot to link to where i had read that about Avast . It was PC World , but thanks for the clarification on it  I think i will be switching to Avast/Superantispyware/Comodo Firewall Pro when my current subscription pf Kaspersky runs out  . I am soooooo tired of paying for security software .


                                                 regards
                                                       JOEY

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

When you do there is a little tool, belt and braces to run after the standard add remove programs uninstall to ensure everything is cleaned up.

Run this utility to remove all traces of Kaspersky from the registry:
http://www.ice-kav.com/downloads/util/KAV_Registry_Clean.zip
ICE is a US distributor for Kaspersky.

[dallas7]

I am soooooo tired of paying for security software.

Actually, the additional control provided by the Enhanced User Interface in the Pro (paid) version is well worth the price of admission.  Scheduled/automated scans and push updates are icing on the cake. 

Be aware the Script Blocking provider does not work in Firefox (or Opera or Safari as far as I can tell).  That's no big deal and it's nice to know it's active when IE runs Windows/Office/etc. Update.

IMHO, if you ran PC Tools' ThreatFire you wouldn't need to run Superantispyware at all.    I wasn't wild about ThreatFire initially, but the current v3.5 seems to have matured well.

Cheers!