Removing AVAST! and Moving on!

[Hermite15]

Including Eset. 

I know  

[JoeBingo]

My REAL concern over this fiasco last night has not been mentioned and I am just thinking out loud some "concerns" that crossed my mind.

What if there is a real viral or malware threat that Avast! was updated to protect against, when lo and behold, the update caused all the problems it did last night ...

So therefore ...

Another update was released to fix the problem. I'm left to wonder if we are STILL protected from the viral/malware threat that the previous update was designed to protect against OR if we are exposed to the threat but Avast! figures that it is now a necessary risk. hmmm ... I'm just left to wonder I guess.

[Hermite15]

you're still protected against anything avast can protect   fixing a virus definition database because it generated Fps doesn't mean removing its protection potential. It just means (and I'm not an AV tech   ) I suppose, and I'm pretty sure in fact   correcting an error or errors regarding what's targeted and what shouldn't be targeted with more precision. can't give more details, again, I'm no AV developer  

[bobo1]

Ah! any one can make a mistake! with an antivirus program. I remember that not so long ago AVG made a critical error saying a vital windows file was a Trojan Horse and crippled several peoples computers around the world. It basically means whoever is programming an antivirus on a remote computer and inputing bad data will cause errors. Human nature to learn!

[Pondus]

they all had it, recently or not, AVG, Norton, McAfee etc... so no need to stigmatize Avast   


Including Eset. 

also Kaspersky and TrendMicro

[JoeBingo]

My REAL concern over this fiasco last night has not been mentioned and I am just thinking out loud some "concerns" that crossed my mind.

What if there is a real viral or malware threat that Avast! was updated to protect against, when lo and behold, the update caused all the problems it did last night ...

So therefore ...

Another update was released to fix the problem. I'm left to wonder if we are STILL protected from the viral/malware threat that the previous update was designed to protect against OR if we are exposed to the threat but Avast! figures that it is now a necessary risk. hmmm ... I'm just left to wonder I guess.

you're still protected against anything avast can protect    fixing a virus definition database because it generated Fps doesn't mean removing its protection potential. It just means (and I'm not an AV tech    ) I suppose, and I'm pretty sure in fact    correcting an error or errors regarding what's targeted and what shouldn't be targeted with more precision. can't give more details, again, I'm no AV developer

One can only hope

[Chim]

Except for like 3 False Positives ... 2 by Avast and one by SAS, my computer has NOT been infected in like the last 4 or 5 years.  So, I immediately got suspicious when right after the last Virus Signature Update last night, my IZArc File Zipping / Unzipping Utility was flagged as having that Trojan.  Then when immediately after that I couldn't seem to get on the Forum for the first time ever, I was virtually sure something was up.

I only uninstalled IZArc last night.  I just about never use it.  I'll be reinstalling it tonight or tomorrow.

Then I'll just keep on moving along with avast on my 2 computers.  

I had a much worse situation years ago with McAfee before switching to avast.
At that time, suddenly McAfee would no longer work well with my computer.
At that time, McAfee rendered my computer Un-Bootable.  I proved it with like 3 Windows Reinstalls.
Every time I'd install McAfee, my computer's Bootup sequence would get screwed up.

For me, avast's incident last night was nowhere near McAfee's experience.
So, I'm sticking with avast!  It's worked well for me for 2 years.

[lee5768]

I did remove avast as I was getting so many flags but stupidly I had moved files into the chest
before I worked out that it was a problem with avast and not my pc being infected

these files are no doubt history now (no doubt deleted when I uninstalled avast)but today I reinstalled avast again
and am back to normal


so no I won't be changing Avast

[jadinolf]

I wish you well.

This is my first experience with avast! and false positives.

I am not going to abandon this fine anti-virus program.

[Tipton]

This topic only reinforces the need for people to have and maintain an up to date disc image to revert back to. Little, if anything to
reconfigure.

Exactly! I find it extremely immature that people start blame threads and threaten to dump Avast when the problem was ignorance on their part, and their lack of a total system image to restore from. If you own and use a PC, expect the unexpected. Problems are bound to happen. In my opinion, you shouldn't even be able to use a PC until you understand and use imaging software.

[Sesame]

I did remove avast as I was getting so many flags but stupidly I had moved files into the chest
before I worked out that it was a problem with avast and not my pc being infected

these files are no doubt history now (no doubt deleted when I uninstalled avast)but today I reinstalled avast again
and am back to normal

Are you sure about this?  Did you check the chest after re-installation?  I think the files sent to the chest should be there if you haven't deliberately delete them.
Sorry, it seems that they are deleted upon uninstallation for the system safety.

Some unfortunate people deliberately chose the "delete" option and I guess you were on the lucky side.  However, you didn't need to reinstall but wait for the update from Alwil when you were aware that they are probably false positives.

[Hopismum]

This topic only reinforces the need for people to have and maintain an up to date disc image to revert back to. Little, if anything to
reconfigure.

Exactly! I find it extremely immature that people start blame threads and threaten to dump Avast when the problem was ignorance on their part, and their lack of a total system image to restore from. If you own and use a PC, expect the unexpected. Problems are bound to happen. In my opinion, you shouldn't even be able to use a PC until you understand and use imaging software.

I saw the quote earlier and resisted responding to it however after this and other comments there is something that needs to be  said.

when the problem was ignorance on their part

I have seen several posts here by a "few" people laying blame for this problem on the consumer because they are either computer illiterate and didnt know immediately it was a false positive, to Google the issue, to come here to this Support forum and not to panic, as well as the many posts telling people they should have backed thier systems up.

That is of course wise for anyone to do.   Remember though that not everyone has the knowledge to do so.
I spent a good part of the day helping the elderly parents of two friends get their system back to normal.    They use it for nothing more then emailing relatives and playing a few card games online.  I had recommended Avast to my friends and to them and it was installed on their system some time ago.   Suddenly they get all these trojan alerts.  You can guess how much it scared them.     I also received calls from 4 other friends whom I recommended Avast to asking what they needed to do.   They were ready to pay to have it fixed as well.  

Are we to blame those that are the victems of a mistake by this company because they don't know how to do backups, do little with their pcs,  trust the anti virus software and advice of friends and feel they are safe?    Vlk and other reps here have already apologized and have been trying since this happened to help those who are having some very serious issues do to this issue.    Knocking those who are having some real issues here is definitely NOT supportive.

I just don't feel there is any need for blame right now - in either direction.  That solves nothing.  Help people get their problems fixed.

[JimF]

Another update was released to fix the problem. I'm left to wonder if we are STILL protected from the viral/malware threat that the previous update was designed to protect against OR if we are exposed to the threat but Avast! figures that it is now a necessary risk. hmmm ... I'm just left to wonder I guess.

But there is undoubtedly a trade-off between speed of issuing updates and thoroughness of testing.  When customers scream that the latest threat hasn't been covered yet, the AV companies are under competitive pressure to issue the updates more quickly.  That could lead to inadequate testing, though we don't know whether that was the case here or not.  (It could have been a file corruption due to something else insofar as I know.)  So at some point you are going to have to decide how fast is fast enough, and how thorough the testing needs to be.  Different companies may provide you with different trade-offs, but none of them is going to be perfect at both.

But to answer the OP, I have been alternating between avast! 4.8 (paid version) and Microsoft Security Essentials for awhile, and am back to MSE.  I may come back to avast! when 5.0 is released though.  I don't think this is necessarily a fatal error for all times.

[Alan|Cvette]

I just don't feel there is any need for blame right now - in either direction.  That solves nothing.  Help people get their problems fixed.

Very well said, although the "Sorry is not good enough" type posts aren't necessary. I can understand their desperation and anger. All we can offer these people are help if the situation isn't too bad on their PC, and... "Sorry".

We can't magically make their data reappear, it was a mistake by Avast! and everyone makes mistakes including AV makers.

I really don't know what else to say... 

[trevorg]

OK....I admit it.....I came on here to say 'bye to ALWIL products.... and I still may change....but the most frustrating thing about yesterday was not being able to get on this forum when it was most needed, to find out information directly.   The one lesson I would like ALWIL to take out of this is that if they choose to provide antivirus software to the global community, there have to be sufficient servers, bandwidth, whatever to deal with huge spikes in traffic to the forum when a "crisis" like this occurs.  OK, I'll stop there.