I have seen some of the problems that have been on version 5. I started using it on .377 version. With that version I ran into the problem that it would install, but after a reboot, the computer would constantly reboot and even get blue screens of death. XP would do the rebooting while vista got the blue screens. It worked fine before the reboot, it only happened after the reboot. I also noticed that this mainly happened on installs that were updated from 4.8. This problem was fixed with the newer versions or updates to version 5.
As for not receiving registration info. Don't ask me why but my one computer had the problem that it accepted the registration code and even said that it was goo until 2011, but it also said that it was not registered. How it excepted the registration code and good till next year and not be registered is beyond me. What I did find was that there was a glitch somewhere between the BIOS and the OS and the antivirus. I reset the BIOS and then did my normal changes to it and then it started working fine. What started the whole thing was i took out one of my ram chips to lower the ram to 512MB to load 98 SE on it for a minute, after i put the chip back in and put XP back up, that was when the problem started. I have a duel boot drive and removable hard drive racks.. PS. RAM tested fine and there has been no problems since the BIOS has been reset.
Another problem that i have noticed is with the new release or update to the program, after installing it, the AV would glitch out and even the main screen info would disappear. I am talking about the info that tells what things are in areas like the scans. custom scan, scan removable media, scan hard drives, etc. The pictures were there but all writing was gone. This happened right after version 5 was installed. I also found that rebooting the PC 2 times instead of 1 time seemed to clear everything up and everything started working properly.
As for the web site.. I agree about one thing. If you are going to put up a new site, then that is fine, but make sure that the site is done in full. I found some invalid links on pages 2 weeks after they changed the site and released the final release of version 5.
Another thing that I did not like that they did in version 5 was removing some of the abilities to ask the user for input about what to do with a file when a virus is found.. it is now down to more like just delete or move to chest. If something is not a virus when found on your own computer, but registers as a virus, the program automatically moves it to the chest or deletes it. Even if it is a false positive. I like the option to say ignore like they had in version 4.8
As for the remark about telling people about it and recommending it and then having trouble. Well, yes you do recommend it.. that is good, but you can still install and still download version 4.8 If you are not 100% sure that a version is up to standards yet, then it is partly your fault for not checking the software out before you recommended it. I work computers everyday and fix them too. when version 5 first came out as a final release, I did some testing to make sure it was stable and that it was not going to cause major problems for the end user before i ever recommended anyone installing version 5. In fact I told people not to install it just yet after i found out that there was the whole rebooting problem because of the behavior shield glitch thing. and as such, if you are a good tech, then you should know about these thing before you ever recommend any piece of software to any person. If you don't know the common basic problems or try to find out basics, then you should never recommend that software until you do. and recommending that software and then it causing problems because of ones own ignorance of the software is ones own fault.
The remark was made that there was system lockups during the download of the file.. downloading the file is just like any other and if there is system lockups just downloading the file, then that means there is problems with the PC, not the program that is being downloaded as the program being downloaded has yet to be run or installed in any way.. You might want to take that into consideration before blaming a program for being poorly written when it has not even been installed so there is no way that it could be causing the problem. once the install is started, that is a different story, but not before.
Another small thing that I do not like. If you register by the built in form in version 5, it automatically put the code right on the PC, which is good, but does not give it to you in a email too. You have do a request to have it sent to you by email. that should be done automatically.
Personally, I am patient and avast is no different then any other program. There will be glitches just like any other program has and you have to give them time to get them all out. It is a new program and completely re written so of course there is going to be some problems. The fact of the matter is if no one says anything, then the company can not fix the problems that they do not know about, but on the same note, a user should not be crude about problems that they have and should tell the company in a nice way.
I believe that i covered all the main complaints that were initially complained about plus some new ones..
