I have a blind friend using the free version of Avast on a Windows XP PC. He does not like having Avast set up to run the virus database automatically as it can interfere a bit with other software/hardware he used such as speech software etc.
His preference is to manually run the update. However, the Avast interface seems to be difficult if not impossible to navigate around without using the mouse and pointer - which he cannot do - he uses keyboard short-cuts and ‘tabs’ around menu items.
Ideally what I would like to do is put a short-cut on his desk top for him to run which will do a manual update. Is this possible? I cannot work-out if the “Alwil” folder in program files contains an update executable that will run and do this…
It is not really the sound that is the problem - I know one thing that bothers him is that if the update launches automatically, his speech software will start reading out the Avast related text in the pop up box, which can mess up other stuff he may be doing at the time. The speech software seems a bit temperamental so avoiding this type of conflict would be good with a simple way of running an update (but not via the Avast console or start tray icon as these seem difficult to navigate to using the methods he favours).
There are a couple of options you could take for now:
right click avast! tray icon → program settings → ‘common’ tab -->UNcheck ‘Enable skins for Simple User Interface’
This option provides you with the no-skinned interface of avast! The benefit of this is that when you use the SUI the menu bar is available at the top.
From there you (he) could hit ‘alt’ → T → 'Down 9 times to updating -->right -->iAVS update
(this would also provide easier access to other functions…)
This is slightly lengthy though.
As I am using Vista I cannot be completely sure about the executable that updates, mine is called ‘VisthUpd.exe’ so I imagine that you will either not have this or it will not work for you.
You could try ashUpd.exe - it doesn’t work on mine (just produces a cmd window for such a short time that I cannot read it before it is gone) maybe because I am ion vista - I don’t know…
Also, to disable the automatic update you will have to do this:
right click avast! tray icon -->program settings -->update (basic) -->for ‘Virus Database’ - choose ask or manual
You don’t say what his connection method is (I suspect Broadband) but it is possible to delay the update check so it doesn’t happen close to the boot, e.g. when the connection is established.
You need to edit (using notepad) the [InetWD] section of the C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Data\avast4.ini file and add the following line (depending on your connection type):
Broadband connections, add this line: AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=300 and AssumeAlwaysConnected=1 if not present (or edit AssumeAlwaysConnected=0 to AssumeAlwaysConnected=1)
Thought i would report back, because we came up with an interesting solution to this problem.
Unfortunately, we could not get the suggested solutions to work properly so we decided to uninstall Avast. One of the options that comes up at the start of the uninstall process is an update option. As the control panel / remove program etc options can easily be accessed via keyboard shortcuts and tabbing through menu options, this is actually a good way for my friend to manually run the virus database update without the use of the mouse and pointer.