Does avast automatically check the MBR at any time?
Do you need to schedule a boot-time scan to do it?
Is the functionality of aswMBR.exe built into the standard avast product?
does aswMBR.exe get updated, and if so where should I pick it up from, and how are you informed that a new update is available?
If aswMBR.exe provides a required functionality in making the AV program robust, why is its functionality not built into avast and it can then be updated automatically and allow auto testing of the MBR?
I don’t believe it does, but the avast anti-rootkit scan could give an indication of a rootkit present, that won’t say what type of rootkit it is. However, that should prompt people to look for assistance or at other tools.
No the boot-time scan is not a requirement.
No.
it is a stand alone tool that is updated and essentially it is a specialist tool that should only be used under guidance.
I would say that as the aswMBR tool is developed further it may well become a function available in the main product, but that would have to be more robust. If included within avast that would mean it would be running without guidance. That is however, a decision for avast software.
This is a specialist tool, which should only be downloaded (e.g. given the download location to ensure the latest version) and used under guidance as misuse could result in the destruction of the MBR, resulting in an unbootable system.
Hopefully I will not have a need in the future to have to manually invoke aswMBR.exe, it was only a friends problem with a mailer problem on her email account (at the time I assumed she was using a POP3 server and not an IMAP mail client, later found it she was using a hotmail account, that set me off wondering why avast had not detected a mailer problem. The problem having been described here as a possible loss of login integrity, and suggesting changing the login password (which my friend did immediately she discovered bounced emails that she had not sent out).
Appreciate all the support given to me here at the avast forum.
Sorry for hijacking your thread, but it’s only to expose a doubt I’m having.
I noticed that the newest version asks if the user wants to download the most recent avast! definitions. Does it only download definitions, or will it actually download the AV itself?
Sorry for this dumb question, but I’m short on my monthly traffic :(, and can’t afford to check it for my self.
If you have been keeping your copy of avast up to date it shouldn’t need to. It didn’t ask me the last time I ran it to capture some images.
But I would say it means exactly what is said “the newest version asks if the user wants to download the.”
Edit: I have just downloaded and started the latest version and as you can see from the image, it detects the virus definitions version you have installed. It didn’t ask me to download any definitions.