aswMBR not using Avast engine anymore

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello guys,

long term user, never posted here (I think). Long story short: I usually run aswmbr once in a while just to make sure there is nothing unusual at the rootkit level in my system. It used to detect my Avast install and use the engine and latest definitions accordingly. Today I changed my CMOS battery (was dead), and after that, decided to run the tool as I haven’t ran it for a while. It now behaves as it does not see the Avast installation, and always asks for a download of the definitions (which, when doing it, stays always at 17030301…

Any idea why this is happening? I repaired Avast just in case, but still the same issue. I would like to still have the possibility of running aswmbr once in a while, for peace of mind.

Any hints are welcome.

Windows 7 SP 1 up to date
Avast Free latest version, up to date

2
I usually run aswmbr once in a while just to make sure there is nothing unusual at the rootkit level in my system.
avast is running a rootkit scan 8min after bootup
3

Yes, the technology is included in the AV (for years) now.

4

Good to know, I read about that but was not sure if it was the same, or better, than running aswMBR with some frequency.

Bottom line, we have the same (or better) scanning capability now from within Avast AV (free) than we had with aswMBR, correct?

Out of curiosity: any reason why aswMBR would suddenly not detect the Avast installation anymore? Now that I remember, the last time I ran it normally was before the latest engine update of early January… could that update be the one that rendered aswMBR “obsolete”?

5

Correct.