To start things off I will describe a little bit about my self. I’m one of the I.T technicians at a company managing approx 150 users. I’ve only been working in I.T for 5 months now so go easy on me!
Right, lets get to the problem. Our users are currently using avast 4, but we are switching over to avast endpoint protection suite plus (Is that associated with a number? i.e avast 5? 6?). However, when we deploy the new avast via the admin console, we are experiencing a few issues as follows:
For some users the license does appear to be active according to the subscription section in their software application (we have a 3 year license), however, they keep getting pop ups stating their avast license has expired.
For other users, the license is not being activated at all, instead their license is for only about 3 days.
After the deployment, everyone having issues relating to an avast add on with outlook 2007. It seems to be looking for the add on associated with avast 4.
I’m convinced the problem lies with avast 4 not being properly removed. I’ve even ran the avast remover tool before the deploying the new avast, but there are still instances of avast 4 including some app data.
Anyone experience these issues when ‘replacing’ avast 4 with avast endpoint protection suite plus via deployment?
I have had this discussionwith avast! QA where the Outlook plugin does not get removed, and then you have to manually remove the old avast! Outlook plugin.
You should be deploying version 8, not version 7, as it has the best Outlook plugin of every version of avast! that has ever exists.
You will need to get a license conversion, as your ver. 4 license is NOT compliant with the newer management consoles.
Sincerely,
J.R. “AutoSandbox Guy” Guthrie
“At this point in time, the Internet should be regarded as an Enemy Weapons System!”
You mention manually removing the avast outlook plug in… I don’t think that is as easy as it sounds. There are two situations I would like to describe below.
The error message which is presented to users when opening outlook states that it cannot find the file c:\program files\Avast Software\Avast Business\ashOutXt.dll. However, when going into outlook>Tools>Trust Centre>Add ins. the avast add in is actually pointing to c:\program files\Avast Software\Avast Business\asOutExt.dll.
Upon looking through the avast business directory, there is no sign of ashOutXt.dll, but asOutExt.dll is present.
Now to complicate things further… There is a machine where the error message DOES NOT pop up. Within outlook, the add in points to the same path stated in situation 1 (c:\program files\Avast Software\Avast Business\asOutExt.dll) HOWEVER, this machine DOES have the ashOutXt.dll file.
I’m confused as to what exactly is pointing to the ashOutXt.dll file because it is not within outlook…
On another note, I still have no idea why the licenses are not being properly deployed along with the applications. They work on some machines, but not on others… they are the same operating system (win 7).
I’ve noticed others have had a problem relating to the avast plugin for outlook 2007 as well. To clarify my exact problem, this is exactly what the error message says when opening outlook 2007.
The Add-in “avast!” (C:\Program Files\Avast Software\Avast Business\ashOutXt.dll) cannot be loaded and has been disabled by Outlook. Please contact the Add-in manufacturer for an update. If no update is available, please uninstall the Add-in. (outlook.jpg in attachments)
Now, within outlook, I go into trust centre > Add-ins. The avast add in is pointing to asOutExt.dll. (av2.png attachment)
When I go into add-in manager both avast4! AND avast! add-ins are present. So I uncheck the avast4! box (av1.png attachment)
When I go into COM Add-Ins, the avast! Add-in is there but it is pointing to asOutExt.dll. (av3.png attachment)
There is no ashOutXt.dll file present in the directory specified. Why is outlook pointing to asOutExt.dll?
I’ve ran the avast remover tool before deploying avast endpoint protection suite plus (is this the same as avast8!?), but the same problem occurs.
ADDITIONALLY, I’m still having problems with the license pop up saying avast has expired even though it hasn’t. Also, for some people the license file is not being copied across at all…
OK, let’s forget about this outlook add-in, that is not too important and I have wasted enough time writing about it.
THE MAIN ISSUE I’m having is the problem with the license deployment. When I deploy avast to a user’s machine, the license is either:
A. Trial for 30 days
B. 2 or 3 days remaining of a trial
C. The full 3 year license (but they still get prompts saying avast has expired!)
You may think I am being impatient but this is extremely important. Almost all my users are unprotected or their ‘trial’ is about to expire. I’m getting tense about the thought of my users working on their machines with no anti-virus, especially since we have paid good money for this service…
I saw an issue where if you used the deploy client job from the console, and let it auto-decide if it should reboot, sometimes the workstation was running with the trial license instead of the full license. For us, I’ve solved nearly every deployment issue by: Deploying only a few machines at a time (10 or so), setting the deploy job to force reinstall existing, and always reboot.
Yeah I have deployed only about 7 at a time; even 1 at a time to no avail. I have also forced the reboot, but the same result. Perhaps the license version has not updated. Where can I find out what license version I am deploying and how to convert/update it if it’s old.
Unfortunately, I’m only familiar with SOA where it is under Admin → Subscription… Though, you can look at your license.avastlic file wtih notepad and get a pretty good idea of what it contains.