Another take on the problem with the huge impact on disk space from Avast’s Secure Virtual Machines / NG option and a couple of important questions:
if I uninstall the option on a PC and reset the System Protection percentage to something more reasonable, will that change survive any and all upgrades that a user might do to Avast when prompted to do so?
When the feature (as promised for some future release) no longer uses the System Protection feature in Windows for its needed disk space and instead uses something else, will that something else still increase the used space on the hard disk as dramatically as it does now.
The reason behind these questions:
I’m a support provider for dozens of small businesses with multiple networked PCs. Most of these clients are setup with backup programs that image the PCs to a shared network location (that is also then replicated off-site), so any dramatic increase in occupied disk space on any or all of the PCs has an impact on both the shared storage needed and on the time to do the backup over the network. The Secure Virtual Machines / NG feature in Avast has been a real pain for me and many of my clients, and I think this is an example of one scenario where the decision to implement didn’t adequately anticipate some crucial unintended consequences. The answer to the two questions above will go a long way towards helping me decide whether or not to move the dozens of clients currently using Avast to a different platform.
To reply to one of my own questions:
I have just experienced upgrading a PC from a version of Avast that used the Feature called “NG” (apparently the prior implementation of Secure Virtual Machines) to the newest version. The old Avast had set the System Protection on the C: drive of the PC to 50% of available hard disk space (on a 1 terabyte drive) and it had rapidly accumulated a disk footprint that broke the regular image backups to a shared network drive. I changed the Avast install to disable the “NG” feature (along with Grimefighter, Avast Gadget, Avast Remote Assistance, and Home Network Security), then reset the System Protection on C: back to a more reasonable 2%. After upgrading to the latest version of Avast, everything I had turned off remained off, but the new Secure Virtual Machines feature was turned on and the System Protection on C: was cranked back up (now to “only” 20% - 200GB). So now I know that any client who does as I’ve suggested and upgrades their Avast when requested may break their backups and need my assistance.
I, like many people in these forums, have always appreciated Avast for its virus prevention and remediation abilities and its relatively light footprint. But it’s challenging to continue recommending it as its footprint grows and its behavior causes unintended but damaging consequences. Let’s hope this is just a slight bump in the road and Avast doesn’t go the way of so many other A/V vendors where the reach clearly exceeded the grasp!