Avast internet security automatically updated without permission.

system · 2014-08-05T11:32:03.000Z

NoelC post:81:

Some folks - I dare say a majority - DO manage to get the latest Avast release to work on their systems. Much as you might not like to hear it, the product is not broken in general; somehow you have specific problems with it.

No need for hyperbole; no one would be so silly as to think that the MAJORITY of systems can’t run the latest Avast. I suggested that there must be a considerable contingent of us, when so many in this thread, alone, seemed to have specifically been running the same older version (2008).

You state the benefits of individual threads, as though anyone here has ever disagreed with it’s being an effective approach; I simply feel that there’s a time and place for that. Read the thread title: we were trying to figure out what was forcing us to update, and thereby taking away our work-around; should a solution to this forced update not be found, then, of course, we would have two choices: make our own thread, in an effort to figure out what was causing us to have to use the older version, in the first place, or move on from Avast, altogether – going to this step, straight away, however, is premature. We had a discussion, mostly convoluted with people imploring us to make separate threads, and, at the end of the day, it was clear that, had we obliged, we’d have wasted our time, in a vain effort to solve the issue, as taken from the subject/OP.

You can frame this however you like (as a pile-on, or what have you); for me, it seemed clear that we just wanted to share our experiences, first, before digging deeper, if need be. Things took a turn, when a few of the regulars, here, took something of a condescending tone with us, because we weren’t following “protocol.” There might have been some resentment in our posts, but, remember: the people posting here are frustrated. You claim to be wanting to point us in the right direction, and, honestly, it’s appreciated… however, if, once you’ve lent your advice, it’s not heeded, there’s no need for you or others to repeatedly pop-up, in here, with the same narrative, as before. Maybe we’re venting, a bit – clearly the thread served it’s purpose, as evidenced by Martin’s post. Who are you to tell us (constantly), “you’re succeeding wrong?”

Anyway… I won’t be back. Sincerely appreciate everyone of whom had only good intentions, even if I disagree with how some chose to go about it.

Cheers.

system · 2014-08-05T12:56:37.000Z

@ JuliquE

Ouch : - couldn’t agree more with what you have to say though, this subject appears to have turned into a thread about how our forum etiquette isn’t up to the more regular users liking and instead of focusing on what they can do to help us with potential solutions they are basically skirting around or avoiding giving any advice whatsoever, cause they don’t have a clue what is wrong, or know that the re-written webshield is to blame but the investment in it is to far gone for them to do or change anything about it.

I would love to hear your opinions of AVG even though you say you won’t be back - I’m reluctant to swap as i’ve been a user of avast for about 8 years, but am being forced to find an alternative.

bob3160 · 2014-08-05T13:43:56.000Z

hallucinogenix post:84:

@ JuliquE

Ouch <$1alt=“” title=“” onresizestart=“return false;” id=“smiley__$2” style=“padding: 0 3px 0 3px;” /> - couldn’t agree more with what you have to say though, this subject appears to have turned into a thread about how our forum etiquette isn’t up to the more regular users liking and instead of focusing on what they can do to help us with potential solutions they are basically skirting around or avoiding giving any advice whatsoever, cause they don’t have a clue what is wrong, or know that the re-written webshield is to blame but the investment in it is to far gone for them to do or change anything about it.

I would love to hear your opinions of AVG even though you say you won’t be back - I’m reluctant to swap as i’ve been a user of avast for about 8 years, but am being forced to find an alternative.

If you want to discuss AVG, may I suggest you do it on their support forum. It’s also the place to get help if you have a problem with their program.
http://forums.avg.com/us-en/avg-forums?sec=theme&act=show&id=288
Considering that avast! has almost 220 Million users, I consider 3 or 4 reporting a problem with a part of the program anything but a problem with the program but, a conflict that needs to be solved for the few users that appear to have this problem.

essexboy · 2014-08-05T13:49:29.000Z

Don’t expect much help on the AVG forum

Please see top of this webpage. You may not have noticed but this forum has now been virtually closed down to become 'read only'. Perhaps you may wish to now post @ 'AVG Community' http://www.avg.com/support (Scroll Down). [Search & Post in 'Windows Products']

system · 2014-08-05T14:04:20.000Z

@ bob3160

…and may i suggest you mind your own business, unless you have a solution to our ongoing issues >:(

Or are you just trying to compound JuliquE observations - Please try to keep on topic !

Thanks very much

bob3160 · 2014-08-05T14:31:49.000Z

hallucinogenix post:87:

@ bob3160

…and may i suggest you mind your own business, unless you have a solution to our ongoing issues <$1alt=“” title=“” onresizestart=“return false;” id=“smiley__$2” style=“padding: 0 3px 0 3px;” />

Or are you just trying to compound JuliquE observations - Please try to keep on topic !

Thanks very much

Since there isn’t any substantive information posted, there isn’t any way to solve your ‘problem’.
This also isn’t a private chat. Let’s try to solve the problem instead of getting every ones dander up.

system · 2014-08-05T14:49:22.000Z

@ bob3160

I totally agree and apologise for being slightly acerbic but i only respond in kind, i’m just getting very frustrated with the lack of any genuine help.

I have been asked to make my own thread which i have done with all the details requested and now i’ve been asked to make a ticket, all of us are basically being given the run around, and feel if you don’t have anything positive to add to our issues then please keep quiet.

All we want is suggestions to help us resolve this not advice to make another thread, create a ticket etc etc.

At the moment the users who are having this issue are creating a workaround to get us by, can you contribute towards this ?

Thank you

bob3160 · 2014-08-05T15:46:30.000Z

You where asked to create a ticket because that goes directly to Avast and answers will then come from Avast.
On the forum you may or may not get a reply from Avast.
I can’t contribute since I don’t have or have ever had the problem you’re describing.
I also run Windows 8.1 with the update and don’t have your problem.

Eddy · 2014-08-05T16:08:22.000Z

And there he goes again:

http://www.animateit.net/data/media/june2010/horse10.gif

system · 2014-08-05T17:31:41.000Z

hallucinogenix post:84:

I would love to hear your opinions of AVG even though you say you won’t be back - I’m reluctant to swap as i’ve been a user of avast for about 8 years, but am being forced to find an alternative.

I guess I was always going to have a gander at any possible replies, just in case there was anything worth coming back to.

AVG, for me, has always been sitting in the reserve; I mentioned, earlier in the thread, that for about a decade, now, give or take, I’ve been using Avast. Were it possible for me to use Avast, sans hassle, I must say I would do… however, AVG enjoys a great reputation (preferred by many, as well).

Interface seems easy to use; they have an up-sell portion of it, that you can hide, with a single click. Seems to automatically employ some basic level PC optimization, which has seen my start-up time 12% faster (reports this to you, just the once). It’s free version doesn’t have a shield for downloads, like that for Avast, but, it was seldom noticed, to be fair (I could maybe count on my hands how many precautionary messages I’ve received for any downloads, over the years). Otherwise, it offers a fairly comprehensive Webshield.

Just a couple days in, but, so far, so good. If/when I get a new system, I’ll likely return to Avast (worth noting that this problem persisted, even after a fresh reformatting)… but, until then, I really couldn’t be arsed to get to the bottom of what’s causing the issue (may be naive, on my part… but, I suppose I am so entitled).

CraigB · 2014-08-05T17:36:33.000Z

As already mentioned earlier please move your discussions about AVG to PM or email, this is the avast forum… not AVG :

Vlk · 2014-08-05T18:06:41.000Z

Hi guys,

The older builds of Avast 2014 are not supported anymore as the new VPS requires the latest versions (R3 or R4 builds) which means that any attempt to update the virus definitions from those old builds will automatically force update of the program as well.

Sorry if this is disappointing but we really can’t support the myriad of historical builds.
If you have any issues with the latest build, let’s focus on fixing those.

Thanks
Vlk

system · 2014-08-06T02:45:25.000Z

Vlk post:94:

…
If you have any issues with the latest build, let’s focus on fixing those.

Thanks
Vlk

Well that’s going to be a little hard to do if users are forced to uninstall Avast and install another working antivirus. In my case, that’s what I had to do because after the 2014.9.0.2021 update, my computer loses internet connection and freezes after about 20 minutes, forcing me to reset only for it to happen again. I had the same problem with the December 2013 and January 2014 updates but I was able to rollback to a November 2013 version which I used until I was forced to update to 2014.9.0.2008 – which surprisingly was stable on my system. But with this current forced update, my only solution was to uninstall Avast and install a different antivirus.

P.S. I turned off the Web Shield and that didn’t solve the problem. I completely uninstalled Avast, using the uninstaller, and then re-installed it. I did it twice and that didn’t help, either.

=========
OS: Windows 7 (64-bit) Home Premium

Lisandro · 2014-08-06T03:02:44.000Z

creeper2k post:95:

Well that’s going to be a little hard to do if users are forced to uninstall Avast and install another working antivirus.

Forced?

creeper2k post:95:

In my case, that’s what I had to do because after the 2014.9.0.2021 update, my computer loses internet connection and freezes after about 20 minutes, forcing me to reset only for it to happen again. I had the same problem with the December 2013 and January 2014 updates but I was able to rollback to a November 2013 version which I used until I was forced to update to 2014.9.0.2008 – which surprisingly was stable on my system. But with this current forced update, my only solution was to uninstall Avast and install a different antivirus.

If you make a clean installation (from scratch and using the avast! tool to uninistall) of the latest version (and have no incompatibility software), I see not a reason for avast! not work smoothly.

system · 2014-08-06T05:25:41.000Z

To hallucinogenix: I think Vlk answered your question - it looks like that if you use the offline vps definitions update from Avast, that your program version will update - I didn’t know that; but for all intents and purposes, I would actually give it a try - now don’t hold that against me - it’s not a recommendation, it’s just something I would do, and I tend to try everything and anything to get something to work - so personally, that is what I would do, try the offline update, and see if just the vps definitions update; and hopefully the program version doesn’t update. If it does, have a copy of version 9.0.2008 ready, and reinstall that version - and continue to block the program update with your firewall, and unfortunately you will also have the outdated definitions. That being said, as I posted in my original post I suspect the culprit, which I am guessing is sent over the Avast servers, is a service called emhwid from Avast. My program ProcessHacker noticed it and notified me of it in an info pop-up bubble from the taskbar. The thing is, I think the Avast servers send it, it updates the program version, and then it is deleted by the servers I guess. Which seams kind of sneaky. I have searched for emhwid on my computer, and it is not there. Maybe you could block the service emhwid with your firewall, or a HIPS. And the vps definitions could update, but not the program version - although this seems difficult, and probably technically not possible. PS, I think emhwid means emergency hardware identification - or something to the effect, that Avast created to update program versions they consider obsolete and abandoned.

system · 2014-08-06T06:43:09.000Z

CraigB post:93:

As already mentioned earlier please move your discussions about AVG to PM or email, this is the avast forum… not AVG :

Surely, Avast wouldn’t begrudge a couple disgruntled users, of whom are reluctantly contemplating a switch to another anti-virus software, with hopes of returning, in future, for discussing possible alternatives. Were we to have been plastering this rhetoric all over the boards, then you would have a case. Our last couple posts, after trying as much as our nerves would allow us to fix Avast, is hardly something for you to, AGAIN, return to this thread. Why are you here, mate – seriously?!

Having happily used their services for a decade or so, give or take, I’d like to think that they would be grateful that, all things considered, I leave them relatively pleased with their work, and with an eye on returning.

I’m not too concerned about some random forum spammer, to be honest.

CraigB · 2014-08-06T06:51:11.000Z

JuliquE post:98:

CraigB post:93:

As already mentioned earlier please move your discussions about AVG to PM or email, this is the avast forum… not AVG :

Surely, Avast wouldn’t begrudge a couple disgruntled users, of whom are reluctantly contemplating a switch to another anti-virus software, with hopes of returning, in future, for discussing possible alternatives.

Having happily used their services for a decade or so, give or take, I’d like to think that they would be grateful that, all things considered, I leave them relatively pleased with their work, and with an eye on returning.

I’m not too concerned about some random forum spammer, to be honest.

I’m sure avast wouldn’t begrudge you for having some issues but this is still the avast forum and good forum ethics suggests that discussions about direct competition software should not be discussed on the forum, this is what the pm function can be used for.

Thankyou

system · 2014-08-06T06:54:01.000Z

@ juliquE

I have sent you a pm, just in case you miss it

@ jacemace

I will message you later with an update

system · 2014-08-06T06:59:06.000Z

CraigB post:99:

JuliquE post:98:

CraigB post:93:

As already mentioned earlier please move your discussions about AVG to PM or email, this is the avast forum… not AVG :

Surely, Avast wouldn’t begrudge a couple disgruntled users, of whom are reluctantly contemplating a switch to another anti-virus software, with hopes of returning, in future, for discussing possible alternatives.

Having happily used their services for a decade or so, give or take, I’d like to think that they would be grateful that, all things considered, I leave them relatively pleased with their work, and with an eye on returning.

I’m not too concerned about some random forum spammer, to be honest.

I’m sure avast wouldn’t begrudge you for having some issues but this is still the avast forum and good forum ethics suggests that discussions about direct competition software should not be discussed on the forum, this is what the pm function can be used for.

Thankyou

You’re being ridiculous; the conversation isn’t heating up, or anything – quite the contrary, as it’s dying down, following a couple direct mentions that I was about done here. By immaturely responding, after my every post NOT directed at you, you’re only drawing things out further (unnecessarily, I might add).

Thank you.

CraigB · 2014-08-06T07:07:07.000Z

I have to disagree with you there sorry, by not listening to the suggestions and advice given it is your own immature responses that are drawing this topic out further “unnecessarily” as if you had of adhered to my first suggestion ( or Bob’s ) of moving your off topic discussions to the pm function then none of these recent pointless posts would be here would they :

Announcements