Avast is a virus.

That’s right folks, turns out the wool has been over our eyes the whole time. The biggest virus out there is Avast.

Everynight, on all the computers I have avast installed on, I get a virus alert or two from arbitrary files. Huh, interesting avast, ok then, show me. Show me the f*cking viruses.

Nothing in the virus chest.

Nothing in the logs.

I check the last detected file on the UI, open it, and scan it. Nothing. Upload it to virus total. Nothing. Good find avast, please continue to tell me how the other random harmless files on my harddrive are also viruses and then proceed to do nothing about it or even log the occurrence in any reasonable way, I’d love to hear more about them.

Keep in mind, I’m very cautious about what I do online so I’m really surprised when I keep hearing these alerts that are being triggered on files from well known sources. Mind you, avast only scans these files while the computer is idle, so I only know about them if I happen to be in the room at the time.

Oh look, avast supports virus alerts being sent to my email. Good feature avast, nice thinking. Except for the small part where IT DOESNT WORK AT ALL. Never had a problem setting SMTP programs up to gmail, but avast has no problem FREEZING for fifteen minutes while it fails to send an email over both SSL and TLS. Awesome. Avast gets stuck in memory, can’t force close the process because ACCESS DENIED HURR I COULD BE A VIRUS SO DON’T ALLOW ANYONE TO END THE PROCESS.

f**k you avast. I really haven’t the slightest clue if this program wasting my cpu cycles is actually protecting my computer and when it finds files there are no logs or reports of any kind to try and shed light on wtf the program is babbling about during idle.

The only thing avast is detecting is itself. IT is the virus.

Avast IS NOT a virus!

You do talk some crap.!

of course AVAST is not a virus,the suggestion is ridiculous.
Maybe your system was in bad shape to begin with.

Do they have sarcasm in your country?

Yes plenty,but i wasnt being sarcastic.!

Your pointless rant of avast being a virus is completely absurd as you well know.

The biggest virus out there is Avast.
Why are you saying that? Where is your prove? You don't even know what a virus is. If you think you do, please tell me.
I get a virus alert or two from arbitrary files
Ok, what are the filenames and their locations? What is the exact message avast is giving you? What exact versions of avast are you using? What vps version? What os/service pack are you using?
Keep in mind, I'm very cautious about what I do online
Fact is, that is what about all people say who's systems are infected.

Why not take a deep breath, relax and tell us in a decent way about your problem?
Tell the exact version avast and vps version.
Tell what os/service pack you are using.
Tell what the message is avast is giving you.
Tell us if you have/had any other security software installed.
Tell us if you have any other problems with the system.

Please keep it nice and decent and let’s see if we can solve the problem.

Let me try this again.

Me saying “avast is a virus” was sarcasm.

Not sure why I have to explain this.

Yeah thanks but no. I didn’t come here for help nor should I have to. My system isn’t infected. I work in the software industry so I know how to cover my bases when I suspect an infection/intrusion. Which there is currently no trace of atm.

The point of my post is that avast is unreliable and difficult to use. The UI offers no obvious way to check virus logs or previous alerts. Not to mention scanning a previously “detected” file yields nothing. So its inconsistent or just crap. It’s annoying and wasting my time.

Bottom line is we trust a bunch of unknown people in Czechoslovakia that could essentially do whatever they want at any time and seemingly are doing exactly that. Let me give you a case in point… orbitdownloader… voted best video downloader in 2012… by 2013 it was total garbage completely loaded with malware and launching ddos attacks.

To all those that are paranoid… paranoia is only silly until it’s proven true.

Avast’s biggest downfall right now is that no legitimate company I have ever dealt with just completely goes silent when people are essentially having a meltdown. No official word… no comments on rumors… no responding to concerns… no addressing any single issue and yet each week people continue to observe strange goings on… google analytics, exe’s executing on each reboot, totally buggy software (initially) and I’ve seen absolutely nothing come from Avast’s PR department whilst person after person says they are not using this software anymore… not recommending it… calling it junk and all the while Avast is silent.

At the very least they are portraying themselves as a company that doesn’t give a flying f*ck and that in and of itself is enough to make people be suspicious of what used to be a very good company with whom I never had a single problem… prior to 2014…

SlightO,
just because you haven’t looked well, it doesn’t mean there is no obvious way to check virus logs.
start avast > scan > scan history

Why a file is not flagged during a scan while it was earlier can mean several things.

  • The vps has been updated between the flagging and the scan
  • The options you have set for the scan

dprout,
it is Tsjechië, not Czechoslovakia. Slovakia is a different country. It has already been that for almost 21 year.
Bottum line is that is doesn’t matter where avast originates.
You trust unknown people daily.
Do you know the maker of the chair you are sitting on?
Do you know all mechanics that build your car?
Do you know everyone who is making it possible for you to use electricity?

I don’t know the ratio, but lets say for every person who has a problem there are 1 million that haven’t.
But since they are not all posting here it only looks like many people have a problem.

No official word... no comments on rumors... no responding to concerns... no addressing any single issue
Guess you haven't bothered to check their website and read the postings from the avast people on this webboard. If you did you would know your statement doesn't hold.

I assume Tjechië is spelled wrong or in a different language because it doesn’t even come up in a google search. Tsjechië however does but doesn’t even come up with English so I would still assume this is in a different language and if I were a betting man I’d say it just means Czeck… so assuming I’m never going there… which I’m not… who cares lol, but I do see it was dissolved in 82 so thank you for the geography lesson. Regardless, it wasn’t the point to pick out the country of origin, but to point out that indeed you don’t really know where things are made or who made them… there is just an implied element of trust.

The difference however in this case Eddy, is that when I go to a mechanic (which I don’t… I fix my vehicle problems myself but that’s outside the point), when I buy a chair, when I use electricity… there is a someone accountable. I can speak to a manager at the shop or the corporate office, I can return the chair, I can inform the electric company of a blackout and see the truck out there fixing it… in the case of Avast… this is not true… they are outside the laws of my country to some degree, they are being evasive to say the least, they are unresponsive to the many requests people have had on the forums and customer phone calls are being routed to some tech support office in China…

As far as them having an official word… no I’ve read plenty… but I do not consider a hit and run response as being very respectful when people have follow up questions and they never come back and clarify. Post a sticky at the top and address everything everyone is saying for the last month and which continues daily. Open up a hotline so that people can speak to someone at Avast and not be rerouted. These are things that a decent company does to show they are accountable to their customers and earn a mutual respect.

As far as the ratio, arbitrary numbers don’t stand. I’ll throw some out… only 5000 people upgraded to 2014 and 4500 are on here complaining. Since we have no official word by Avast, neither one is probably accurate. I’ve said it before though… there are 200 million avast users… not 200 million users of 2014… people have different versions, don’t want to upgrade, aren’t aware there’s an upgrade, don’t even go into the gui to know there’s bugs etc…

But again to my point… unless Avast puts out an official word and shows themselves to be a company of respect that earns user loyalty and recommendations then this is why there are so many postings of otherwise dedicated fans, who are disgruntled, leaving, not recommending, frustrated and so on and so on… case and point… I wouldn’t even be writing this right now if 2014 hadn’t been such a turd. I’ve used Avast for at least 5 years and never had a reason to come here until now… and you will note there are quite a few newbies coming on board… wonder why? Either way, I still trust Avast and I’m sure they will pull this together, but when someone comes on here and title’s a thread “Avast is a Virus”… maybe look at the big picture of what’s going on here…

I did mend Tsjechië (That is what it is called in Dutch).
Type-mismatch from me.
At least you learned something here although it is not about avast ;D

They do respond, clarify things and such here on the webboard and to support tickets.
I never had any problem with that.

I called them once and got really good help in a very polite way.
But since the free-toll number is not for my country, I called directly to their main office.

Like you, I also do trust avast and am sure the problems will be solved soon.
The 2014.9.0.2008 version already has some fixes.

Anyway, let’s try to help those who have problems.

The biggest virus out there is Avast.
I'm one of those people who's enjoyed being infected for the past ten years. I'm also constantly asking others to become infected with the avast! virus. Is avast! perfect ??? Heck no but then I don't know of anything else that is either. avast! is the best AV I've ever used and continue to use. If there is or was a problem with avast!, it's always been corrected and any problems that may currently exist, will also be addressed and fixed within a reasonable time. [b]The one problem I've never had with avast! is the protection it has offered me and, in my case,[/b] [b]it's been the best FREE protection for my computers for the past 10 years.[/b]

If no one else detects what avast! does, that doesn’t necessarely mean it is a false positive. Avast! had a lot of firsts in the past when detecting super brand new malware.

huh, curios. you sayt that, but my old computer
(about 2 months ago) used avast, and it suddenly popped up with a virus alert, and it claimed that the origin of the virus was avast! i was somewhat baffled… well done avast, flagging yourself as a virus facepalm that is either a ridiculous false alarm or bad planning.

Posting in a topic that is over a year old is seldom productive.

If you have a problem, please start a new topic and give details of what is being detected, file name, location, malware name, etc. A screenshot of the alert (if it happens again or you have a copy) would be helpful.

Haha yep avast sucks. The creator himself cought in an interview saying he would never use it. spamming virus which intentionally makes it difficult to uninstall. For shame. Use AVG! Its epic And free.

The creator himself cought in an interview saying he would never use it.
may we see that? .... a link

Its really annoying when I see a topic “Avast is a virus”. There was this same topic name “Avast is a virus” some years ago and it had lots and lots of comments… Listen Slight0 avast should not be blamed it’s your computer that has issues! One of the biggest issues that computer can get infected is that it contains an unlicensed/pirated copy of Windows or some other system problems. All over the world stores do sell pirated/unlicensed copy of Windows, they do this because it’s their own business and it’s cheap for customers to buy it. I think there’s less of these now. I have had experience with these before.

If you can’t tell us what are the problems and issues are exactly? We can’t help you.