I’ve been using AVAST since around version 3.x, back when there were two GUI options (Standard, and Enhanced User Interface). Back then I could customize and tailor the “Tasks” and processes to provide logging and alerting with great detail or none at all. I really felt I had control over the product and had a great level of situational awareness about my system in general. I used to show it off to people as an example of what a good AV product was. Sadly, the trend in all AV products is to make things simpler and dumber to the point that the AV just does everything itself, makes all the decisions, hides as much technical information as possible so as not to overwhelm the typical user. The problem is some of us still need that level of control and awareness.
Here’s an example of how bad I think this has gotten with AVAST. While I was in another room I heard an alert from AVAST come out of the speakers (“A Virus has been detected”), a few seconds later I heard another virus alert. By the time I got to the computer the popup messages had gone, so I tried to find some kind of log in the GUI to let me know what happened. I found none. The “Statistics” Section has “Realtime data” which shows a mere 5 last files scanned (which on a busy system is useless, as the suspect file is long gone by the time you look at this list), the “Historical data” seems pretty to look at, but completely useless (it shows “Traffic History” and “Updates history”; perhaps the two least important things when you are trying to figure out what’s going on on a system). The “Component Status” shows “Viruses Blocked” but displays only a number…no other data, like what were the involved files, programs, malware-type, etc. It seems like the whole GUI has been designed to be pretty, but with no functionality. Where is the Enhanced User Interface that made this product special??? How do I troubleshoot and figure out what happened on my system? The most simple of things is a log file of the program’s activities, and I can’t even find that. The closest thing is the “Report File” option under the “File System Shield”, but this just has a “*” for the filename, and I can find no log file (maybe I need to keep looking).
Please, Alwil/AVAST, restore the advanced features that allow advanced users to diagnose and gain awareness of their systems. Make it pretty with your new graphs if you like, but I’d be happy with a simple log of activities to analyze when things happen. I need to know. I’m not a granny. I need a product that will help me keep my system secure, not just tell me “Everything is Good” as is plastered on the “Status” page, even when seconds before I was getting alerts that “A Virus has been detected”…Everything is NOT good if viruses are being detected!!
I have always wanted/stated early on( when change occurred and the Statistic Tab was originated) as had others, that the Statistic Tab be “much more” in depth with Statistical data and historical compilation/log, graphs etc.
Just never happened. :-\
Para-noid, thanks for the response, here are some of my thoughts though (don’t take them the wrong way, I’m truly glad for your feedback and would appreciate any advice):
<<1) Right click on the avast tray icon>click “show last pop-up”.>>
This doesn’t seem all that helpful, and it doesn’t help at all for something that is beyond the very last message
<<2) Look here C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Avast\log\ >>
Thanks for pointing out this location. There are several log files in here, and after digging through a few I can’t seem to find any trace of the events I described. I’ve done a text search through all files for “Detected” but got hits in files that were not related to the detection of the malware
<<edit: The pop-up was an alert that an infection was blocked. >>
I’m afraid this isn’t reassuring at all. Look, the simple fact of the matter is that some program on my system touched a file or downloaded something that contained malware…I need to take a look at what exactly that was. Next time I might not be so lucky…and I want to know what things on my system are doing. I’d like to see an Event Log that outlines that a such and such a time, Program “X” touched File “Y” and Malware of Type “Z” was detected. Surely this isn’t an unreasonable expectation from an AV product…christ, Avast was doing this years ago…why can’t I get this info easily now? I’m afraid it’s due to the desire to oversimplify for the grannies out there.
Avast evangelists / lovers, not surprisingly, say the new UI is awesome.
Folks who haven’t taken hours/days to become familiar with it claim it seems “dumbed down”.
There’s a message there.
I personally feel the organization is not what it could be, and the “Metro-like” look and feel of the UI is not in proper keeping with the desktop theme so it’s kind of mentally jarring. It’s like what Microsoft has done with Office, which is also bad.
But, now having gotten WAY more familiar with it lately out of necessity than I really wanted to, it seems there is more there than initially meets the eye. It’s just spread out in odd ways and has parts hidden that have to be opened. I don’t know who likes this kind of UI organization, but it’s not as usable as it could be.
If my memory serves me, there were and still are users who didn’t/arn’t excited about the direction the GUI has taken, I am one of them. But it is what it is, and for me, I’m more excited about the fact that while using Avast Security I have not succcessfully been compromised (contracted a virus) in over 10 years.
Lucky…I doubt it.
I don’t believe in ‘luck’.
Please don’t make sweeping statements, there are many Evangelists who don’t like the interface. I have said it on many occasions that this interface isn’t intuitive. Yes, it is a steep learning curve as it is so different from avast 8 (which I felt was far better) to find where things are now located.
But I didn’t particularly like the avast 8 UI (the lack of contrast and colour of the free version), it also had the Metro style Home page. But under the skin of that first page it was much more intuitive, even though I didn’t like the lack of contrast and colour of the free version.
As far as look n feel goes, I’m not sure I really care. I mean, there are GUI styles I might like to see a bit more than others, but I can live with all of them at the end of the day. I’m more concerned with functionality. My original question still seems to be unanswered: Is there a way to track (1) what program touched (2) a certain file/URL/resource, and (3) what malware-type was detected? This seems like the most basic capability for an AV. And, if it was falsely classified (many security tools show up as malware or PUPs), then can I refer back to this log/historical data to then make decisions as to what to do about it (exclusions, report false-positive to Avast, etc.)?
All these things I used to be able to do with Avast v4.x (which I used for years after v5 was released, until support ended). Someone mentioned Customizations…is there a skin setting that might enable these old Enhanced User Interface features?
