Avast suddenly updates other software without asking and without my consent

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello,

yesterday my Avast Free AV was updated to version 24.10.6133 build 24.10.9535.880. After the Avast update was done, I shut down the PC. After turning it on again today, and leaving it unattended for a little while, I suddenly noticed that ALL the programs, that Avast’s “Software Updater” had previously marked as “outdated”, had automatically been updated without asking and without my consent.

I’ve always had the “automatic updates” setting in Avast’s Software Updater turned off, even after the last Avast update it’s still off, it’s not even possible to turn it on without Avast Premium, so how come everything was still updated automatically?

I don’t want Avast to update random programs without asking me, which is specifically why I’ve kept that setting turned off. There are certain programs I’ve intentionally kept on a certain older version, because there are things I dislike about the current version.

Thanks to this malfunction I now have to uninstall a bunch of programs, and then reinstall the older versions again. But how do I make sure that the exact same thing doesn’t happen again right after I do that? As I already mentioned, the option for auto-updates is and has always been turned off anyway, so how can I prevent this from happening again?

Please test Avast’s updates properly before rolling them out, this nonsense has caused me a lot of trouble…

2 Likes
2

Same here!

I thought I was hacked…I suddenly had new updates for Gimp, Putty, Bonjour, Pritunl, Xnview, Zoom, Audacity, Openoffice4, Filazilla…all of them created desktop icons although I have the programs in special folders. I did not even know what Putty is…and some other app that was updated, but I already removed because I was afraid I was hacked or had malware.

Today Opera was active in my taskbar although I never use it…and I also saw that Opera and Edge were updated.

How can I turn this off?

I prefer my OLD Audacity version with the UI I know…now it has some fancy new look etc.

3

Same thing happened to me. The last two days I’ve been trying to figure out if something was compromised since at first a lot of programs i very rarely use got updated and it even installed Opera even though i had opera GX installed. Only to see it still happened the next day, and saw a lot of other people having this problem.

4

Could be a bug, I reported this to avast devs.

I just remembered that my Virtualbox has updated without any interaction days ago, during the beta testing. I’m on Premium version so I thought I just forgot to disable automatic updates, but it seems it was a sign of a bug…

5

I brought this up in the old Forum when Avast was still in beta. I said it may be a mistake in coding as it doesn’t make sense to have to pay to NOT update.

But it made its way to the stable release including in Avast One Free. Also, the Avast Free installer now doesn’t have option not to install Software Updater.

So it was not a mistake but intentional. Like forcing us to use VPN all the time unless we pay. This is the last straw after the earlier bugs and problems. I have uninstalled Avast and am now using a troublefree antivirus.

6

I always uncheck Software Updater in the installer selections. If this has been taken away from me, Avast would seem to have taken Avast from me. I do not trust any 3rd party software with the power to automatically install other software, including drivers, because of the risk of intentional or unintentional installs due to bugs or overconfidence by the developers. Because this is a newly fielded change, I suspect some consequences were not anticipated. For the moment, it appears I’m stuck at 24.9 for now.

7

Just checked mine and it appears so far that Avast hasn’t automatically updated any other software for me. But i’m definitely going to keep an eye out for a bit.

I also have to question Avast’s information. It says my VLC player with version 3.0.20 is out of date, and that 3.0.21.0 is the latest version, but when I check for updates in VLC it tells me 3.0.20 is the latest version. So either Avast is wrong or my VLC is lying.

8

To add more here, I looked at my Software Updater again to see what the settings are. I’m an Avast Free user so I don’t (or at least shouldn’t) have the ability to automatically update applications. So when I look at the Software Updater from the Performance menu, it shows that Automatic updates are off

image

However, when I go to Settings → Performance → Software Updater, Automatically update applications is ticked on, and I cannot untick it as it’s greyed out for being a “Premium function”

image

I’m not sure if the other Free users are seeing this on their end as well. But if that’s the case, or even if it’s just me, I would like Avast to fix this. Whether it’s actually turned on in the background or just an error with the UI.

9

Avast

10

Yes, we know we can remove it, but even with the Software Updater installed it shouldn’t be automatically updating other applications if the setting is turned off, especially since it states that the setting is unavailable to Free users.

11

I just posted that for anyone who didn’t know. In my case, it’s preferable to leave things out that I don’t want to spend resources on.

12

Screenshot 2024-10-25 180351

After trying to do a fresh install of Avast Free, there’s not even an option to choose to add or remove software updater. So if this truly is being forced on non-premium users, I’m out.

13

I can’t remember if it was an option or not on a fresh install last time I did one (which was late last year), but just make it so that it doesn’t automatically update if the setting is unticked and for free users.

And also addressing why it’s selected in one area but not in the other like in my screenshots above.

Any response from Avast to clear this up and reassure that this is simply a bug that will be addressed would be greatly appreciated…

14

IIRC, “Cleanup” would be equivalent to “Software Updater” now. Quite confusing in terms of the name, though.

15

The box for Automatically update applications (premium function) which is ticked but greyed out in your Software Updater picture is NOT ticked in my Avast Free

16

Try checking again after checking the first time. Literally just switch to a different settings area, and it’ll be ticked in again.

I know that sounds stupid, but that’s what i’ve noticed.

17

It is a Premium Function - that is why it is greyed out - it is the same in my Avast Free settings.

With it being a premium function - I would say it shouldn’t be there at all - as it scares the horses. I would say it is more likely to be a promotion for purchasing the Avast Premium product.

If you were to click any of those program listed in the Performance > Software Updater - you would immediately be presented with the option to buy the Premium product.
EDIT: I checked and you can click any of those program listed in the Software Updater section but it doesn’t take.

b9977

18

We know it’s a premium function and that it’s greyed out. But then why is the setting showing as ticked/checked?

19

It might be checked, but its pretty clear to me, since it is Greyed out (when compared to the others) and Flagged as a Premium Function.

So my guess would be to promote the Premium Product, as is done in other areas of the Avast Free user interface.

20

Same problem here,

today I was working normally at my pc when i noticed that my Zoom desktop icon had disappeared, while the Gimp icon had appeared out of nowhere.

Checking the control panel I noticed that several applications have been updated, including zoom, gimp and audacity. Not knowing what it was, I looked at avast and noticed that in the “up to date” section under the “Software Updater” tab some applications (the same applications that were updated in the Control Panel) had been updated.

Btw i have also that greyed out checkbox ticked
image

While this is off:
image

and I have this version of the program:
image