I wanted to post this because I am a LONG time paid (business) and free (home) user.
I’m an IT guy by trade and been in tech business 30+ years.
I am also a Moderator on many tech forums and heavy poster on others.
I also lived thru the AVG hell from V8 to V9 and became a huge Avast fan.
However, Avast 2014 issues IMHO is quickly running out of control.
Major items like Firewall, Online Security, Outlook, VPN, etc. just don’t work right/stable and BSODs.
My opinion about the release of this software really does not matter and I know you cannot retract so I won’t rant on that.
However, I find myself reading the Forum many times a day to find out what the next issue I I should be concerned with. :-[
Perhaps it is time to post a non-comment thread at the top showing all the known bugs/issues for current version that are being addressed ?
Under each if there is a known workaround post it…if there is none then state that too.
As new items come up please update.
Just my opinion but seems there is a need for more consolidated effort than these threads.
And not one single comment from avast team will grace this thread.
Ignorance is bliss for them.
This whole forum and the lack of participation from any avast staff members to try and help the vast amounts of issues shows a certain flippancy and arrogance which i find nauseating and it about sums up the avast company and its public ethics to a nicety.
HOWEVER, i think all we get is silence and no one is bothering to answer any questions at all!
I am a long time PAID user, but I suppose it does not matter… Free or Paid, they keep quiet and hope it will go away…which it won’t I may go AWAY from Avast pretty darn quick!
L.D.S.
Guys, while I cannot speak on behalf of whole development team, it’s pretty hard for us to react even if we get to read a topic. We aren’t magicians and the issues people experience can and usually have tens of different causes. Most of them are broken installations, hard restarts, conflicts with other AVs, damaged Windows, broken network stacks etc. In such cases, usual and the most sensible advice is to reinstall avast! which solves the “broken installation”. If this doesn’t help, things get interesting but also more complicated.
We can hardly do anything with statement like “My Internet doesn’t work.” While it’s understandably frustrating for the user, there is little we can actually do. We cannot thoroughly investigate every single issue (I am writing this post from my bed) and most of them are too generic to even try. I can assure you that if we are able to reproduce any major issue we would never release such version to the public (our support team would hang and shoot us).
If you want to help us (and yourselves), be as specific as you can. If we see the information we need to identify the issue, we fix it. I am aware that most of you aren’t IT specialists but every little bit counts. The most useful thing you can send us is the dump of the process responsible for you issues (hangs, crashes, CPU hogging), the second best things are logs. If you suffer from BSODs, turn on generation of kernel dumps and send us those.
Most issues that remain unfixed for more than one release are there because we cannot reproduce them and identify the exact culprit.
Can you guys try reproducing the Adobe Flash Player issue in the software updater on a Win XP SP3 running the latest FREE version? What happens is the pop up says there’s a critical update EVEN THOUGH the Flash Player (v11) is installed. I have clicked the “Ignore Update” for the Flash player and I had the same problem with the previous version of Avast Free… I also notice the new version takes longer to load even after I’ve scanned for malware and removed all PUP threats. Thanks for listening.
Drake127 let me first say I’ve been on these boards for about a month (since 2014 was introduced) and yours is only about the second thought out, informative and somewhat empathetic response from a member of Avast that I’ve seen this entire time.
Next let me say this… “I cannot speak on behalf of whole development team” <<<< this worries me… why are you unable to speak on behalf of the company? or even the team for that matter? This is what is evident in your response and in the postings for the last month on these boards… a serious lack of communication.
People are posting multiple problems… communicate with them… elicit a response from them… diagnose the problem with them… RESPOND to them…
I’ve been with Avast for 5 years and this last month has been a bumpy ride to say the least.
Help us… help you! Honestly, most of the people posting on here are newbies and don’t even know how to correctly enter a subject line (Help!!! is not a valid subject line just FYI newbies!) much less help you diagnose an AV program. You have to let us know what you need and communicate.
Either way thank you again for posting (from bed no less)… it restores my faith in Avast somewhat!
First thank you very much for responding…just reaching out is a very good first step. I “am” an IT guy and have developed software for years so I can just imagine how busy you guys are in scramble mode to ID & fix the issues. I think it is clear to most folks…Avast Team to admit or not is not relevant…that Avast 2014 is not ready for primetime and the decision to have launched it prematurely may haunt Avast in ways not realized yet. However, since we can’t go back in time the question is how does Avast handle the growing “panic”…yes, I chose that word specifically…that is growing on the Forums. Do a Google on Avast and the word is growing quickly how bad things are. So, as my departed father once said “character is defined when adversity sets in”. I am a loyal Avast user and being an IT guy I am still on V8 across the board…perhaps by luck rather than experience…no matter.
So, with the above said you are correct…you are not magicians…but your team is ones whom 10s upon 100s of thousands (an more) people rely on you for their stability and protection of their PCs…is why you started the company you did and why you’ve had to date the commitment to excellence that is Avast. So, what now ?..very simple…reduce the panic by increasing the communication…which means some extra work. However, this work is the very thing you are working on. Start a top-of-Forum thread named known bug thread. Simply put the issues you ARE aware of and any work-a-rounds…probably temporary but still usable. ALSO, list the known issues you are investigating. This alone will inform the Forum visitors and stop the post thrashing that Avast says is not productive. Your talented Moderators can keep the thread current and as you roll out program versions do can document the fixes…AND start a list of what will be new bugs. As time goes on the list shrinks and also the severity.
I’m only trying to make a constructive suggestion after spending hours-n-hours-n-hours reading the Forum and telling all people I know whom I recommended to use Avast to hold off updating from V8 until V9 settles. If you don’t want to take my word for the need of this I’m sure others feeling the same way will post…Since I posted this thread few hours ago I’ve had countless emails and PMs thanking me. Perhaps others will be vocal…and constructive…on the need.
Regards & Thanks for the consideration in advance.
Yes, all of us want our issues fixed. No, no one is a magician. But I think–no, I know–the most frustrating part is the silence on the part of avast. Communication is key and that is what has been missing. I think the idea of a bug thread at the top where avast can post the bugs they know about is great. If there are workarounds, post them as well, but I realize there may not be a workaround at first. But just knowing that avast is aware of the issues and is working to fix them really helps.
I did receive a response this evening to the ticket I submitted requesting a support package, which I provided. (FYI - my main issue is the not being able to send emails from Outlook.)
PK, when I see major program updates (having lived the AVG8 to AVG9 nightmare) with A/V programs I start reading Forum first…being a IT guy. Thus, I am still on V8 on all PCs…over 40 of them…paid & free, depending on biz or home. Thus, no need to waste your time on my efforts since I’m holding out for future program releases that stabilize V9. However, as a very seasoned software guy (that means old) I wanted to make this suggestion for Avast to post a BUG tracking thread at top of Forum with known fixes, even if temp. Also, list the bugs you are “investigating”…perhaps provide a link to the thread on that subject so others whom are seeing it can link and comment and provide you their data. Lastly, I know never an exact date…but put a target on next program release. When released, add…don’t delete previous info…the fixes and start listing new items as they come up. My guess is somewhere in Avast there is a manager whom doesn’t like this idea because it posts “issues” with current software for others to point at…but IMHO with the very un-usable state of V9 you are past worrying about that and should be more concerned with your customer base on clearly how this getting out of control.