There was (still is?) an issue with version 9 and Windows XP. Consequently I am still running all XP computers on version 8.
I asked Avast Support to advise me when the issue was resolved but so far have not received any additional information. Therefore, do any of the Forum Members know (from practical installation experience) whether the issues with version 9 have been resolved and whether XP computers can now be safely and without problems upgraded from v8 to v9?
If I do not receive a reply from Avast Support by the end of this week I will move the XP computers to a different AV product.
I had delayed updating to Avast 9 and now have 9.0.2008 working on 4 XP (SP3) machines. It works well for me. I uninstalled Avast using aswclear.exe in safe mode having first saved my configuration settings. Apart from getting used to the new UI, I have had no problems. In fact it works better than Avast 8. Avast 9 seems to be a better fit with Agnitum Outpost Firewall Pro 8.1.2. I run Outpost with Web Control and there have been no compatibility issues. One day, this might no longer be the case but that does not appear to the case yet.
Outpost was already installed when I did the clean install of Avast 9.0.2008. There was one problem with Outpost and Avast 8. Outpost client service acs.exe started unreliably. That is no longer happening with Avast 9.
Weird things happen with the registry, especially for security software which get deep into the kernel.
Speaking from my personal experience on one XP Pro SP3 system: I did a full offline installation of avast 9 (aka “2014”) [i.e., saved/backed-up my customized settings, uninstalled avast 8 via Control Panel, rebooted and ran aswClear in SafeMode, rebooted and installed avast 2014, imported my customized settings] and have had no problems whatsoever.
I was so happy with the way 2014 was running there, that about 2 weeks later, I tried the same procedure on my Win7 system, only to have it FAIL to install… despite repeated attempts. Go figure?!? So I reverted to running Avast 8 on my Win7
Infer what, if anything, you wish. The fact that it worked smoothly for me on XP doesn’t guarantee the same for you. So many factors (hardware variations, and especially the particular security [MBAM PRO, third-party firewall] programs you’re running) my lead to alternative results for you.
As far as I can see, having also been running latest Avast on my xpSP3 with no issue at all; the conflicts/incompatibilities appear to be very much ‘system specific’.
Like it was so aptly said, “go figure”.
