Best method to update?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

What’s the best way to upgrade to version 8? Through the GUI or clean?
I’m running latest version of version 7 free and it’s working great. Two machines with windows 7 premium 64 bit and one XP SP3. I’d like to keep it that way :slight_smile:
It seems I’m hearing more negative about version 8 and wondering if I should stay with version 7 for a while.

Thanks.

2

Personally when I install a major upgrade as this is I always do a clean install

3

After having a bad upgrade in two of three systems, I’ve been running this aswClear.exe (http://files.avast.com/test5beta/aswclear.exe) to cleanly uninstall Avast7 before installing Avast8 (See this pinned post for direct links) for my other machines. So far, I’ve not had any new problems.

If you are really worried, then you could use CheckDisk to scan for bad sectors, bad file indexes, etc. on your hard drive before doing a clean uninstall/install. (However, I had not needed-to for my remaining machines.)

[ol]- Go to your Start menu > All Programs > Accessories folder, right-click “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator” (in Win XP, it is simply “Run As…”).

  • Assuming you have a standard Windows installation where everything is in your ‘C’ drive, in the Command Prompt window, type without quotes, “chkdsk c: /f”, and press Enter.

[li]If it asks to schedule the check for the next time your system starts-up, tell it Yes.

  • If it ever asks to unmount or dismount the volume/drive, tell it No.
    Then reboot to start the scan.[/li]
  • If you intend to install Avast in a different hard drive, might as well do a chkdsk /f on that drive as well (do it after the reboot, and change “c:” to your other drive letter).[/ol]
    Since the “/f” tells chkdsk to fix all errors, feel free to run aswClear.exe and do a clean install of Avast8 afterwards.
4

Thanks. I know there is a member here that has an avast uninstall utility that’s used after awsclear to clean up the registry.
Anyone use or recommend?

5

Yea, RejZoR, sorry couldn’t help myself.

It is up to date for all current avast versions including avast8 and doesn’t have to be run from safe mode.

6

So, use with confidence?
Sorry about the spelling.

7

I haven’t had to use it in earnest, so I can’t give that assurance, but RejZoR has been a long time avast user and has made other such tools for avast without issue.

8

Yeap. But it does not support Windows XP

http://my.opera.com/rejzor/blog/2013/02/01/avast-cleanup-tool

9

I thought that was an omission from the list rather than it doesn’t work on XP.

10

Hmmm… Only RejZor can answer that. I am just pointing it out since jwall has a sys running XP.

11

Just update the win 7 machines using the add/remove programs, then the avast clean up program in safe mode. Did not use RejZor’s program.
All is well so far, but I only use a very basic set up of avast, file and web shield and NOTHING else. No sandbox, cloud, etc. I know some will disagree, but it’s worked well for me in the past.

Thanks all.

12

What does the avast cleaner (official) do? I would like to try to understand what the uninstaller is doing before using it. I used it on a test rig a while ago, and it seemed to have left many residual files…

Does it remove registry entries?

How “clean” does it leave the PC?

I’m weary of uninstallers that don’t uninstall much…

13

Essentially it is for use if the standard uninstall fails then it removes the program files and folders plus registry entries, it has to do that from safe more where avast doesn’t run. But if you are experiencing any problem with your existing installation, that may have an impact on the standard uninstall.

That is why we recommend its use in instances like this to ensure you get a clean start state prior to installing the latest version. As has been mentioned with big program updates, many things change and actually just doing an update rather than a clean install does seem to find problems on some systems.

14

I love Avast man, but I wouldn’t jump into version 8 just yet, I have had the devils own job rolling it back…

15

Details, if you please.

And is there any “promise” of improvements if waiting on avast 8?

16

FWIW:
My update on two win 7 computers went fine doing the recommended uninstall and awsclear.exe in safe mode.

First impressions of version 8, it seems to ever so slightly, maybe slow things down a bit, I’ve only used it one day though.
Browsers work fine, no slow down, but I only installed web shield and file shield, no cloud,sandbox, or extra stuff.,
GUI is ok, you get used to it.
I’ll give it a few days to decide whether to go back to version 7.