I’m hoping someone can summarise the current situation of updates and XP. There are various threads that have faded without conclusion or are still flickering on concerned with the problems of updating XP systems to v8. So far I’ve not found anyone saying - “Yes I updated on XP and it was fine”. I have the “no definitions update message” symptom also, so can I assume any attempt to update will leave me with the full-blown disease of malfunctions?
As noted in other places the silence from Avast central is ‘disappointing’ but not unprecedented - which leads me to ask as in the Subject - are they just a year ahead of MS?
On the otherhand the usually very helpful member “Asyn” lists XP SP3 as his system and that he’s using Avast 8… so did you not have any problems Asyn in which case should I run the risk and attempt an update?
Thanks Asyn - but could you say what route you took? As usual via the pop-up? Did you have any symptoms beforehand (eg no definitions verbal message) ? Did you get the “false/nonexistent version 7” update message reported by many?
Trouble is the GUI still says update to 7.0.1483 and if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
Thanks for the offer of help Asyn, but unfortunately no one on the forum has returned to say their problems in this area have been solved with advice given so I’m still left wondering if it’s actually possible to fix (apart from reverting to v7 when v8 fails) once you’re in that situation - feels much like a “shall I cut the red wire or the blue wire” situation!
In any case is there much harm in sticking with v7 until XP itself is left to wither?
Personally I suggest you follow the advice in other topics and do a clean install of avast 8 as there are new routines in avast 8 which give better protection.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for all versions).
Now uninstall avast! - using add remove programs, if you can’t do that (as appears to be the case) start from the next step, reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, it will request it be run from safe mode (and will handle the boot into safe mode), first for 7.x if previously installed and then for 8.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.
Will report back - but not for some time I’m afraid as I can’t risk any interruptions of service in the next few days and then I’m away for a while… maybe all will be even clearer by then anyway!
I also updated to v8 on XP/SP3 via the GUI with no problems from the process, BUT I wish I hadn’t. Now avast is very intrusive and constantly doing unwelcome things like slowing down internet browsing, spinning up sleeping hard drives, it’s worse than a virus!
Can I revert back to version 7 and if so, how long will that be supported with new definitions, or would it keep nagging me to upgrade to v8?
Oh, and as a new user of this forum, I find it ludicrous that I have to type a verification code just to post. Do you really hate your members that much? They already had to pass that test to register so it’s a redundant burden/annoyance.
^ Thanks. I uninstalled v8 earlier and it definitely sped up the system quite a lot to have it gone. Maybe it’s my specific config, I network a lot of apps and data files, have a few HDDs, etc so there’s more it interferes with. On v7 I never noticed it was there.
U.g.g! I installed the linked v7, it said there was a newer v7 available (forget the exact version # but it did list it as v7.something) so I let it update… only to find after it had finished that it had updated to v8. Oh well, nothing an uninstall, reinstall, and a couple reboots won’t fix.
Hmm, it seems the forum word filter changed the word U.g.g.! (without periods) to “SPAM”.