HI all,
I’m running version 4.8 and I’ve turned off automatic updates to the virus database.
I’d like to know if it is possible to update the database through a command rather than having
to use the GUI interface.
My reason for this would be to eventually to use a scheduled task to update the database
every day at 4AM, or similar.
Tbanks for any info -
Dave
If not possible, any other way to accomplish it ?
Hello davexnet and welcome to the forum.
You can manually do a scan at the time you prefer by changing this in the GUI > Settings. Please let me know if you need additional instructions on how to do this. Thank you.
HI safesurf - it’s not a scan I want to do, it is control over the virus database update procedure
I’m interested in. Because the PC is old and slow, I have disabled automatic update in the
program settings, and I’ve been doing it manually, once a day.
If I could do it by command line, I could set a scheduled task (from the Windows Control Panel)
and forget about it.
My error in grammar. You would have to change your settings:
Open the Avast GUI > Settings > Manual Update > click “OK”
Even if you skip an update, the next update will pick up the previous one in the next one. Avast usually puts out updates twice a day, but this varies. Once a day should be fine. I am not aware of how or if you can schedule this by a command line. If you want, you wait for another Evangelist to come on the forum later who may have a different answer.
Thanks safesurf, you understand my question now.
Do you see how it could be useful? If I could do it outside of the Avast interface
(an external command or similar) I could schedule a task in Windows to do it for me,
once a day.
Yes, I understand your question now, but I’m not sure how to answer it. I would check back on the forum later to see if another Evang. has another option for you that would help.
I appreciate you help, and actually I think I found the answer.
There is a program in the Avast folder called ashupd.exe.
If you execute it with a command line like this,
ashupd.exe vps /silent
It will do the database update. I will set this up in the task scheduler and see
if it works.
Let us know if this works for you. In the meantime, I have contacted another Evang. who will be coming online in a little while who may be able to assist you. Thank you.
Thanks again. In the meantime I’ve scheduled a task using that command, to be executed at 4.28AM,
(that’s in two hours). I’ll update this post when I see the results!
regards,
Dave
I'm running version 4.8
avast! v5 has been available for almost a year and v5.1 will be available soon plus updates for v4.8 will stop at the end of the year.
Please see:
Avast! Version 5.0 is here!!!
http://blog.avast.com/2010/01/19/avast-version-5-0-is-here
Sorry, this question is quite obsolete, as the support for 4.8 will end rather soon.
Please update to 5.x asap…
asyn
I knew it’s mostly likely an obsolete question, but the reason I haven’t updated is this:
It’s an old, slow PC. Even now, I often run it with just the web and email shields active, the
rest I disable. Will Avast 5x even work on this box?
Windows 2000
AMD K6 3+ processor (@ 550MHz)
256 MB RAM
It’s a PC we use for browsing the net, email, Word and Quicken only. We don’t install anything
knew on it at all.
Avast5 is a little lighter in resources than 4.8.
However you need to ensure that w2k is fully up to date:
Also another that has happened in the past:
Thanks DavidR, I’ll check it out.
I’ll attempt the switch today. Anything else to consider about 5x?
Does it install any “extras” such as firewall, or is it straight AV like 4.8 ?
One of the other problems I’ve found with trying to run updated software on this old CPU,
is that it doesn’t support the SSE instruction set and I’ve come across a few examples
where new programs crashed simply because they executed an unsupported instruction .
The program simply didn’t have the smarts to check first to see if SSE was active or not.
Well you don’t mention what version of 4.8, Home/Pro you are using and essentially they remain the same in the avast5 version, stand alone AVs, though the Pro version also has process virtualisation (basically sandboxing) for user selected applications you want more protection in.
If avast say that the minimum OS requirement is w2k then I have to trust that they have things covered, as far as processors go I don’t think they specify a particular type or what instruction set it uses.
I would say that you want the best protection for a system that is used for browsing (where the greatest risk of infection is), email and if in your use of Quicken you connect you want that to be protected.
Is there a Task Scheduler in Windows 2000?
If so you can set the Update in Avast to Manual and then you should be able use the Task Scheduler to run the Avast Update program at the time you want, like maybe when you are asleep at night 
Clearly there is as he is using it:
By bad
I thought he was going into the command line to schedule the task for that day.
I didn’t realize that you could enter a command on the command line and have that command repeat everyday or whenever. My bad.
I always thought that Command line entries in Windows were a one time deal. That in order to get that task to repeat on a certain specified schedule that you had to write a small program and have that program repeat the task as instructed in the program or use a pre-written Task Scheduler program.
Thanks for clarifying that a Command line prompt entrie can be set up to run a repetitive routine at pre-determined times.
Sounds like a Unix solution to a Linux problem
The big question here is what avast version the OP is using 4.8 Home/Pro as I’m not sure is the 4.8 Home free version has the command line function or not. If not even with a scheduled task it won’t work, so we would have to wait and see if that side of it worked.