** INTRODUCING **: pre-release version of upcoming avast update (now 4.6.726)

Hi *,

(Updated Nov 12: The update has now been officially released. The relase version is 4.6.731.

here I’m again. An avast Home/Pro update is coming soon (my guess is in about 2 weeks) and as usual, it’s my pleasure to announce the availability of a pre-release version of this update.

How to install it (for starters - most people already know this trick anyway ): simply download and run the following program: http://files.avast.com/files/beta/aswbeta.exe . That’s about all it takes (provided you have the latest version of avast Home/Pro already installed, of course).

There is a number of fixes in this release and a couple of new features as well. Here’s an (incomplete) list:

  • aswRdr.sys: fixed a race condition that could eventually lead even to a system crash
  • improvements in the executable file unpackers
  • enhanced tolerancy against damaged archives
  • boot-time scan now supports the “Move to chest” command
  • mail scanner: fixes in IMAP handling (NTLM authentication related)
  • the “Date of last scan” entry is now updated by all scanners (not only Simple UI)
  • added support for CAB and LHA sfx archives
  • P2P Shield: added support for BitLord, uTorrent and ABC
  • boot-time scan now shows textual error strings (instead of error codes)
  • WebShield: fixed parsing of HTTP requests in the case where a header is larger than 64K
  • WebShield: fixes in the detection of Transfer-Encoding:chunked
  • WebShield: new avast4.ini options: NoDefOptinProcess, NoDefIgnoreProcess, default=0
  • WebShield: miniscule fix in the GUI
  • minor fixes in the email scanner (related to Lotus Notes clients)
  • GUI: most lists (e.g. areas to test, exceptions etc) now support the following keyboard shortcuts: INS = Add, DEL = Delete, F2 = Edit
  • Aswrdr.sys: fixed compatibility problem with Windows Vista beta version
  • fixed a problem with the boot-time scanner under Windows Vista beta
  • fixed crashes of the physical memory scan under WinXP x64
  • avast now does not report the “file is corrupted” messages when trying to unpack a modified, unknown or damaged version of a Winexec packer
  • sched.exe now supports all params of the boot-time scanner

Any comments on this release are welcome and appreciated!

Thanks
Vlk

Thanks Vlk, downloading the beta update now.

Perhaps Jooooo, will be happy now ;D

Where should we comment if we have any comments, here or in the Beta sub forum?

You can report anything here.
It’s probably pointless to reopen the beta forum now as I don’t expect much feedback with this service release…

Thanks
Vlk

Thanks Vlk ;D

Just installed it.
Wooww there are new Resident providers icons, again ;D

I’m sure he will ;D

The icons are not really new - they were created for the 691 build but due to a technical error, they didn’t make it to that build (some of them).

Can someone post screenshot of new icons in On-Access panel? I’m not using avast! right now, but i’ll probably test it out this weekend…

Here’s the screenshot ;D

Oh :frowning: I prefered glass like icons in official build. Especially the one for Web Shield and standard shield icon from 4.5 (shield similar to the one on webpage).
But well what can i do… i’ll have to get used to these…
They also appear to be alot smaller aren’t they?

I agree with you…

just downloaded the beta and i like the new icons but i like anything different.

OK, except for the icon appearance - any other critical issues? ;D

You’re not giving time for us to test ;D
What about my Script Blocker problem never answered, never solved?

No problems so far and the new icons are cool :slight_smile:

But what about some icons on the menu, when you right click avast in tray.

I know it’s not a necessary thing, but it would be fine anyway.

Also it would be nice in the log viewer if you could doubleclick a line and then the line was copied to the clipboard, instead of you have to export the list to a text file, open the text file, find the line there and copied from there :slight_smile:

BTW. support for Azureus in the p2p shield, might be a good idea, it is one of the most used torrent clients.

I downloaded and installed the pre-release version.
It seems to be OK, so far.
I’m checking something.

3 days and sofar not discovered anything strange or not working except for 1 thing.
When I use Mirc, each line I type is scanned and the IM provider is slowing down the messages I sent to a channel.
Disabling the IM provider solves it.
This did not happen with the previous version of Avast.

OK, I’ve downloaded it. Works great till now, so I’m happy. 8) I had a great day: added 256MB of Ram in the morning, and now the new avast. What can be better? ;D

Jooo, look at my new avatar, you’ll see the great new icons! I hope you’ll be happy at least for two weeks! ;D

PS. Hope no one from Alwil are against my avatar, as I’m using their icons! :-\ It’s because I like their program very much! ;D

Vlk, no problems… tested all providers.
Can you tell us exactly what are the new entries at avast4.ini file?

Opinion: the old icons are better than the new ones :stuck_out_tongue:

Hi folks. I downloaded the beta version of avast earlier today and just as i came onto my computer just now i noticed that ashserv.exe is very heavy on the processor.

It will use about 94-100% of my cpu for quite a while then decrease back to the usual 2% etc. then after about 30 seconds rapidly increase to 94% again.

I am running Windows XP SP2
Hardware:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
512 KB RAM


Just an update. The computer slowed down so much that I restarted the computer to see if this had any effect and when it rebooted all was back to normal and the ashserv.exe is running without using large percentage of CPU. However, does anyone know why ashserve.exe would use so much cpu before rebooting and whether it is normal?

What does the log entries say? Can you dig there and find anything that helps?
Into Windows Events, is there anything interesting to troubleshoot here?

I did a little fishing around before restarting and found when i paused the standard shield the cpu usage decresed straight away. Pausing other services had no effect. Also, I had installed a program earlier in day and did not restart my pc. Could this have an effect? I will check the logs to see if there are any problems and will try and get update asap but I am working today.
Thanks
Colin