Well, after MANY years of using avast! free A/V, I think I’m about done with it. This software has moved away from being something simple and clean to being so full of bloat, that it’s almost unrecognisable from what it once was.
Why on earth would the makers of avast EVER think that I need avast! to tell me to update software which is the property of other vendors?!? Seriously??? Ever piece of software that I have on my PC has ITS OWN automatic updater. I don’t need avast! to do this, as it’s already being done (much better, by the way) by the other products’ automatic updaters.
And the incessant pop-ups and audio notifications to tell me that avast! has updated itself?!? Seriously??? How about your software sit in the background, do its job, and not bother me AT ALL, unless there’s a problem. Would that be too much to ask for?
And, now, with the most recent upgrade that’s happened on my machine, I find yet ANOTHER pop-up telling me it’s scanning my outgoing email. And, the part that REALLY pissed me off and got me to register on this forum so that I could express my annoyance – it has f*cked around and added content to my email (i.e. a banner on the bottom of my message essentially advertising avast!). I feel like I should be getting paid if you’re going to be advertising yourself through MY emails to other people. This is like Exxon slapping a big Exxon bumper sticker on the back of my car to advertise themselves because I’ve filled up there once.
You can turn off the Software Updater… Avast>Settings>Tools>Software Updater
You can also remove it from control panel by changing the installation.
Updating software is vital though to keep away from vulnerabilities and be up to date with the latest patches since alot of common programs are exploitable.
You can remove the message from outgoing mail…
From the avastUI > Settings > Active Protection > Mail Shield > Settings (wrench iconl) > Behavior - General section > “Uncheck” Insert note into clean message (outgoing)
Interesting (that you noticed these features only now).
The audio (plus popup) announcement of virus definition updates has been there for… well, 10 years at least, so certainly nothing new. Of course, you can turn it off (either the sound itself, or the whole update popup) in program settings.
Software Updater has also been around even in the previous version. Yes, many programs have their own updaters - but the fact is that many people simply don’t update the critical stuff. Why it’s relevant? Because that’s the open door for malware into the system. So if avast! should protect the machine from malware, it asks you to update those programs. Again, you can set the particular programs to be ignored, or you can turn the software updater off completely.
As for the email notes - again a feature that’s been there for more than 10 years, even though not enabled by default - you can disable it in the Mail Shield settings. Also, avast! should have asked you (when the first e-mail was being scanned) whether you want to keep those added notes - that’s probably the popup you mentioned. It appears only once, to ask about this particular option.
Regarding 1): Already done, and it still periodically pops up, usually regarding Adobe Reader.
Regarding 2): This it TERRIBLE software design. Why introduce a “feature” like this, and then have the user dig around through your bloated UI to figure out how to turn it off. Why wouldn’t they just have the updater put up a dialog box ASKING if you want to turn that functionality on, rather than assuming that ever user wants it???
I know the audio and pop-ups have been there for a long time, and they’ve annoyed me the entire time. However, until today I grudgingly tolerated them.
Regarding the software updater, thanks, but I’ll let Adobe, Microsoft, or whoever actually created the other software advise me when there’s a critical update to THEIR software. I don’t need/want avast! doing it. (This is another feature that I’ve tolerated for some time.)
For the email notes, I have never seen it in previous versions of the software (I’m not denying that it may or may not have been there, it just never intruded on my activities in the past).
I guess I’m just reminiscing about the “good old days” of computer programming where people held and cherished the ideas of “keep it simple, stupid”, and “do one thing, and do it well”.
I’ll bet you $100 you (or anyone else using a computer, frankly) haven’t read the manuals for the VAST majority of ANY software on the system(s) you’re running. So, kindly GTFO. K thanks, bye. :
Do you remember the wording of the message (so that I can try to look it up)? I’m not aware of any other messages related to e-mail scanning…
Also, do you use avast! in English, or some other language (in case there’s a mistake in some translation)?
Thanks.
No need to do it in advance, I just do that before starting a useless bitch fest, such as this one which is raising 100% PEBKAC issues. Failing to do so makes the ID-10-T error message pretty instant.
I rather have just avast check for updates then having all those separate updaters running (in the background).
They update at inconvenient times sometimes as well as not asking if you want to install the latest update or not.
And for your “problems”…
If you want to use a certain software, spend some time in learning about it.
How to use it, what options it offers you etc. etc.
Experience tells that most people want the pop-up about updates, but if you don’t want it just disable the pop-up or disable the entire software updater.
How avast acts/reacts is all up to you (the user).
It comes with good default settings, but it lets you to customize things.
I doubt you have complained at Microsoft about the default background Windows installs, and that you have not set your own background.
Yeah, obviously running one updater instead of zillions of them is a whole lot better for most people. For the rest, the component is totally optional. Also, it covers things that do NOT have any updater of their own.
I never heard that you were having any problems with the av not working properly. Everything that you mentioned can be totally resolved. So what really is your problem?
Threats have become much more complicated than they were in the past. The “simple” program you loved so much years ago probably wouldn’t protect you from a script kiddie today - much less from yourself.
You have expressed your concerns, you have been shown how to resolve them, so why don’t you don’t you make the adjustments and continue you use this excellent program.
If you just need someone to rant at for some reason - isn’t there a neighbor kid or something?
