Hello,
Please welcome the version 24.10 of Avast AV released on October 15th 2024. I’m a bit late with this announcement this time as I’m getting used to this new forum site…
Major public announcement:
Firewall protection – Free users who haven’t installed the Firewall now have the chance to use our essential Firewall for free.
Troubleshooting settings – We’ve improved the settings to help you customize them to your preferences.
Fixed BSODs and crashes in some of components.
Automatic updates are now correctly enabled in Software Updater component on paid editions.
How to install:
Update from your existing Avast version via Settings → Update → Update program
As I know, the firewall has been already available in Free version. You added it to Free version few years back, so I dont understand this announcement. I never used it, so I dont know, if some firewall functions are behind the paywall.
Same question as TheOwner. Is this going to install the firewall for me on an update? That’s the only thing that makes the ‘update’ make sense. Either that or you guys forgot that was already a thing.
Also, I hope the long delays for the update posts don’t become the norm.
Well, mine is Premium so not applicable for the case.
FYI I don’t have Firewall installed on my Avast Premium (beta), and FW is still not installed.
On my notebook Avast and Windows firewall are running along.
FYI. The new version Avast Free 24.10 didn’t install any Avast Firewall when I updated to that version. I have the Avast Firewall component deselected (un-ticked) in Settings>Troubleshooting>[ADD / MODIFY COMPONENTS]. That setting was obeyed.
Could that possibly explain the auto-updating malfunction I’m having on Avast Free Antivirus, which I have described in this thread? I’m having automatic software updates forced on me against my will, even though the option for that is disabled in Avast Free. It’s been 10+ hours, but I still didn’t get a reply on it. Found a few other people having the same issue when I googled it, though weirdly it’s not as many people as I was expecting. They all have using Avast in common though.
Updated finally. For some reason I had to restart twice, the first time after I manually updated and then after that restart it showed me changes/updates for this version. Then after a few minutes I got another restart request dialogue. Not sure if anyone experienced it, whether something went wrong on the first restart or if the second restart was something unrelated.
I have noticed when I looked at my custom scan list, it duplicated one of them. My Weekly Full Scan (erroneously named as I don’t run it weekly anymore) was duplicated with the duplicate looking weird.
I have also noticed in the Troubleshooting options a new setting exists. Perhaps this is one of the updates referred to by Lukas in the Troubleshooting settings bullet point.
Outside of the Avast UI there are other Avast-related changes on my computer, for which any additional information would be greatly appreciated.
First, I also see that there’s a new folder in Program Files\Avast Software called AvVps. I’m not sure if this is new with this version, but it’s definitely within the last month or two that this was created.
And there’s a new Task in the Task Scheduler called Avast Antivirus Patcher which may be related to something called Icarus for which there is a folder in Avast’s ProgramData folder.
The only issue is Avast should provide a way to turn off the Software Updater functions (for programs that are installed) In Avast Free this function should not be enabled and there is no way to turn if Off … But you can click on the … at the right side of each program and tell it to Ignore it
Okay that did disable the software updater. When the program updates itself it should leave the settings and preferences we already have and not turn on features without asking us. Also in the program it shows as 24.10.9535.880 but in Add / Remove it shows as 24.10.9535.2190 …not sure why this is but Avast should fix it so the uninstaller shows the correct version number.
I think this was an unintended consequence of Program, UI changes/updates - why else would what is essentially a Premium function Software Updating in Avast Premium be available in the free product.
This really shouldn’t have got past Alpha testing.
Software Updater is a separate feature that has nothing to do with Avast Security program updates. The settings of AV can be found in the Settings > General > Update.
If your setting is not respected then it could be some bug.
Yes it is, but it is supposedly a Paid Option, but free users were also seeing the Software Updater was actually trying to update programs on their system. This would happen after a subsequent system restart.
I personally didn’t like this autonomous action and there is no gracious way to say no thank you, I will handle that. Effectively the only way to get rid of that was to remove the CleanUp module taking with it the Software Updater. Which for some, especially paid users might not want, so an option just to disable the Software Updater within the Cleanup module.
