I have Avast! Home 4.7.1029 (which I think is the latest) on Windows Vista Business. After the program or virus database has been updated, a message pops up at the bottom right of the screen saying to click for more information. I’m assuming this should show what has changed since the last version or what new viruses are detected. However, clicking the message just makes it disappear - no further information is shown! I almost always log on to Windows Vista as a standard user, in case that makes any difference. I notice a couple of other bugs where Avast needed admin rights on Vista have been fixed since I first installed it, and wonder if this may be another one?
When you click the message, a very short info will be displayed (old and new versions).
If you want a history log of the updated virus database, see http://www.avast.com/eng/vps_history.html
Maybe the problem would be the the standard user and not the admin one.
I don’t think this is a ‘bug’…
I don’t even get that. When I click the message it just disappears, with absolutely no further information.
With Vista’s security model, even processes run by an administrator user only have standard user privileges unless the process is elevated through UAC. If it needs administrator access to display the message (I don’t see why it would), then it needs to request that through UAC, even for an admin user. Then if a standard user is logged on, they would be prompted for the admin password, or if an admin is already logged on they would just have to allow the process to be elevated. I don’t see why displaying old and new version numbers should require admin access anyway.
A quick thought… is there any way to remove the last installed virus database update, so that I could log in as an administrator, let it install, and see what happens when I click the message while logged in as an administrator?
Or any way to know when the next update will be available, so I can make sure I’m logged in as an administrator when the next one comes though?
Neither do I. I’m not a programmer. What I can guess is that the update process of the antivirus will be the same one that displays the info, so, to update and to display the info you must be elevated. I know that in the very early versions of Vista (beta) this was discussed here, how avast update manually and automatically, the accounts used, etc.
Wish Alwil team drop some light into all of this.
\DATA\400.vps is the file. You’ll have to disable avast to delete the file.
Thanks too to Tech for the interim advice. I did try deleting that file to force an “update”. For future reference… A manual update re-downloads the file, but then gives a summary saying that the database was already up to date. An automatic update also re-downloads it, but does not display the message saying that the database has been updated (presumably since it thinks nothing has been updated). I guess the current version number must be stored somewhere else and used to determine anything has been updated for the purposes of displaying the messages.
