I have been an avast user for many years and have installed it on over 800 machines over the years.
I just upgraded my 4.8 pro to v5, and found that the system bsods after login.
I then rename the alwill directory in safe mode.
restart normally
rename alwill directory back
restart avast - and all is ok
I then tried an install of the new internet security package.
Same bsod on startup.
same rename procedure… and OK…
I then started running GetDataBack (RunTime software)
The machine virtually stopped.
I noticed a high kernel CPU usage
I disabled all avast shields - cpu normal.
I then enabled them one by one, until I got to behaviour shield.
I also noticed that system boots ok when behaviour shield is disabled.
So, in summary, if behaviour shield is disabled, avast 5 is brilliant.
I’d advise users to install Avast 5 without the Behaviour Shield, or to reconfigure Avast in Add/Remove Programs to remove the Behaviour Shield if you’ve already got it.
Further to discussing with wiz2003 on telephone, I can offer the following problem areas, Vista (who cares) will bsod, XP SP3 will bsod
XP SP2 does not bsod but does take up enormous amounts of CPU time, Win7 (vista with a new jacket) Bsod.
Also interprets a third party program phoning home for update checks as bad behaviour (no its not, i wrote it).
A program written to facilitate joining game servers checks the website for mod and program updates and downloads accordingly, but this is seen as bad behaviour. So its a no no until its fixed.
I am running avast version 5.0.396 and behaviour shield causes high CPU usage when doing downloads via web browsers.
I’ve observed the following while downloading files:
Behavior Shield Off: No CPU usage impact, no sound stuttering when playing audio through flashplayer on a website. Smooth mousepointer
Behavior Shield On: High CPU usage during download, sound stuttering (flash audio), jerky mousepointer movement.
Avast 5 is a brilliant piece of software, but this behavior shield is a total no-go in its current form (no technical details and resource hogging during downloads).
There have been a number of threads relating to the behaviour shield, what it does, what it doesn’t do and what problems it appears to cause.
The one common thing is that I haven’t seen any response in these threads by any of the Awil team members. It’s almost like they don’t want to know about it, maybe hope if they ignor the queries the problems will go away.
I also have uninstalled it as at the moment that seems to be the best thing to do with it.
The problem was originally quite repeatable. Tonight I reinstalled the Behaviour sheild from Control Panel/Add & remove, rebooted, did a manual update which showed I was already on 100203-1, program 5.0.396, rebooted and then tried printing to the PDF printer from the same HTTPS pages where I previously had the problem using IE7. No problems were experienced, so either what has been done appears to have fixed my problem, or the un-install and subsequent re-install of the Behaviour Shield has.
Now if only you can tell us what the Behaviour shield does in the way of directly protecting the local system, what will happen if it finds behaviour it doesn’t like, and whether its operation is linked to, or in any way dependant on the Community setting.
I’m not sure if the yesterday fix could also fix this issue. I.e. it wasn’t specifically designed to do so, but the change could have all kinds of positive effects. In any case, glad to hear the problem seems to be fixed now.
I’m preparing a blog post on this.
Let me just say that there’s no definite answer to these questions, as it’s changing over time (the Behavior Shield is in the virus definitions so it changes frequently).
nobody suggested to have a chat with you here, by a few are expecting a minimum of feedback and some answers. This said, I understand that you can be busy working at fixing things. Would be nice if someone from Avast could be dedicated to spend a bit more time on the forums, this would avoid to let the chatting go on and on and on and on during days and days and days and days…sometimes, and especially since the final version was released. I’m not saying that you’re inactive, I know as said that you’re busy at fixing stuff and that stuff gets fixed, but what’s the point of a forum getting cluttered with unanswered threads because there’s no one there but users who obviously don’t know what’s going on, who can either ask questions or speculate indefinitely sometimes on minor issues, sometimes on bigger issues. Again a stronger presence of Avast is needed here, don’t take that as an offense, that’s not meant to offend at all.
Vlk is right. After a VPS update about a day ago, my behavior Shield starting showing up on the statistics screen. Since then, I have no more problems and lots of stability.
