Removing AVAST! and Moving on!

Not good enough for me. While I was using the free version, Avast has all kinds of info from me INCLUDING my e-mail address. I’m sure they have that for everybody. They don’t hesitate to send e-mails asking me to buy the deluxe versions, but sent NO e-mail about this problem. I figured out on my own that Avast was the problem. There should be notices on Google and Yahoo and every other search engine about this bug. There isn’t. We should have been told about the fix in e-mail. We weren’t. Customer service at Avast stinks IMHO.

Erm, what e-mail asking you to buy the “Deluxe version” exactly did you receive?

just for fun, not to take too seriously: :smiley: :wink:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4136901&postcount=6

(notice the time when this was posted ROFL :smiley: )

Deputy was probably talking about the popups or the ad banner inside avast.

Not good enough for me. While I was using the free version, Avast has all kinds of info from me INCLUDING my e-mail address. I'm sure they have that for everybody. They don't hesitate to send e-mails asking me to buy the deluxe versions, but sent NO e-mail about this problem. I figured out on my own that Avast was the problem. There should be notices on Google and Yahoo and every other search engine about this bug. There isn't. We should have been told about the fix in e-mail. We weren't. Customer service at Avast stinks IMHO.

To each his own.

You mean which one?

Yep…sorry if I was unclear. :wink:

I’ve used Avast for a number of years. Yesterday’s fiasco did make me uninstall Avast and install AVG on my primary machine. I’ve been meaning to give AVG a try anyway. This forced my hand.

My other machines (the Windows ones anyway) are still running Avast. My relatives machines are still running Avast. I don’t know if I’m going to move any of the others to AVG yet. Avast has been pretty good over the years and as long as this is a one time deal, I’ll get over it.

“But why do you rely on automatic actions ? I know it is the default option, but it is entirely your choice to leave it that way.”

Most people rely on antivirus software to always be correct. If it says you have a virus, you take action. You bet my relatives are going to have it set to automatic. At work, we darn well have the anti-virus set to automatic. There’s too much of a risk to leaving a virus unaddressed.

The real issue is that you need to be able to trust your virus scanner. Even the most experienced, started (re)moving files when Avast told them to. That trust has been damaged and, I suspect, that’s what really has people concerned.

If you live in the City you won’t get this but here in the mountains of NC were I am you would.
If you go out and by yourself a big brand new xyz brand chain saw and the first time you go to use it is when a tree has fallen on your house you’ll probably get hurt.The reason being is first you haven’t learned how to use it and second your very emotional because this tree is crushing your house. It’ll do you no good to go out and by a different one cause if you don’t learn how to use it you’ll get hurt again. Besides it was late and you should have been in bed with the computer off ;D

I see no reason to abandon Avast after one, single screw-up. It has worked perfectly for more than two years for me and been much better than the program I had before when it comes to detecting viruses.

OK, there were some problems with restoring certain files but I do think I’ve managed to sort it out. So as it looks tonight, no harm to my computer.

Including Eset. :slight_smile:

I know :wink:

My REAL concern over this fiasco last night has not been mentioned and I am just thinking out loud some “concerns” that crossed my mind.

What if there is a real viral or malware threat that Avast! was updated to protect against, when lo and behold, the update caused all the problems it did last night …

So therefore …

Another update was released to fix the problem. I’m left to wonder if we are STILL protected from the viral/malware threat that the previous update was designed to protect against OR if we are exposed to the threat but Avast! figures that it is now a necessary risk. hmmm … I’m just left to wonder I guess.

you’re still protected against anything avast can protect :wink: fixing a virus definition database because it generated Fps doesn’t mean removing its protection potential. It just means (and I’m not an AV tech ;D ) I suppose, and I’m pretty sure in fact ;D correcting an error or errors regarding what’s targeted and what shouldn’t be targeted with more precision. can’t give more details, again, I’m no AV developer :wink:

Ah! any one can make a mistake! with an antivirus program. I remember that not so long ago AVG made a critical error saying a vital windows file was a Trojan Horse and crippled several peoples computers around the world. It basically means whoever is programming an antivirus on a remote computer and inputing bad data will cause errors. Human nature to learn! ;D

they all had it, recently or not, AVG, Norton, McAfee etc... so no need to stigmatize Avast

Including Eset.


also Kaspersky and TrendMicro

My REAL concern over this fiasco last night has not been mentioned and I am just thinking out loud some "concerns" that crossed my mind.

What if there is a real viral or malware threat that Avast! was updated to protect against, when lo and behold, the update caused all the problems it did last night …

So therefore …

Another update was released to fix the problem. I’m left to wonder if we are STILL protected from the viral/malware threat that the previous update was designed to protect against OR if we are exposed to the threat but Avast! figures that it is now a necessary risk. hmmm … I’m just left to wonder I guess.

you're still protected against anything avast can protect fixing a virus definition database because it generated Fps doesn't mean removing its protection potential. It just means (and I'm not an AV tech ) I suppose, and I'm pretty sure in fact [b]correcting an error or errors regarding what's targeted and what shouldn't be targeted with more precision[/b]. can't give more details, again, I'm no AV developer

One can only hope :slight_smile:

Except for like 3 False Positives … 2 by Avast and one by SAS, my computer has NOT been infected in like the last 4 or 5 years. So, I immediately got suspicious when right after the last Virus Signature Update last night, my IZArc File Zipping / Unzipping Utility was flagged as having that Trojan. Then when immediately after that I couldn’t seem to get on the Forum for the first time ever, I was virtually sure something was up.

I only uninstalled IZArc last night. I just about never use it. I’ll be reinstalling it tonight or tomorrow.

Then I’ll just keep on moving along with avast on my 2 computers. :slight_smile:

I had a much worse situation years ago with McAfee before switching to avast.
At that time, suddenly McAfee would no longer work well with my computer.
At that time, McAfee rendered my computer Un-Bootable. I proved it with like 3 Windows Reinstalls.
Every time I’d install McAfee, my computer’s Bootup sequence would get screwed up.

For me, avast’s incident last night was nowhere near McAfee’s experience.
So, I’m sticking with avast! It’s worked well for me for 2 years.

I did remove avast as I was getting so many flags but stupidly I had moved files into the chest
before I worked out that it was a problem with avast and not my pc being infected

these files are no doubt history now (no doubt deleted when I uninstalled avast)but today I reinstalled avast again
and am back to normal

so no I won’t be changing Avast

I wish you well.

This is my first experience with avast! and false positives.

I am not going to abandon this fine anti-virus program.

Exactly! I find it extremely immature that people start blame threads and threaten to dump Avast when the problem was ignorance on their part, and their lack of a total system image to restore from. If you own and use a PC, expect the unexpected. Problems are bound to happen. In my opinion, you shouldn’t even be able to use a PC until you understand and use imaging software.