When I came to this forums (a long time ago ;D), the size of the manual VSP download was small enough to fit into a floppy.
Now it has almost 7Mb. I know that in the past we had ‘mandatory’ updates of the avast version, in order to fit changes and improvements.
So, right now, there shouldn’t be people with very ‘old’ 4.7 versions running.
Can’t the manual downloaded vps file be adjusted to start at this condition and the size of the file be reduced again?
The download will reflect the signatures in the database and as more are continually being added, especially spyware/adware signatures and there is also other things included in the VPS, like checks for pirated/generated keys, etc.
So I don’t think the size is avast version specific as there has to be historic signature detections, like dos malware, etc. really old stuff.
If the installation has already that files included, installed, why does the signatures should be there ‘again’.
All avast installations have that signatures downloaded (or updated) by the setup.exe file on installation.
If that is the case (and I don’t see where these other signatures are unless you are suggesting this as an option), there would be two VPS files and not just the one, the 400.vps, currently 6769 Kb in my system.
Unless there were a historical (h) VPS signature list say 400h.vps and the latest (l) vps signatures say 400l.vps being combined when the manual update is downloaded and run to make the 400.vps file.
There have been a few occasions on the forums where the 400.vps file has been reported as destroyed and that would have to be rebuilt so this to would have to be looked at how it is restored, could just combine the 400h.vps and 400l.vps, creating a new 400.vps and all that would be required is a manual vps update with the normal incremental update.
Don’t know if I have explained that very well.
- Install avast!
- There will be a 400.vps file in your computer.
- The downloaded vps file must be just an increment of that one, already there.
Other antivirus (and antispywares) do this, reducing the size of the standalone download because you have already other virus database in your computer. In case of avast, the one you’ve installed in 1.
I don’t think it’s that much complicated to follow…
Well, just repair avast installing it again (either by running setup.exe or Add/Remove programs applet).
This is the announcement of the forced update to 4.7.892
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=25348.msg207272#msg207272
What this means is that if you still don't have 4.7.892 installed, it will come to you (silently) with the next VPS update and you'll be asked to restart your computer. The reason is that the new VPS files need the latest version.
Can the vps file start from 4.7.892 up to now?
Hm…
I don’t think we even trace which vps was included in the ‘initial’ build of a build.
But anyway, the purpose of standalone full vps updater is to be standalone and full 
So it needs no pre-requisites and always updates vps, no matter if it’s ok or missing or whatever.
The test for the program version is there just for sure to protect users from non-functioning product.
In my point of view, vpsupd is a deprecated way to update avast, inet update is always preferred by us.
Size may be a concern for some people, but with the sizes of today’s usb disks…
Thanks Kubecj for your answer and time
In addition to what kubecj said, I’d just like to say that even if we made e.g. the VPS that was in v892 a “baseline” (and make vpsupd.exe’s VPS diff’ed with respect to this baseline), it wouldn’t fit on a single floppy anyway. Our virus lab team is now adding signatures much faster than before and the size of the VPS is growing fast. 
I have just checked it, and found out that v 4.7.892 shipped with VPS 0702-1. The size of this file was 5,253,401 bytes. Now, the latest VPS version (as of today) is 0739-1 and its size is 6,930,892. So even the plain size difference is bigger than 1.44MB.
Cheers
Vlk
Given the starting point as 702-1, all the diffs accumulated to 739-1 are about 2.5 MBs.
Even the ‘superdiff’, only 702->739 without any diff steps (wouldn’t work for anybody having other version than 702) is 2.1 MBs.
So diskette is out of question.
I wonder how many computer systems are left that are reliant on diskettes as their only means of communication. Diskettes themselves are becoming a rare item in stores (here in the US) and the default machines delivered today no longer have diskette drives installed.
I just dusted off and brought back to life a 10 year old laptop and even that has a USB port and can read CDs. The sizes of file being discussed will easily fit onto those devices.
I have also noticed that, congratulation
I don’t know if I’m the only one who noticed but there seems to be less complains about undetected viruses
Keep up the Good work
Al968
Thanks Vlk.
Not only because of virus signatures improving but also for you both to coming here and participate on the thread.
It’s not any day that you’ll be able to participate in a thread here in forums. Really thanks.
Can we infere that you hired more virus analyst ? ;D
Al968