After running a Smart scan, the results said “You have grime on your PC”. I am not about to click “Resolve All” until I know more about what it is I am supposed to be resolving.
How do I find out what grime it is talking about?
I have Avast 2015 SP1 running on XP SP2.
One of your main problems is that you don’t have SP3 installed and all (security) updates released after that.
I strongly suggest you start with that.
Didn’t Microsoft stop supporting XP back in April 2014? How would I go about updating to SP3?
Actually, my old HDD was running SP3. but several sectors containing crucial OS files went bad. I got a new HDD and reinstalled XP, but the reinstall disk I had was for SP2. The SP3 files are still on the old HDD and are readable - the drive is just not bootable. Is there a way to update XP from those files?
Didn't Microsoft stop supporting XP back in April 2014? [b]How would I go about updating to SP3?[/b]that means nothing new ..... whats been released is still available for download
try running winupdate manually, if that dont do it just google WinXP SP3 download and you get plenty hits
WOW !
AMAZING!
First hit in google: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389
Sarcasm noted.
All that ought to take about a month on dial-up.
It’s taken months to get this PC working properly. And it has been working for two months without any issues. I’m not really that eager to go on an “update” spree, then have many more months of tracking incompatibilities down and fixing them.
Besides, this doesn’t answer my original question: What is this ‘grime’ that Avast says is on my PC? About a year ago Avast flagged my ISP software as possible malware and wanted to delete it. At least that version of Avast let you see what it was talking about. This version has no obvious setting to inquire further. How do I find out what it has flagged as “grime”?
Wait…what?
While I agree that it should be standard operating procedure to have all the important patches installed, and Microsoft keeps their essential patches up for an OS during the extended support phase so SP3 will still be available, which means there’s no real reason why the OP shouldn’t have the full set of essential OS patches. Windows Update should have no problems pulling that stuff down the pipe for him. …though I do understand the whole dial-up thing being a big impediment. (balthasaris: Maybe a night, here and there, leaving the computer on to amass the updates? Unless it’s only SP3 that you need. :o Though I seem to recall you could request a CD by-mail at some point with the essential updates for a situation just like yours. It’s been a while, so it’s entirely possible I’m misrembering it. Maybe you could reach out to MS support and see what’s possible. )
But what bearing does that have on whether or not Avast “Grimefighter” makes a specific report? I don’t recall seeing any “essential” patch having any functionality that could relate to this, though XP-SP3 could certainly put an actual mechanism in place that Avast would need as backbone, but that should be an all-or-nothing sort of thing. Either the program (Avast) runs or it doesn’t.
I keep my Win7, as well as Avast, up-to-date, but I’ve never seen anything more than that similar generic “You have X things that are slowing your system down!!” scare notice. And I’ve never seen anything more than that, ever - not since they introduced that part of the product. It’s never once given me a report of whatever it is that it thinks might be a system impediment.
AFAIK, it’s just a marketing ploy to encourage one to make the purchase by preying on the fear that there might be something wrong and, more, that this something wrong is actually something they can fix. While Avast, being an antivirus producer, should be a step above the average scam pop-up that makes this sort of claim, my instinct is still that it would be something to avoid. I just ignore it.
…I mean, isn’t avoiding that sort of trap the sort of thing about which the antivirus/malware/scumware/security-minded folk preach time and again? The irony that Avast would appear to engage in that exact same thing isn’t lost on me.
balthasaris,
go to a library or something where they have faster dl speed.
Download all the updates, put them on a usb stick/dvd or something.
Go home and install them.
Ok.
So, I was curious: after my previous reply, I realized I hadn’t seen any pop-up telling me Oh noes!! You have 11 pieces of grime on your system!!! in I wasn’t sure how long. Other pop-ups, yes, but not that one. I found the Smart Scan, which now appears to be the only way to manually engage at least Grimefighter scan on AVG Free at this point, and it made the same pronouncement (Grime = Very Yes!), but will not offer to tell me what it thinks is wrong.
Full Disclosure: as per my previous post, I’m of the opinion that this is solely a money-making thing. If they tell you what they find, then you might be able to remove it without their help and then they wouldn’t make any money. I’m not sure what a better way to do this is – I understand they’re in it to do the job, but they also have operating costs and all. I just find the scare tactic they use to be a little too close to what an actual scumware peddler would do, and I don’t want to support it. …but I still am uncertain what the “better” way to do it might be. Meh.
I did find this review from PC Magazine, which appears to give Grimefighter a pretty fair shake (though Universal needs to have a look-see at the Grimefighter Minions…), but it also confirms my understanding that Grimefighter is running exactly as-intended: unless you’ve paid, you won’t get to see what it is they think should be resolved. PC Magazine did seem to think that it did a good job at cleanup, though, AND it will confirm what it’s going to do before it does it. It also offers an undo feature, which may be of dubious use if the cleaning severly borks your system though the review implies that (probably) won’t happen.
Public systems give me the creeps. You’re a braver one than I. :o ;D
Thanks, I’ll give that a shot in the near future.
I guess that means there isn’t any way to find out what the Avast Free GrimeFighter warning is about, then?
My thought exactly, but I didn’t want to say that.
Since no one is answering my question about how to find out what GrimeFighter is flagging, I’ll just ignore it and double down on MalwareBytes scans for a while.
I was just going to bitch about not knowing what it wants me to clean. Won’t do it unless it tells me before I click the clean button. Even Spybot will list all the things it finds. Come on, Avast. Make it plain for us schlubs, ok? So far I have been pleased with the freeware version. I’ve had Windows Defender for a number of years, but Avast was recommended to me by at least 5 friends.
As far as I can tell, no. Avast Free will tell you that Grimefighter found…something…but not what it is. From that PC Magazine article I linked before, having a paid version of Grimefighter (it’s an add-on you can select independent of any of the main paid Avast systems) will tell you what it’s found and allow you to ok before you proceed.
So far, I don’t think I’m missing anything, either. Who knows? They might be able to get a sale out of me, if they’d tell me what they find. To risk beating a dead horse, the reviewer at PC Magazine seemed to like it and qualitatively measured a noticeable increase in boot times after cleaning on a test system. I just know I run a fairly tight ship, and I have a sneaky suspicion that it would just tell me to remove stuff that I actually want to be there. 
I’ve been wrong before, though. I’m just not willing to bet on it in this case is all.
To put a fine point on it: Grimefighter will tell you, and allow you to give the ok, prior to going through with cleaning…just not on the Free version. You have to pay before it will list what it finds. That’s what my objection has been, that I have to pay before I know what the procedure accomplishes. It’s a rather unique, though maybe not completely unusual way to do business. I default to caveat emptor, personally.
But don’t let it sour you on Avast in general, johntiggleman. This quibble aside, I’ve been very pleased with it for a good number of years. I’ve used AVG, Norton (back when Peter Norton still owned the company, to date myself a little), McAffee (before they started going off their collective meds, also a good number of years ago), and I’ve even dabbled with Windows stuff. I’m still impressed enough with Avast that I continue to use it (and also have it on my wife’s machine and my mother’s machine).