So close, but not quite there yet?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Basically, i’d LIKE buy Avast, but right now, it has several issues I need it to be over before I can license it for my home and work machines… Well, i’m tempted to license it anyway, because I really really like the product, and like the support this company provides. Thats why its so frustrating to me that it just falls a bit short in a few areas. :cry:

  1. More logical and better layed out Enhanced interface, with more common sense placement of options, etc.

  2. A few “mysterious” bugs need to be fixed, like the one that suddenly causes it to stop updating on my machines here, and others. Generally seem like small stability bugs, or hard to track down random ones.

  3. Needs Advanced Heuristics Throughout. (argue it all you want, but they work, i’ve tested them)

  4. Ditch the unprofessional basic interface. My clients see it, and go “Huh? Is this a funky MP3 player or something?”… Might I suggest removing the whole skin module system from the product to increase its professionalism, and perhaps leave that stuff in the freebie/newb edition only? Or how about a commercial oriented version or something?

  5. Needs Generic Cleanup, VRDB is a good idea, but its slow. Perhaps VRDB should be a backup to generic cleanup, not the main force for cleaning.

  6. ONE configuration area for all of the options, instead of having areas all over the place for each module, and preferably, this would be 1-click accessable via the tray icon. Something similar to the On-Access scanner options area, but put ALL options within a menu here. This would be much less convoluted and confusing to people. Do you know how many times i’ve had to instruct people how to get to “Properties” from within tasks, inside of the enhanced menu? How about 100% of the time i’ve had people install this to try. :o Modules and settings scattered all over are ugly! Take a look at F-Secure if you want to see incredible menu Ergonomics in action.

Let me say, that I think Avast is a very good product, but just needs some time invested in a few areas to make it really really great. I love its features, love its power, and i’m as always, impressed with its detection rate of known baddies. I’m hoping 4.5 or perhaps 5.0 will have the things I illustrate above, and I think it would easily be the number one AV out there in short order. As always, this is my opinion, take it constructively if you can please, I know AV fans are sensative about their current favorite AV, and things can get heated when you constructively critisize them. I have no interest in getting into that kind of discussion.

Regards

2

Mainly i agree with you except with Simple Interface and cleaning methods.

If Simple interface lacks “professionalism”,than buy a Pro which comes with professional interface for professional price.
If you don’t feel of buying the product use great Lite-On skin which was made just for me (I requested one more “professional” skin and Sasha made it. In my opinion its very professional looking because its layout is similar to those used in Norton or BitDefender).

About cleaning methods…
I think it should be vice versa as you sayd. VRDB as main repair function and generic cleaning for those files that are not in VRDB database. VRDB is better in all views since it can repair files 100% no matter which virus infected the file.

Always when i install avast! i first check the whole disk and then set VRDB to “Generate VRDB when computer is idle” and then i click Generate VRDB now. This ensures almost 100% safety for my longer used files. Those that are moved and deleted daily should be covered by generic cleaning since you cannot add each and every single file to the VRDB every day (VRDB generates every 3 weeks by default).

3

Well, I don’t understand a little more personally.

  1. I believe the Enhanced User Interface is quite logical, at least in general, with its folder structure. What particular placement you don’t like?

  2. Many people like the skins - and the simple user interface is just what they want. I agree that the “computer professionals” may not like it (in particular, I was rather unable to orient myself there when I saw it for the first time). However, the professionals don’t have to start it… is there any problem with not using it?

  3. Well, I think “generic” is not a good word… its meaning is questionable. Personally, it’s exactly VRDB that I would call “generic”. As for using VRDB as backup… on contrary, any other healing method should be used as help, but VRDB should be always used - because when VRBD succeeds, it turns the file exactly into its original state - which is something you generally won’t get with any other method. Btw, I’ll try to improve the VRDB functionality if time permits… in my opinion, the current implementation is getting a little too old.

  4. Personally, I don’t think it would be very easy to navigate in a popup menu with all the options, covering the whole desktop (and require 1600x1200 resolution to fit).

4

Nice igor,if you can somehow improve VRDB it would be very nice. I love VRDB because i know i wont have to search for backups in case of failed repair (which is impossible because VRDB always succeds if the file is stored in database). You cannot be so sure for other AV and their Repair functions. I think you should make more “commercials”(i just couldn’t find the right word sorry) about VRDB since its a avast! exclusive feature as far as i know.

5

This would take a good bit of doing to explain, but the whole menu is too big, spread out, and rather clustered. Look at NOD32’s system of nested tree structure and tabbed menus. Everythings pretty concise, and well layed out and by accident, most people will run into the deep features. Thats but one example, other examples would be AVK and F-Secure, which are marvels for asthetically sound interfaces.

4. Many people like the skins - and the simple user interface is just what they want. I agree that the "computer professionals" may not like it (in particular, I was rather unable to orient myself there when I saw it for the first time). However, the professionals don't have to start it... is there any problem with not using it?

Yes when its set to default on the pro version, I honestly feel the basic interface should be in the backseat on the pro version, but thats my opinion and as anything, everyones varies. But to download the “Pro” one and see the basic interface, was a bit wierd - and as I said, some of my clients saw it load up, and thought it was a joke. :-[

5. Well, I think "generic" is not a good word... its meaning is questionable. Personally, it's exactly VRDB that I would call "generic". As for using VRDB as backup... on contrary, any other healing method should be used as help, but VRDB should be always used - because when VRBD succeeds, it turns the file [b]exactly[/b] into its original state - which is something you generally won't get with any other method. Btw, I'll try to improve the VRDB functionality if time permits... in my opinion, the current implementation is getting a little too old.

Quite honestly, I have to profess ignorance on how cleaning works in these products. But i’ve run limited testing on the ability of some AV’s to clean up properly. Some products i’ve found, such as Panda (an AV I generally DONT like), was usually able to cleanup from an infecting without damaging anything. Other products, like Norton, destroyed system functionality trying to cleanup. So I guess something like Rezjor suggested, a generic “Repair” type system that would function in absense of the file being in VRDB.

6. Personally, I don't think it would be very easy to navigate in a popup menu with all the options, covering the whole desktop (and require 1600x1200 resolution to fit).

Thats my point, you don’t need a SPRAWLING interface to include lotsa options, you just have to use basic ergonomics and layouts in functional ways. Currently, I even think the enhanced Avast interface is way too large, even at 1280x1024, I have to scroll around in it. I guess the best thing I can say, is to look how some other AV’s handle this. For example in eXtendia AVK, TONS of options are in 3 sets of very compact menus. They start out in a basic consumer level slider bar system, then you click “Advanced” and they open up to a very compact, and concise layout.

http://home.comcast.net/~prolawn00/menu2.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~prolawn00/menu3.JPG

This AV has DEEP configurability, probably very close to the level of Avast, but its all done in very concise, easy to navigate, and easy to find tabbed type form, as you can see from the screenshots. Its a gorgeous system, probably the best i’ve seen in a AV… But as I said, theres other AV’s out there with very good ideas in terms of layouts. I’m not saying Avast should look exactly like these, all i’m saying is there should be a better “Rhythm” to how it operates/looks.

F-Secure, AVK and NOD32 in my opinion are shining examples of great interfaces, with tons of options presented in a clear, and concise manner - without being confusing to the slightest degree.

Regards.