Thinking about updating to v9 from v8

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1
  1. Is there a user guide? I only found one for v8
  2. On XP, does v9 still use localhost proxy over the usual ports, 12080, 120993, etc? I’ve read someplace it doesn’t. I’d like to estimate what firewall rules will need changing, so would like to hear an accurate answer.
  3. Are SSM mails and bad URLs still scanned as well as in v8?
2

  1. Limited user (rather Help file) within the program as it was/is in avast 8.x. There is also a Tutorial within the program, but then again it is pretty basic. In all honesty there isn’t a huge difference between the two, the hardest part being getting used to the new UI.

  2. Yes on XP it uses the same proxy method as avast 8.x.

  3. I take it you mean SSL emails - if so then both are a yes.
    The old 7 shields are grouped into three main areas - Web Shield, Mail Shield and File System Shield.

3

Thanks!

  1. ouch. for me a guide is most useful BEFORE installing something to gather the features and anticipate changes in the firewall :slight_smile:
  2. Great
  3. yes, SSL I meant!

Two more:
4. Can I still set sandbox (or its equivalent) to Ask?
5. Does it speak when a VPS update comes and does the @ rotate as you start any program? or have those nice features been eliminated?

4

  1. Well the avast 8.0 free version doesn’t have a full sandbox only the autosandbox. In avast 9.0 autosandbox is out and now you have DeepScreen, like autosandbox but more functionality. There is also Hardened Mode so there is more than avast 8.0 and its autosandbox.

  2. yes and yes.

5

It was an adventure to install on XP.
I did a clean installation due to the major version change. avastclear and all that. No tools, just shields.
I have a hunch that the INSTALLER is FLAWED. It did not ask to reboot.
The last message was “Your installation is now complete.” + Done button + “(avast! quick scan will be launched)”.
Quick scan lasted some 45 min till I decided to close down the shop after seeing infinite looping in process explorer.
It turns out it was NOT a SCAN at all.
Instead, it kept using 10-25% CPU writing autosandbox.log, amost 3 meg of it, about no need to sandbox my firewall GUI, for which of course I got no chance to setup exclusions.

After reboot, the little scan ran! I discovered that there was an Avast icon placed on the desktop behind a directory listing where I started the installer from.
Had I known it was there I probably had a chance to set up the firewal exclusion there and stop this disaster and reboot.
DavidR, this is just one example why there is a need for a user guide before installation, isn’t it?

Bottom line: I like this version, but the lack of decent logging and non-resizeable display in GUI is still annoying, and to set things it looks like more clicking is required. GUI in v7 was the best.

Now I’d like to delete that worthless autosandbox.log of 3meg without breaking avast. May I?

6

Generally logs can be deleted, but they should be regenerated as required.

I don’t know why yours is/was so large (could be because it would be more active in avast 8.x), I still have the autosandbox.log file, but it is only 175KB and last entry 8 February 2014 - Now since the autosandbox has been replaced by the deepscreen I don’t know if it is that which is also using the autosandbox.log file.

I didn’t see a log file for deepscreen, perhaps as I mentioned it uses the autosandbox.log file. That said since I used Hardened Mods on Aggressive, I’m unlikely to get many/if any deepscreen activity. Which could account for the lack of activity in my autosandbox.log.

I tested and was allowed to delete autosandbox.log, it should be recreated if it is required.

7

Interesting. If autosandbox wasn’t supposed to be written, if there were no avast devices left in Device Manager, if avast directories in programs and docs and settings were empty, what made it run after v9 was installed.
A real puzzle.
Maybe some of those silly LEGACY and few other items (13 actually) in the registry which are always there even after aswclear?
Or maybe because during uninstalling (before clear in safe mode) I closed the page in Opera, where avast was sorry to see me go, without answering?
Bottom line was that the installer didn’t ask to reboot, so something was holding it up in some old state.

Autosandbox.log was still active but just for 2-3 programs after a reboot and after I made a bunch of exclusions for the FileShield.
I deleted it anyway, and thanks for your trial. It has not been recreated initially.
Then I decided to leave some of it alone - diabled self defense, I deleted a whole mess of the log, left few initial items, enabled self defense, and the log is being written to, all about file is safe, not sandboxing, so I guess Deepscreen writes it, infrequently.
Oh, the reason it was so huge is because it kept scanning a busy firewall several times/second.

If Deepscreen is supposed to be a better old autosandbox, why doesn’t it ask me questions for programs previous version asked?

Heading to trying to understand Rejzor’s hardened mode now. It’s off at this time 'till I figure out what it’s all about, what it logs, etc.

8

DeepScreen is meant to go into greater depth when doing its analysis, but as to quantify how much better, as an avast user I can’t say.

As for not asking on some that had previously been asked/intercepted by the autosandbox (presumably). There is the possibility that after being run through the autosandbox an exclusion might have been made. Or because the deepscreen could be doing a check against the avast cloud database. Both of these are assumptions as I have no real way to test definitively.

9

Thank you again.
Now I know that I have a right to be puzzled :slight_smile: when even you aren’t sure.
I wish avast would issue a user guide about all this.