To Avast Software Engineers - Helping Hand on Chrome Problems

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

One of the continuing complaints about upgrading to Avast 7 is how customers who already have Chrome installed are having Avast install another instance of Chrome.

This is resulting in customer’s Chrome Profiles being wrecked as a single Windows User account should not have multiple versions of Chrome installed at the same time.

Why is this happening?
It is happening because the retail versions of Chrome install to the C:\Users(name)\AppData directory.
And the version of Chrome Avast is installing installs to the C:\Program Files directory.
Since Avast is familiar with the latter, it seems during install, Avast looks to see if Chrome is already installed to the Program Files directory. But Avast is not looking to see if Chrome is installed to the C:\Users(name)\AppData directory.

The Details and The Key to the Problem:
There are three flavors of Chrome that most retail customers have installed. They are Stable, Beta, and Dev. Stable is obviously the most common.
The retail Stable version of Chrome can be downloaded from here:
https://www.google.com/chrome
This retail version of Chrome installs to the C:\Users(name)\AppData directory

What it seems Avast may be missing is that there is also an Enterprise version of Chrome. The Enterprise version allows for network wide installations and customization. And this Enterprise version of Chrome can be downloaded sans customizations, from here:
https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/browser/
This Enterprise version of Chrome installs to the C:\Program Files directory.
And it seems this is the version Avast is installing.

The Difficult Challenge
What makes Chrome Retail a challenge is how it installs to the C:\Users(name)\AppData data folder.
And due to the design of Windows, one Windows User account cannot view or access the AppData directory of other Windows User accounts.

So, say a customer installs Avast from a Windows User account that has Administrative privileges as is probably the proper way to install Avast…
And say that customer also has a Windows User account with Limited privileges (LUA) which they use for their day to day activities.
Regrettably even though the first account has Administrative privleges, by default, that Windows account cannot view or access the C:\Users(name)\AppData directory of the Limited User Account.
Therefore, Avast being installed from the Windows Admin account may be unaware the customer has Chrome already installed on the Limited User Account.

The average non tech savvy Avast customer is not going to understand all of this.
Thus, simply offering Avast customers a check box to choose to install Chrome during Avast installation is NOT an adequate solution.

Suggestions for Avast Engineers
1. I suggest you improve your installer and utilize Windows System level privelges when the installer checks for Chrome
2. I would also suggest the installer not simply look for Chrome in the C:\Program Files directory, but also look in the C:\Users(name)\AppData directory for ALL WINDOWS USER ACCOUNTS before offering to install Chrome on the customer’s computer.

Thank you for your time and your continued excellent efforts on the Avast product line.

2

Good observation, thanks for your post. Hope the avast! crew picks this up.

3

@Gooob … thanks for that post … that’s what I was suspecting, after reading a couple of posts from users reporting issues with their bundled Chrome install, that Avast installed it in the program files folder ;D … jesus hey guys, what were you thinking of seriously ??? :wink: … this will cause already Chrome users who forgot to dismiss the install of Chrome at setup time to end up in a real mess ::slight_smile: with two Chrome installs and two profiles … not mentioning that your setup doesn’t seem to be able to locate Chrome where it has always been and where it will always be:

here >>> C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

… which would have avoided (with proper detection), a useless install.

4


http://my.jetscreenshot.com/2701/m_20120226-upml-27kb.jpg

Make sure that you’re signed into Google and change your setting to reflect the screenshot.

I just went through this with one of the folks that attended my presentation and has made me her personal go to person. ;D

5

now I’m hearing as expected that the new profile becoming active, the new homepage is re-directing to Avast site … meaning that this has been done purposely … wouldn’t matter that much if at least the setup was able to detect existing installs ::slight_smile:

6

Avast runs a process with SYSTEM privileges; it can quite happily list user profile %appdata% directories.

7

An additional problem is that of what OS the user is running as XP won’t have C:\Users\ but C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data.

So I don’t know where Chrome would be installed on an XP system (don’t use it), but it would mean that there are even more locations for the avast installation to check for the presence of Chrome.

8

Iron installs to C:\Program Files\Iron. So, I am wondering what would happen if an Iron user installs Avast 7 and is missing the window to uncheck Chrome installation? The only difference between Chrome and Iron is that Iron re-establishes the user’s inherent right to privacy and gives the user the right to control this program that is on their computer.

So, does Avast 7 interfere with Iron? I suspect that any Iron user who found Avast had installed Chrome without their knowledge and permission would sue Avast as that action would make Avast as bad as, if not worse than, a virus loose on the computer. The Iron user has gone out of their way to protect their privacy and to have Avast rape them so violently…well…Avast better hope their installer doesn’t ever install Chrome without permission on an Iron user’s computer.

Avast used to be a great antivirus program. These days it is way too bloated and the developers have become incredibly sloppy as attested to by Avast’s apparent failure to make sure their installer behaves properly and gives the user the choice of NOT allowing Avast to install Chrome.

I was going to install Avast on my soon to be new computer but I have changed my mind.

9

Windows Vista and above use directory junctions to ensure Windows XP programs and paths are compatible, i.e.

C:\Documents and Settings\Steve => C:\Users\Steve
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Application Data => C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Roaming
C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Local Settings\Application Data => C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Local

It should work on all platforms to scan “%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Documents and Settings%USER%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome” but it’s not the proper way. But as above, the path differences are minor:

Windows XP - C:\Documents and Settings\Steve\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome
Windows Vista and above - C:\Users\Steve\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome

The relevant registry key is: HKEY_USERS_USER_\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\LocalAppData (possibly Local AppData)

Note: I’ve not verified the location of Chrome on XP but if it follows the directory structure the same way it does in Windows 7 that’s where it should be.

10

It isn’t happening to everyone though. I have Chrome installed on both Win7 (in the normal AppData location) and XP and neither one was messed with and no new version was installed.

11

This means that now I effectively have 2 versions of Chrome installed? And all these was for what? To get it installed with webrep?

I just don’t understand… I thinks it is just so stupid. It makes me want to uninstall the AV altogether, and try something else… gosh!

12

nothing to do with web rep, it’s just bundled ::slight_smile:

13

It would seem that it depends on your configuration. I have upgraded Avast on 3 machines. The first 2 had no problems; the 3rd messed up.

At no point during any of the upgrade processes was I given the option (via a checkbox) to install Chrome or not.

The first 2 machines (WinXP and WinVista) both had Chrome installed already in the AppData location. All users on the machine had their own version of Chrome, including the Administrator account I was using to perform the Avast upgrade. The installs of Chrome were not touched and no additional version of Chrome was installed (and neither was I prompted).

The 3rd machine (WinVista)… Whilst the two ordinary user accounts on the machine had Chrome installed in AppData, the Administrator account I was using to perform the upgrade did not have Chrome installed. During the Avast upgrade, Chrome was installed in “Program Files” as an Administrator (I was not prompted). And this has messed up the installs/profiles of Chrome in the other two user accounts! When you attempt to run the version of Chrome in the user’s account you get an alert along the lines of “you can’t have two versions installed, it will be removed” - and it’s gone!

14

What version (build) of avast was that?

15

All 3 machines were upgraded to Avast! (Free) version 7.0.1426

16

Upgraded from v6 to v7 over the weekend. When I clicked on a link from within Avast to find out more about one of the new features I noticed that the instance of Chrome it opened was missing all my bookmarks, history and any other settings I normally use.

After doing some searches, I suspected a 2nd install somewhere, but there was none in Program Files.

Does Avast sandbox Chrome when you open links from it? I suspect not, since my history from Chrome instances spawned by Avast seems to retain its own history.

UPDATE: This evening I see that Avast is back to using my preexisting Chrome instance, which has all of my bookmarks, etc. While the issue persisted, it was quite annoying, since I suspected a 2nd instance of Chrome on the machine, despite being unable to locate it. I’d have had to make sure to never actively use Avast-spawned instances beyond the URL they opened.

For me, it boils down to trust - to use Avast as my AV of choice, I instill a certain amount of trust in the software. That trust is eroded by a) not notifying me that the update I was installing was a major version change, b) creating a 2nd instance of Chrome on my machine (though I never located one it definitely behaved as such) and c) seeing that many users received Chrome whether they wanted it or not. I don’t have a problem with Chrome but I DO have a problem with the practice of package-ware, unless it’s blatantly opt-in. For now I’ll continue to use Avast for the reasons I initially chose them over the competition, but this episode will make me think twice when it’s time to re-up my subscription.

If it benefits anyone else, one thing I did notice about the 2nd instance of Chrome was on the “About” window. The window for both instances was the same, with one exception. In the instance that Avast spawned, where Google normally lists “up to date”, displayed “Update server not available (error: 1)”.

According to Google:

Error 1 means that Google Chrome can't be upgraded in its current directory.

First, check which version of Google Chrome you’re running by looking at the version number in the About Google Chrome box.

If the box lists “Google Chrome,” then the most likely reason for this failure is that the Google Chrome files have been moved out of their default installation location. This configuration isn’t supported for updates. Moving the files back to their original location should resolve this issue. If you haven’t moved the files, you may be able to resolve this issue by uninstalling and reinstalling Google Chrome.