Thank you, Free Version of Avast - I loved your software for the last year or two.
Last week I dutifully followed your advice to upgrade to a newer version.
NOW, I get a daily popup message covering 85% of my screen, pushing the message to buy your for-sale version. This puts you firmly in bed with Microsoft and many other companies shoving popup messages in our faces.
Whats more, its an UGLY screen, hardly conducive to buying anything and it hardly even looks like the Avast corporate image (except the font used in the word Avast).
When I first saw it I was sure it was a phishing spam from a dangerous source but now I realise its your marketing people.
I am reminded of a Dilbert cartoon where the users pc was rebooted if they did not take the action recommended. Maybe you could do that.
Please remove this message during your next download of AV data.
20 minutes has elapsed since installing the version indicated by Asyn and no popup has occurred. I wish now that I had screen-printed the image. It looked quite unlike any Avast msg I’ve ever seen before. Will advise if it returns.
Thanks Asyn, after one week it was driving me nuts.
Microsoft doesn’t include any popups of that kind in their software…if you see lots of popups (usually when browsing the web, and usually leading to adult websites), you might have a virus :-\
There may be a disturbing pop up, but this one has a title line and in big letters on yellow an info I can not misunderstand. For more convenience, there are links to obtain Avast! Free.
What more any company may need to do to deliver important information like this which can not be misunderstood? I am on to send out such important information to subsidiaries, I would do it like Avast! does, but if that is ›wrong‹ or useless, what now?
I don’t see what’s misunderstanding about this picture. They are transfering 4.8 users to version 5 so they don’t have to deal with support of outdated software and to provide best protection. You have option for free version and for payable.
Perhaps people using 4.0 don’t realize is that it will no longer be supported and that is why avast is encouraging them upgrade it. Yes, the window does get your attention, but I think that is the point…plus they are offering you a deal. How many companies would do that for you?
For me the reason I doubted the popup was that it don’t resemble anything I’ve seen from Avast! so far. And when it started popping up, topmost window btw, three or four times a day I thought I might have a virus. Anyway, no biggie as I got my answer from these forums straight away.
Eric March:
It is a good way to get the information out. But it is very important to ensure that the end-user knows instantly that it’s coming from a legitimate source, especially since it’s a form of popup you can get a lot of from shady websites.
I’ve seen a lot of popups from Avast! that all have a very different style, and that prompted my first reaction.
The second problem imo is that the popup is very large, always on top and appears 3-4 times a day and that only during the 6-8 hours that I spend on my home PC. If the older version will be supported until the end of this year it is too much or rather too soon to spam that big a message that much.
There is nothing wrong with the information or the offers, it’s the way they are presented.
Well… Version 5 is out since January… Six months is rather enough time to push the upgrade. I think they’re taking too long to push version 5, but it’s my personal opinion. Version 4.8 R.I.P. ;D
