I just installed avast! 6.0.1091, and am trying to find my way through its various features. However, two (2) aspects of what I’m experiencing puzzle me, so I hoped that you (or someone else here) might have some insight for me, please, about them.
WebRep shows Firefox for me (as it should), but claims that IE isn’t installed. I admit that I haven’t upgraded its version (currently using IE6 SP3) since I installed avast! but…“not installed”? How can that be?
The avast! icon in the system tray seemed to be spinning (“animated”) even when avast! wasn’t updating. I hovered my mouse over it and it didn’t say anything about an update taking place at the time. If, in fact, it really WAS spinning at some time other than when an update was taking place, why would that be, and what would it represent?
Hi Bram, avast tray icon spins when it scans some files in realtime or when a web page element is scanned (that too in realtime). It does not spin when running a on demand scan or when updating…
Hope that helped you… Not sure about WebRep is supported on IE^ or not.
But suggest you to plz upgrade it to IE8
Gargamel360, thank you for reiterating what I missed in the Settings, which was that “Spinning = Scanning”. I’d equated “scanning” to a full scan or some other scan that either I’d initiated, or had scheduled within Avast!'s settings. I didn’t originally equate it with, say, “here’s a new file, so please go scan it”, the real-time function that Ash referred to.
Maybe avast!'s tech team can please consider rewriting the terminology so as to clarify what that meant…that and also enable a “tool tip” (black text on yellow background) that accurately reflects what’s going on when a mouse hovers over the System Tray icon? Right now, simply telling me that “(my) system is secured” is missing any information about the scanning that’s going on, too.
Also…
I’m surprised that IE6 SP3, while clearly not “current” is also so easily missed by avast! as I think a decent percentage of users out there still use it. That seems to me to be a glaring oversight.
Ash, the reason I still use IE6 SP3, and (while I do use Firefox 4.0 for some things) haven’t upgraded the IE is because a key site that I visit often (my Webmail provider) curiously has more/better functionality with IE6 than it does with any newer browser I’ve tried (i.e., IE7, IE8, Firefox 3 or 4). I’ve mentioned that to them but they still apparently haven’t figured out how to maintain that functionality in the later browser versions.
It seems like many users (including me) might see the icon animate/spin (or some other event…or maybe something’s happening that avast! isn’t automatically telling us about, but that maybe we should know?) and be curious about what’s happening, leading us to (at least) hover the mouse over the icon for more information.
By doing so, it could say, “Scanning…” It could say, “Updating…” It could say any one of a number of possible things that would be more informative than a simple declarative statement the “(my) system is secured”. That sentence is all fine and good, but it really doesn’t tell me a whole lot, certainly not what I could learn with a little bit of judicious “self-editing” on avast!'s part.
As it was already said here IE 6 is not supported. We do intend to provide as big a support as we can, however IE6 was released in 2001 and its capabilities are not on par with anything the competition has to offer. You always have to draw the line somewhere. Most companies are trying to leverage the benefits with the cost of development and maintenance. Also the number of IE6 users is marginal as most users have moved to IE8 (with IE7 and IE9 following).
Thanks, k.u.r.t., but it’s not as “marginal” as you might think.
Check out http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2 and you’ll see that nearly 11% of all users are still using IE6 (at least as of March 2011). True, IE8 has noticeably more than that, but close to 1-in-9 isn’t what I’d call “marginal”…sorry.
Since I have you here, though, may I please ask you…how can one adjust the timestamps in this Forum so as to show a specific timezone?
I’m sure there’d be other things I’d want to ask – specifically about the software – but, forgive me, they’re just not top-of-mind right now.
avast! doesn’t identify IE6 in a system and you have to upgrade it to IE8 to WebRep to be installed correctly. Anyway mine (IE6/avast! IS 6.0.1091) it shows WebRep icon on IE toolbar, but worthless. It should be fixed.
avast! icon spins when there is a real-time scan (file/script/P2P etc.) progressing. Just heads up to ‘File System Shield’ under ‘Real-time shields’ in avast! GUI. You will see, whats happening when avast! icon animating.
I agree, as I wrote earlier, the large number (nearly 11% of all users) who still use IE6 should be supported, though avast! (at least for the moment) seems to think differently.
Also, drilling into the software’s interface is really NOT what I thought should be necessary when I saw the icon animate/spin. Something like a tooltip that shows when the mouse hovers there would be infinitely better than seeing what is where you led me to.
Hi Dear,
11% are still using IE6 because either don’t want to upgrade or they might be unaware. And that should be avoided…
By doing so, it could say, "Scanning..." It could say, "Updating..." It could say any one of a number of possible things that would be more informative than a simple declarative statement the "(my) system is secured". That sentence is all fine and good, but it really doesn't tell me a whole lot, certainly not what I could learn with a little bit of judicious "self-editing" on avast!'s part. :-)
I agree to this. I already suggested to include database version on systray icon as hover effect text
The last decision will be from avast, we can just suggest here… And they work on our suggestions…
Thanks, Ash, but, with all due respect, it’s not for avast! to “socially engineer” which browser people use. 1-in-9 isn’t chump change and, while I agree that it’s generally preferable to have/use the latest versions of whatever software people have/use, there sometimes ARE legitimate reasons (like mine) to stay with something not-quite-as-new where possible…
…and when enough people are of like mind with that (as 11% of the world’s users are), then maybe avast!'s decision to (my word) “abandon” or “ignore” them might be something other than the best decision that could be made.
Oh, and, Tech, just so you know, my copy is legit as it’s installed directly from CD’s that came from Microsoft itself.
Lastly, for me, the version number could easily be found by right-clicking on the icon and then choosing “About…”, say. I’m “suggesting” that avast! have more “relevant” information appear in the ToolTip, something brief yet descriptive that could inform a user just what’s going on at the moment.
Yes, I saw this the first time you posted it but am not as convinced as you are that it needs to be eradicated…again, not when 1-in-9 around the world are still using it.
Anyway I’m not an IE user Anyway if you are still depend on IE 6, then Hackers might be watching you… Don’t use IE 6 anyway, upgrade it to IE 8 or else use Chrome/Firefox… if you are with IE6, you are not secured…
AND yeah, I agree too… System tray icon tooltip better show virus definition version… it would worthy hmmmmm…
