I just noticed that Avast no longer hosts it own new programs, they ship them out to sites like download.com that will bundle it with know spyware. Why is Avast doing this?
Avast has other download sites that have avast available for download.
The problem with download.com is, it has two download options a direct download and one using their downloader and this is where the bundling happens in their downloader.
Unfortunately they give the downloader option greater emphasis whereas you have to look for the direct download option.
You don’t have to have a long memory to what we were seeing instances in these forums about using cnet/download.com of its installation file giving additions over and above what you wee downloading.
Well download.com is part of cnet.com, which I believe is what avast downloads redirect to, when you come to download that then redirects to download.com. This then seems to access cnet’s downloads and I get suspicious when they throw up the file avast_free_setup_online_cnet.exe (see image attached).
Aside from the fact that this appears to be the on-line installer stub, I have no idea what else might be going on with that cnet.exe file (why change the file name). One thing for sure I wasn’t going to go any further to test what happened.
I have always been against these so called stub installers as you have to be on-line to install the program. This throws up two points:
If you have another AV installed at the time there is the usual potential for hassle/conflict/corruption installing a second resident AV.
Or
You have already uninstalled your existing AV, now you are on-line with your digital trousers around your ankles whilst this install takes place. I feel that the on-line installation takes longer to install avast than it does if you have already downloaded the full off-line installation file.
That is why I will only ever download the full off-line installation file.
The problem being this is a stub installer, who knows what it will download unless you actually run it on your system and this isn’t something I’m prepared to do. You can if you wish ;D
@David,
As I already mentioned in my first post, this is the online installer regardless of the download option you choose.
When run, it contains nothing more or less than you get from the same download link offered on this forum.
The only difference I’ve noticed is the file name since it mentions cnet. No extra add-on.