Win7 Parental Control does not work with avast 5 (5.0.594) when all modules are active.
To be exact, the web control does not work, and even the worst porno site is displayed in my browser despite the Win7 parental control web filter is configured for childrens.
The only way I found to make it work is to de-activate the web module of Avast, but I’m not realy at ease with this protection gone.
Is there a way to make these two programs work together ?
Does any of you have the same problem ?
Will Avast have native support for Windoiws Live Parental Control in a next version ?
PS : I’m not a English native, so please excuse my language.
I can’t test, but others will be able to. Hope the programmers take a look on this one.
By the way, www.k9webprotection.com is one of the best parental control tools for free
Thanks for the answer, but I really want to keep on using ‘standard’ software delivered with Win7, and I find the Microsoft parental control quite easy to use and to administrate.
I think Microsoft parental Control is used by Thousands of people, and it’s integration with Avast should be a priority
By the way, for Avast developpers (hope they will have a look on this one), here is my system config :
Win7 64 bit Ultimate edition on Asus P6T deluxe V2 Core I7 920 CPU
Windows Live parental control Beta (but the non beta resulted in the same problem)
Avast 5 free (Home) Edition
I will try this afternoon the Avast troubleshooting option ‘Wait for System services to start’ to see if it works and post the result here.
On a slightly related note, on a system that had Norton Family Safety (their free and excellent parental control app) installed, installing avast! resulted in no access to the internet. Removing Web Shield did the trick.
I tested the troubleshooting option ‘Wait for Windows services to load before start’ with no success.
Looks like the Avast Web Module hooks the internet connection directly, and bypass the Windows Live Parental Control (Web Filtering), resulting in URL’s not to be filtered.
By the way, I also had the problem with Avast version 4.8 on a XP System with Micro$oft Web Filtering…
Please, could someone reproduce this behaviour with Avast 5 Web Module active and Windows live parental Control web filtering configured for children to confirm that it’s a global problem…
The test is quite simple : just go to google and type ‘sex’ in the search box
Hopefully, an Avast programmer will read this topic and have a technical response to this ?
Installed and attempted to set up Windows Live Family Safety and set filter levels, definitely cannot do so with ANY Avast shields running as the GUI controls fail to operate or save any settings.
My sons machine,identical system and OS, running Eset Smart Security 4 , set up and control works perfectly.
Many Thanks AdrianH for the test.
Did you installed Family Safety with administrative privileged ?
I Had no problem at all installing or configuring Family Safety with Avast already installed, it just doesn’t filter Weird Web pages if Avast Web Module is enabled, and does correctly its work as soon as I disable the Web Module of Avast…
For Logos : YES, I’m using Windows Live Family Safety from Micro$oft. I just translated ‘Contrôle Parental’ from French to ‘Parental Control’, which was confusing for anyone, Sorry !
So, if anyone else could have a test on Family Safety web Filtering and Avast, Id’ be delighted to hear from you, has I still don’t know if it’s general or particular to me, but the response from Adrian tends to demonstrate a real incompatibility…
okay I gave a quick shot to family safety and the only thing I found, even with web shield off, is that the interface launched in a browser with all options reset to default ??? as if it was virtualized somehow, same with both Chrome and Firefox. As to the filtering I didn’t try, mainly because I don’t want my browsing to be reported in real time to MS, so I have no idea if it works with Avast or not, just noticed this weird behavior with the browsers when displaying the family safety interface. OpenDNS is another option.
Merci, mais vu le niveau des échanges en français, je préfère l’anglais
Well, looks like you have the same problem as AdrianH. I 'm Using Firefox 3.6.8 or I.E. 8 to configure family safety with no problem at all… (No privacy (“Navigation Securisée”) active of course), and my windows Account is an administrator one with UAC active…
I’m using a windows live account created years ago to access the configuration for my family and everything works well. Perhaps an activation problem of the micro$oft account ? It’s not trivial to configure the first time anyway, since you have to match windows account with Windows Live Id ones and have a parent account to configure everything online. And I don’t have my browsing reported to microsoft, since I only configured my children’s Account to.
I’m just very surprised to be alone using Avast! and family safety together ???
However, thank you for your time on this subject… I like Avast!, so I’ll keep on using it without the web shield, in hope programmers will have time to look closer to this problem.
It’s not avast that’s breaking MS “family safety”.
I’ve run extensive tests with and without avast.
MS family safety’s app restrictions are plain broken.
I can’t imagine how anyone ever claimed they were functional.
New HP out of the box, do not work. period, with or without avast.