Like other’s here, I have paid the price of being an early adopter of Windows 8 and an Avast Fan. Since upgrading to Windows 8 (fresh install) I was having issues bringing up my router’s (ASUS RT-N56U) admin panel and found it was something to do with problem between Windows 8 and the Network Shield. It seems many others are having issues. Maybe this thread can be the unofficial Windows 8 stability thread to track as future versions come out, if they solve any of the problems?
But I’d like to make a few points that some may find informative. (Correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.)
I read that Windows 8 is the first version of Windows with Anti-Virus built-in, but they are still calling it Windows Defender. Windows Defender use to just be anti-spyware prior to Windows 8. Now Windows Defender is actually what Microsoft is has called their own anti-virus “Microsoft Security Essentials” MSE for short. So as of Windows 8, Windows Defender is basically the same thing as MSE now. Typical Microsoft making things confusing for us all.
After uninstalling Avast, I read a few posts in a some reputable forums (can’t remember where), that said MSE wasn’t bad. So I figured, what the heck, to insure maximum compatibility, I will just, for the first time ever, go with the built-in anti-virus (now being called anti-malware because it is both anti-virus and anti-spyware.) So far, no issues. But I feel I probably didn’t do my home work good enough because today, I was just curious and did a search “microsoft security essentials” and limited the Google search to past month and find all these articles with titles like:
“Microsoft Security Essentials Loses AV Certification” or “Microsoft Security Essentials Fails AV-Test, Loses Certification …” These have appeared within the last week. And I went to the AV-Test site to verify they did test the 4.1 version of MSE. So for me, it’s bye bye MSE, and hello ??? AVG ??? Avira? Maybe the real question is, is Windows 8 Defender really any different than MSE?
Well, not Avira. Because you’ll find last check, Avira wasn’t considered compatible with Windows 8. Check this article “Windows 8 Compatibility Plagues Antivirus Tools - Security -”
Now here’s where things get interesting, the AV-Test list of Windows 8 compatible anti-virus programs INCLUDES AVAST as of version 7.0.1473. The version release on 10-23-2012!
http://www.avtest.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-8/
Yet if you look at the Avast release history, you’ll see the latest release (as of this post) is 7.0.1474 and it includes at least one Windows 8 related fix. So bottom line, I wouldn’t trust AV-Test’s compatibility list!
Avast version history: http://www.avast.com/release-history
So I’m on the fence as to go back to Avast and see how 1474 does or just switch to something else.
And as a final note, there are a lot of complaints about lack of support regarding the Windows 8 issues. I can fully understand the impatience and frustration we feel when we waste hours trying to trouble shoot problems like this. But I would sincerely hope that 90% or more of the people complaining about support are using the Pro version and not the free version. If you didn’t pay anything for the software, it really seems unfair to complain about lack of support. Just do like I did and move on to a different product.