Avast 5 Released...

[poppameth1]

...and it has some major issues.

It seems to be optimized for Win7. Looks good and works well with some nice innovations. Win7 issues get fixed quickly. Vista and XP (especially XP) are not so fortunate.

Many people are reporting Blue Screen crashes frequently with Avast 5, mostly on XP systems. I'm one of them. After an upgrade install it immediately crashes when the desktop loads. Safe Mode>Uninstall>Reboot and it's fine. Run the Avast Cleanup tool and reinstall V5 fresh. Blue Screens when desktop loads. Avast is suspecting something to do with a PowerDVD files, but there are reports from people that have never had PowerDVD having the same issues.

I'm back to 4.8 which still works just fine. I'd recommend you download a copy of 4.8 and the Avast cleanup tool before attempting to upgrade to 5, or better yet, just don't upgrade to 5. Wait until a new build is out that hopefully fixes these issues. After the recent bad definition update that started deleting system files, this comes as very unwelcome news. I'm losing faith in Avast. Hopefully this will be resolved quickly. It's seems a bit silly to optimize it primarily for Win7 when Vista is bound to be around for a good while yet and even XP will be here for the long haul. XP is still the most widely used OS today.

These problems exist as of build 5.0.377. Wait until the next build is out and check their forums for success reports before trying it.

 

[Journia]

Wow, I am thanking god I never clicked that install an update link.

 

[poppameth1]

Yep, wish I hadn't had to deal with it. Thankfully I'm a free lance computer tech and knew how to fix it pretty easily.

For anyone stuck in the blue screen loop of crashes here is how to fix it.

1) Boot into safe mode. You do this by rebooting the PC and tapping the F8 key before the Windows logo screen comes up with the loading Windows bar. You should get a list of boot options with Safe mode being one of them.
2) Once in safe mode go to Start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs, or in Vista just open My Computer and there is a link near the top to change programs.
3) Find Avast on the list and uninstall it. You'll be prompted to reboot.
4) Once you reboot you'll be at the normal desktop again and Avast should be gone leaving you with a functional system again. At this point you can download and reinstall Avast 4.8, which is still on the website (you'll have to reregister if you don't have your key anymore) or you can looking into an Alternative like Avira Free.

 

[poppameth1]

Latest final Build 5.0.396 is out. You can't get it directly from Avast yet as they send you to Download.com which is slow to update. Majorgeeks.com has the latest build though. This is suppose to fix most of the issues.

 

[dentrag1231]

Never had a BSOD, but with xp I ended up with 100% load on both cpus unless I turned off the shields (which would be stupid). On the plus side, it works great on my windows 7 laptop, and was easy enough to replace with Microsoft Security essentials on my desktop.

 

[kopfhorer1]

Hmm, I'm running 4.8 and AFAIK have not experienced any noteworthy problems with Avast. (Running WIN 2K, which has the same core as XP). After my hassles with Norton (bloatsville) or McAfee (slowsville, crash city), I'd have to give up an antivirus application which stays out of my computer's way. AVG was iffy in the past. Is it any better?

 

[dentrag1231]

I personally didn't find it better, but then again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you haven't experienced any problems, no need to change. If you are looking for a change, I'd recommend Microsoft Security Essentials, which, despite microsoft generally being the colander of computer security, was very highly received and quite good.

There's definitely no need to pay for personal home antivirus, I'll tell you that much.

 

[poppameth1]

AVG is still not that great. I use to use it as well but it started getting very bloated and has remained that way. Avast, Avira, and MSE are the top dogs right now for freeware.