Free Avast 2014 adding advertisement on outgoing emails

[David]

Well I just got another update of Avast. The newest one I have is 2014.9.0.2011.

Since I corrected the email "ad" issue mentioned above, I have not had a problem with any updates or the running of Avast.

[Hermskii]

and David lived happily ever after!

The End

[a nameless entity]

I wish I could say I'm a happy camper again. If I don't get a reply from the help desk by noon Monday, which will be 6 pm and the end of the business day in the Czech Republic, I'm going to have to assume that they are blowing me off.
As it stands now they are only on strike two. Blow me off and it's strike three.

[Hermskii]

Nameless, I'm betting your PC has other issues. Yes I mean a virus maybe or some malware but something for sure.

[a nameless entity]

Nameless, I'm betting your PC has other issues. Yes I mean a virus maybe or some malware but something for sure.

Well I'm betting that the issue is XP. That they brewed their software for 8 and 7, but not XP. And they're still not talking to me. So maybe they're mostly on holidays for Christmas or something.

Chico has recommended Microsoft Security Essentials. He says it works well, and is much less of a resource hog. In his work he has put it on many PC's that he found trouble with, I understand.

I suppose it's possible there's a nasty hidden somewhere, but why has it only shut down Avast? And how did it sneak past my defences? I not only had just done context scans of both drives C and D a day or two before the failed update, but had recently scanned with both Ad Aware and Malware Bytes Anti Malware too. I also have Spyware Blaster on this PC.

Since losing Avast I scan with Malware Bytes Anti Malware after every internet session. And I only go here and to Chico's forum. Nowhere else. I do not click on links either.

If a nasty exists somewhere here, it's not doing much. In fact this PC is enjoying the extra resources available now that Avast is gone, and boots up faster, shuts down faster, and etc.

[David]

Nameless, just FYI, I too have Windows XP and Avast. I have the most current Avast and have the current updates for XP. I have not had any problems with Avast except for the email issue in which I corrected.

I am sure if you allow Herm to help you, he could find out the real reason for your computer being ill.

Concerning Microsoft Essentials, I have heard that it is a fair anti-virus program and my wife's computer has it, but I prefer Avast over it and that is why on my kids new computer (Windows 7) I have avast on it instead of Essentials.

[Hermskii]

I have been hearing more and more about people using the Microsoft Security Eseentials and being happy with it. I know when it first came out it scored at the very bottom versus everything else. I like avast but sadly it too is starting to bug me with ads about other things it offers. AVG did that to me and I left them. Not to mention I saw too many times where avast would catch something that AVG never detected.

[a nameless entity]

Well I never got a reply to my email to Avast. Maybe I should have started a new ticket. I was supposed to be able to reply to them from the email they sent before, so I used "reply" and sent my message to that address. Odd that nothing happened.

I just tried to install Microsoft Security Essentials. I downloaded the little starter app from their website onto my USB stick while I was at my brother's place, and used that. The program started, and then began to ask me to install many, many, little browser tool bars and addons and other scumware that would have changed my homepage, changed my preferences, and otherwise taken over my browsers and inundated me with offers to buy things. Brightly highlighted in each case was the "install" button, while the easily overlooked 'decline' button was hidden in the lower left corner and so dull that it was barely visible. I declined all the scumware, the program downloaded something somewhere, stuck a useless icon onto my desktop that did nothing, and then just sat. And sat, and sat, and did NOTHING.

So I used my cleanup program to hopefully get rid of the temp files the failed installation put somewhere on my PC. God knows if I got rid of it all. (If not, I bet there's lots of other useless garbage like that stuck on this PC from other failed installations, too. )

This was a nasty surprise to me, and I am shocked and very disappointed that Microsoft has followed suit with so many others that just want to absolutely jerk you around and take over your internet experiences.

And I am still without an anti virus program on this PC. Last night I went to my ISP's support page and did a complete system scan of my PC with the F-Secure software that my ISP recommends. All is well for now. No viruses, spyware, or malware was detected. That's something, anyway.

[David]

I was looking around since this came up again about free antivirus and I found this, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp# I am not sure if that will help or not.

But it makes me curious about the top listed free program.
http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871 ... 952,00.asp

[David]

Ok.... I was looking up some reviews for some of the "top" av programs that I was unfamiliar with and .......................nope. I will stick with Avast. Sure Avast is slower than others but from what I am reading, it has less issues. If it was not Avast for me, then mostly likely I would go to AVG (if I wanted to stick with a free av program).

[Hermskii]

Basically I agree. Avast first then AVG. I may even consider something else above AVG just because I hate how often AVG tries to get you to install more AVG products.

[a nameless entity]

Well I want to stick with Avast for all of the same reasons. I guess I'll just have to start a new "ticket" and try again.

As verified by F-secure, there was no virus or malware on this PC. So why did Avast blow up when I tried to upgrade it, and then again when I tried to start over again fresh?

Edit: I started a new ticket, and this time got an automated reply. I expect I will hear from someone at Avast by tomorrow or the next day. Hopefully there will be a good cure for what ails this PC.

[Hermskii]

My fingers are crossed for you amigo. What is this PC exactly? It is a Pentium IV 1.8 ghz or what?

[a nameless entity]

My fingers are crossed for you amigo. What is this PC exactly? It is a Pentium IV 1.8 ghz or what?

Thanks Herm. It's a Dell 8200 Pentium IV with a 2.8 ghz processor, and 1 gb of dual channel RAM.

I rescanned with my ISP's free online scanner, and this time I scanned drive C as deeply as possible, with heuristics set on high, and had it look in and at everything. It took many hours. 72 "infected" files were found.

As usual with this PC and using heuristics set on high, the "bad" files were in the system restore area. All had the file extension .apx and names such as A0707534.apx
I deleted them anyway, and let the program send the results found to F-Secure. This process took at least 3 more hours.

So while I was sleeping I scanned drive D in the same manner. I awoke early this moring and found that there were no problems found.

So my PC is now as clean as I can get it to be.

Chico gave me a link to Microsoft Security Essentials. It now seems possible that I was deceived by a bogus website that merely seemed to be Microsoft. Chico assures me that there won't be any junkware on the software from his link.

I will give Avast until the new year to reply, as I expect they are rather busy just now helping customers get the new software they got for Xmas to run properly.

Edit: Well phooey. Avast replied, but the help desk guy just said to uninstall with their uninstall utility and reinstall the program.
I was hoping for a better insight than that. I had already done all that and still got the BSOD. And I told them so.

Of course if those 72 files really were infected, then it may be safe to try it all again. I will face that dilemma tomorrow, during the day. My PC's have always seemed to blow themselves up at night, so I'm not touching it until daylight.

[a nameless entity]

Heh, another scan with my ISP's F-Secure software during the night found 64 more suspect files. It was unable to clean them away. I looked at the location and found that they were part of the Google Chrome browser the last installation of Avast had stuck onto my PC without asking or telling me it would happen. So I uninstalled Chrome. Most likely those files were false positives found by the ramped up heuristics setting. It seems unlikely any nasties had time to hide in that program. Hopefully uninstalling made them go away if they're bad. If not, at least they're not hidden away any more. I will repeat the deep scan overnight tonight.

I decided to go with Microsoft Security Essentials. I'm p*ssed off with Avast, for sticking me with Chrome, and causing all those BSOD's. I'm not risking a repeat, much as I liked the program while it was working, even though it slowed down this ancient PC a lot.

Happy New Year everybody. I've made a resolution by changing over, it seems.