Jump to content

Avast Antivirus to discontinue new versions, but still supporting Windows XP


sdfox7

Recommended Posts

I thought had sorted out this inconvenience

https://forum.avast.com/?topic=224360.0

however back to square one . Even though avast says that BS is turned off actually it is running. must be a bug at least in my system.

The thing is why avastclear utility is not working and why avast cannot uninstall its own appdata  is beyond me. have always to finalize the uninstall process by force booting. Apart from that everything is ok.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


FWIW I used AvastClear many times during my attempts to get Avast to work, and it always seemed to complete the uninstall OK, although it did sometimes take a long time to finish after saying it had deleted the last file. It always eventually completed.
The one thing it often left behind was the "setup" folder in the Avast program folder, which couldn't be deleted normally in Windows either. I just got a message saying the folder couldn't be deleted as it wasn't empty, although it didn't appear to have any files in it or its subfolders.
The only way I found to delete it was in DOS!
IIRC AvastClear does log its actions to a file in the Windows temporary folder, so if it fails again it might be worth looking there to see if there is a log which might give some clue as to what is or isn't happening there.
:)
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well that is strange!
Have you tried downloading it again, perhaps your copy is corrupted somehow?
Its size should be 9.63 MB (10,105,016 bytes) and its digital signature should be dated 15 November 2018.
:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have downloaded it twice. Size 9.83 MB version :19.1.4142.424 digital signature not available.

I might have cracked it for the time being. Started my pc in safe mode and then using WinPat I set the service of aswbiDsagent.exe to automatic. When I did that through windows services within a couple of days would go back to manual and consequently BS would turn itself off. However whenever I open a file or visit a site would come back to life. I have restarted my pc three times so far after the winpat workaround and BS is there in all its glory. Let's see how long my honeymoon is going to last. If this fails I'll try to set it on triggered through WinPat. Ofcourse I still get that blank window for 20 to 30 seconds. It does not really bother me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear that., Dave.

17 hours ago, Mcinwwl said:

If noone (even @FranceBB ) knows, then I'm afraid we cannot help you :( Unfortunately, Avast on my XP just works, so I don't have any experience in this matter.

That's the whole point; it's not that the support doesn't wanna help, it's just that it seems impossible to recreate the same issue in a VM and logs of the install on your physical machines don't tell anything about it.

15 hours ago, Dave-H said:

The general feeling with the Avast and Malwarebytes support people is that at least in my case the problems may well be simply because my machine is so non-standard.

Consumer products are not tested on dual socket server motherboards and definitely not with XP.

On 1/11/2019 at 1:14 AM, Tangy said:

Ok problem solved. How ? please do not ask is beyond me. The only thing I still get that blank thing depicted in image 2

but as soon as avast is fully loaded it goes with the wind. :thumbup

It's supposed to open up once after the install and not to be displayed at every boot, but as long as it works and you are fine with it, leave it as it is. Sorry if I haven't been much responsive these days but I'm developing a programme for my company and I'm also working on the clock to make a new documentary (our journalists have been on some "hotspots" around the world and we're covering some important matters, but it takes time to encode all the shots).

Edited by FranceBB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@FranceBB Please mate no worries at all. Good luck with your work ! I do understand this is basically mission impossible. Workaround involving winpat did not last long, BS is back to its usual self ,turning off. Anyways I had been using version 12 ( no behaviour shield in this version) until two months ago and was planning to keep it if it was not for that forced update to version 18.6. I could not complain since everything was fine. This last version 18.8 seems to be allergic to my system. Now my two other two options would be either Panda ( installed on my win7 computer) or Avira which I detest profoundly. Neither of them has a behaviour shield or something similar to it. I got PC tools FW paranoia mode ( don't make them like this anymore ) which has HIPS as well as OSArmour If you are not familiar https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/novirusthanks-osarmor-an-additional-layer-of-defense.398859/

which is highly recommended in Wilders forum and those two I reckon they cover Avast's B Shield. I might be terribly wrong of course. So I decided to get rid of this component since it is not working . I mean what's the point of having it. Of course If I mention this in the Avast forum I would elicit the same kind of admiration one would feel for a streaker at Queen Victoria's funeral.

So far the only thing Avast BS detected was Basilisk so did my firewall.

Bottom line is I don't give a rat's suppurated arse about B Shield.

PS : I have also enabled Hardened mode aggressive.

I am very happy indeed now :D

Cheers

Edited by Tangy
Avast
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The behaviour shield is supposed to analyse what a programme is doing and stop it from executing if it's doing something inappropriate. In this case, it probably found basilisk 'cause it's not signed and although it was doing something legit, it triggered the behaviour shield. As to the hardened mode, it should only be used on non-expert users 'cause it tries to save them from themselves. If you know what you are doing, you don't need hardened mode. Last but not least, Avast by default uses to take a kinda conservative approach when it's working on an XP system and a more permissive one on newer systems.

Edited by FranceBB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/12/2019 at 4:01 PM, Tangy said:

I have downloaded it twice. Size 9.83 MB version :19.1.4142.424 digital signature not available.

Ah, that's probably the problem!
My AvastClear version is 18.8.4084.0, if you have version 19 it probably won't run on XP any more than Avast version 19 will.

AvastClear 18 is still available here if you're quick!

Edited by Dave-H
Addition
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Dave it worked. However BS still misbehaving so had to uninstall it. I got hold of an offline installer . last one to work with winxp was 17.3.xxx The one I 've got is 17.2.2288 you may downloaded from here. Got this from Avast forum ( bob)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wR1ITPOGpL6_HtbUwu-x_B3zmBdNr6ii/view

Now I got a question . Do I go for it( I don't even know if bs is going to work ) ? Or use the latest version without bs ?

@FranceBB What do you reckon ?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Behaviour Shield is a purely heuristic module, isn't it? If so, the best one can do is to turn it off / remove it forever. AVG, at least (and I've used it for many years, always was overly paranoid in its heuristics)... in fact, giving it a name which initials are BS is very appropriate. To believe in heuristics, one need at least 20 different opinions, since the engines suck so much. Leave it to Virus Total on-demand. Do not use it as an always-on scanner, because that's just a PITA, nothing more. My 2¢ only, of course! Feel free to ignore. But I'd feel very dishonest with y'all, hadn't I told y'all what my experience with antivirus heuristics is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...