Avast has gone crazy!

dmg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:11 am **Posts:** 283

I turned on my computer today and my Avast antivirus started blocking websites, including this one and portableapps. It then declared everything in my temp Internet folder a malware. I am pretty sure it is in error but I have been unable to find references online. Has anyone else had trouble today?

P.S. I am having to post this from a borrowed iPod touch. I am not happy. :evil:

donald · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:15 pm

Same here I just started to post a similar note when I found yours.

I have just started my computer and as you say avast is calling every website a malware/trojan/worm.

I have stopped and restarted On Access protection and it has not repeated as of this moment.

dmg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:11 am **Posts:** 283

The problem seems to be fixed. The Avast company in general appears to have been having trouble. Their website was even down for a couple of hours, but after it came back up and I got a definition update everything seams to be fine. :lol:

dmg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:11 am **Posts:** 283

A cautionary tale

While my computer is still fine after today's problems, my grandmothers is toast. When her Avast started flagging everything as malware she believed it and let it move all the files to the quarantine chest. many of those files were part of the OS so now her computer will not fully boot. I tried everything I could think of but it has come down to a clean reinstall. I wonder how many other people are in the same fix after today. How many people lost all their data just because they did not know better than to trust their antivirus?

m^(2) · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 12:01 am

Some years ago, I lost my OS the same way...

bassiliin · **Joined:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:49 am **Posts:** 69

https://blog.avast.com/2011/04/11/false ... -110411-1/

dmg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:11 am **Posts:** 283

Thanks bassiliin. I notice they don't acknowledge damaging peoples OS though. :roll:

carbonize · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:19 am

Unless I am mistaken this is not the first time Avast has done this. Lot of people seem annoyed that they didn't even bother to notify anyone about this using their Twitter account.

joby_toss · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 7:11 pm

I also use Avast Free Antivirus, but had no issues at all the past days.

dmg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:11 am **Posts:** 283

Well it looks like my grandmother's computer is finished. It is a store bought HP with a restore partition. It looks like the boot scan that messed up the OS may have also Messed with some files on the restore partition.

I realize this is highly impractical, but sometimes I wish everyone I know would just call me whenever they turn their computers' on so I can talk them through stuff. It would have to be easier than being expected to always undo the damage after the fact. :roll:

Darn you Avast! :evil:

Magibon · **Joined:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:24 pm **Posts:** 165

how is the free version of Avast?

do they give you enough features?

dmg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:11 am **Posts:** 283

I must admit that even with the recent trouble I am still using Avast and would recommend it to others. As far as I can tell the free version (which I use) is as feature rich and user friendly as the average user could want.

Magibon · **Joined:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:24 pm **Posts:** 165

dmg wrote:

I must admit that even with the recent trouble I am still using Avast and would recommend it to others. As far as I can tell the free version (which I use) is as feature rich and user friendly as the average user could want.

thanks for the input.
i always confuse Avast, AVG, and Avira.

I read a few independent reviews for all three, and Avast does seem to provide the most protection when it comes to free AVs.
It did better than Kaspersky Internet Security 2010... that's an impressive feat.
The sandboxie is a very smart feature for them to implement.
is that available with free versions?

the only downside is the multiple incidents of Avast going haywire ..
apparently.. this has happen multiple times..
a simple search on the internet and you'll find posts from a few years back..
i.e. http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/6657

that's not a minor glitch.. and the most frightening is they haven't learned or seem to have corrected the issue.
ashame.

joby_toss · **Posted:** Sat Apr 23, 2011 10:13 pm

But, same as Avira, it doesn't offer the option to ignore a found "threat" (and the "whitelist" option is well hidden in options). I'm talking about the files you know for sure that are clean. So very annoying. I'm regarding this issue with hurt feelings ... it's like the authors are sure the users are imbeciles!

SYSTEM · **Posted:** Sat Apr 23, 2011 10:58 pm

joby_toss wrote:

But, same as Avira, it doesn't offer the option to ignore a found "threat" (and the "whitelist" option is well hidden in options). I'm talking about the files you know for sure that are clean. So very annoying. I'm regarding this issue with hurt feelings ... it's like the authors are sure the users are imbeciles!

Avira does offer that option. It's just carefully hidden.

http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&postID=1003787#post1003787

Avast has gone crazy!

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