Avast ver 9.xx

For the last 3-4 days i have seen pop-up nags to install the ver 9x
program update.
Have "ignored" them so far (have not allowed install).
They are getting more often and more irritating.
Can they be blocked?

 

There are controls mentioned in this thread.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=97227.0

But sooner or later you're going to have to update.
They won't support your version forever.

Paul

 

Thanks.
Do you have any idea as to when they will remove the posting & e-mail
spam message?

 

That's configurable by you. It is on by default whenever you include
the Mail Shield module but the user can disable that spammy promotional
option. It's up to the user to alter the default settings. Of course,
if you don't bother to install the superfluous Mail Shield then the
option isn't applicable.

 

Oh. Thanks. Did not know that Mail Shield did that.
Naturally, disabling that results in Avast complaining..

 

Disabling an installed module has Avast claim that protection is
incomplete as though such a condition is severe. So don't install the
Mail Shield module. As I recall, you have to uninstall all of Avast and
then do a *custom* install. That's when you deselect all the fluff.
Assuming the following image showing the custom install options for
Avast Free 2013 is still applicable to Avast Free 2014:

http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/avast-custom-installation.png

then don't bother to install the following fluff and gimmicks:

- Mail Shield
- Browser Protection (was called Webrep, same function as WOT [Web Of
Trust] and McAfee SiteAdvisor plugins with users ranking sites - oh
yes, those highly expert users telling you if a site is good or bad,
uh huh).
- SecureLine (lureware that becomes payware).
- Software Updater (like SecuniaPSI, nags there are newer versions of a
program but hasn't a any clue if the new version or updates are for
actual security updates or for bug fixes or feature changes or
enhancements). Only knows a new version is available. Not a clue if
the new version provide better security, especially new code
introduces new flaws and may not address the old flaws that are
appropriate and evidenced on your platform.
- avast! Remote Assistance (you really want to allow someone changing
your computing platform who is idemnified from damaging your
platform?)
- Browser Cleanup (fluffware, other tools work just as well or better,
like CCleaner).
- avast! Gadget (monitor and UI access but just use the tray icon, adds
10 seconds to Windows startup, just eye candy bloatware).

Other than File Shield and Web Shield, the only other option I grant for
installation are Rescue Disk.

 

I do not fiddle with a "Rescue Disk" (since about 30 years ago).
I have never been able to find them useful.
They are worse than not having one at all, because of the (false)
illusion that it is useful (anyone for a miniature Frisbee?).

 

There is malware that cannot be removed by running user-mode programs
within the instance of the OS that has been infected. You have to boot
to a CD or USB thumb drive or something OTHER than the infected OS to
clean that infected OS. I'm not just talking about rootkits but also
malware that prevents you from fixing the OS from within the OS. Do you
really trust that an infected OS will fix itself using tools ran under
the control of that infected OS? For less robust malware, yes,
disinfection under a running instance of the OS might work. For the
real nasties, the OS must be quiescent (not running, not even loaded) to
repair it.

Yes, you could rely on backups to restore your OS partition back to a
prior state. I do daily image backups. But malware may not be exposed
for a long time which means all your backups are also infected. Just
reverting to an image prior to when you happen to notice behavior by
malware doesn't mean the backup is clean. Most folks only have so much
room to store their backups. If they infrequently do backups then they
have a far more coarse granularity to what they can restore. If they do
regular backups for more granular recovery then eventually they run out
of room and have to delete the oldest backups. Since malware may not be
exposed for a long time, all your backups might be infected. Your only
choice then is to do a fresh install of the OS, get all its updates, do
fresh installs of all your apps, get all their updates, and restore your
data files (since they're not executable but watch out for docs that
have macros in them). That's a lot more work than booting from an AV
bootable disc to disinfect the OS. Not everyone has the luxury to do a
fresh setup of OS, apps, and data restores to eliminate malware,
especially those that use their computers for work rather than just for
playing games and reading e-mails.

You can use Avast to try to thwart entry of malware onto your host. You
can use Avast to clean out malware that it can recognize later (i.e.,
for those zero-day pests that it won't catch). You can use Avast's
boot-time AV manager to disinfect the OS without the OS running (i.e.,
while it is quiescent). That requires usurping the bootstrap area of
the MBR but the user may need other tools to usurp the MBR bootstrap,
like for Acronis TrueImage recovery backup manager, or tools to allow
the use of hard disks larger than the BIOS can handle, etc. If the MBR
bootstrap area is already inuse by something you don't want to sacrifice
for Avast's boot-time scan then use Avast's bootable media instead.

If you trust an installed copy of Avast to protect and disinfect your
computer within a running instance of the OS, why do you not also trust
Avast's bootable media to scan your OS while it is quiescent? You trust
it but you don't trust it. A bit at war with yourself on your choice of
security software.

When you use Avast's, or any AV maker's, bootable scanner media, you
prevent the malware from loading because you didn't load the infected
OS. Resistant malware cannot protect itself when it isn't running.

 

Avast has/can make bootable media scanner?
Where / how?

 

This is the first reference my search engine found.

"avast! Rescue Disc"
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384916,00.asp

The article is a couple years old, so check what the
current pricing or licensing requirement is.

*******

Some companies give away perfectly free tools of that sort.
Kaspersky has one I use, for on-demand scans where
Windows is not running. I've tested it, by leaving
a copy of EICAR sitting around, and at least it could
detect that.

(The "237MB file" is not 237MB They have re-issued
that file many times, and it's over 300MB now. They don't
update the size info.)

http://support.kaspersky.com/8092

EICAR, if you're curious. To make a thing like this actually
"work", you make the file extension .COM and give it a go.
An AV scanner will likely catch this, no matter what extension
is on the end of the file. But if you want to try executing it,
you'll need to convince the OS that it is loadable. The idea
is, it's an assembler file.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EICAR_test_file

The article says it uses self-modifying code, and
on a modern OS, there are protections against
self-modification (read-only code segment). So if you
wanted to test that such a thing can actually execute,
you might want to try an MSDOS boot floppy as a
runtime environment. The program is sorta the
equivalent of a "Hello World" program.

The assembler listing is at the bottom of this page.

http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/eicar/eicarcom.html

In other words, if it was a "virus design", it's a pretty poor
one. And the intention is, to have something that is easy to
flag, to help prove an AV tool "hasn't had its teeth pulled".
If you have an AV, and it doesn't catch EICAR on the disk,
you'd be justified to be a bit concerned.

Back when Trend Micro had a "web scanner" you could
run, I could never be sure it was doing anything. If
only I'd had EICAR at the time, to test that with...

Paul

 

What was it you said you did not "fiddle with"?

http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB114#articleContent

 

Oh. Avast 2014; the ver 9.x one; the one i cannot use because the
"minimum" OS it can be installed on is WinXP (am using Win2K).

 

A criteria (system requirement) not specified in this thread until now.

http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php?supported_systems=true
http://www.avast.com/release-history

So you must be back on Avast v6 (circa 2011), or even older. Does it
still retrieve new virus signatures? Avast back to version 5 required
its customers to register the program which gave them just 1 year to use
its license. That was to ensure users would move forward not just to
get virus signature updates but new heuristics and features in later
versions of the program. Since that old version's 1-year license
expired, is it actually enabled on your Windows 2000 host?

 

What about Network Shield, Script Shield and Behavior Shield?

 

Nope' Am using ver 8.0.1501; the most recent non-9.x .

 

Hmm, looks like Oldversion's table of which OS version was last
supported in an Avast version is incorrect. At:

http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php?old_avast=12219

they list Windows 2000 as supported by Avast 8. So it looks like that
is the last version you can use of Avast on Windows 2000. When you look
at the registration of Avast, when does it say that it will expire? You
could do fresh installs to lengthen when its license expires but I
suspect eventually their servers won't deliver signature updates to v8.

Someone else using an old version (even older than yours) in the Avast
forums might be able to tell you how long after a new version comes out
of when updates for old unsupported versions quit being available. That
would give you a window of usability afterwhich you'll have to use
something else.

Of course, you could look at running Windows 2000 inside a virtual
machine with no security software. Any infection would get discarded
when you revert to the baseline or prior snapshot of that VM.

 

They got rolled into the other shields; however, it looks like they
dropped the Network Shield. If was never considered effective against
malware and hacking from the outside into your host isn't really a
function to be handle by an AV program but by a firewall program.

Since you're still using Windows 2000 then any discussion of Avast v9
2014 is nor relevant. You are stuck with Avast v8 for use on Windows
2000 until v8 no longer retrieves signature updates and will then have
to move to something else.

 

Presently good to Nov 9; might be renewable then as it is a paid version.
**
Alternate: IF i could alter WinXP to have the look and feel of Win2K,
i could "migrate".
Any pointers available for that?

 

Classic theme

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-xp/help/setup/personalize-windows-xp
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294309