Avast ads

[Tom172]

In the last few days I've noticed Avast free has started getting aggresive with upgrade notifications. Example:

I'm finding it rather annoying. I've only just switched back to Avast recently so I'm not sure if this behaviour has been going on. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Plexx]

Same happening on my partner's laptop.
I think I did end up tweaking the time and notifications and havent really seen it further.

Ill have a look later on

 

[McLovin]

I thought there was a way to disable the adds that Avast free pops up?

 

[Guest28]

Yes I'm getting it to this is very annoying. In fact I was going to make a post about this on avast forums. I hope avast keeps its good name and won't be like another *avira* with ads.

 

[Guest28]

I might switch to panda cloud if this does not improve. Its just not worth it.

 

[samit]

i am using avast except in its user interface, i haven't got ads popups like that...

 

[MrXidus]

Not sure if the method still works, Re-call seeing it somewhere, You could add a few lines to your Hosts file and it stops displaying the ads, by the looks of it, Avast didn't like people doing that so now they force pop-up windows on them.

How often to do these pop-ups show? I'd assume it's just a view once, click X and never see again.

 

[bogdan]

I recall seeing that pop-up once, hopefully it doesn't show up too often. I also receive a second pop-up when avast updates. I wonder if disabling "Show avast recommendation features" and "show social networking features" in Settings -> Community will also have an impact on those pop-ups.

Also check if you free license is about to expire and re-register if needed.

There is also a "Do not show this message again" check-box on some pop-ups. If the pop-up already disappeared and you didn't had the chance to check it, you can right click on the avast! tray icon and select "Show last pop up message".

Edit: Also see this post by Littlebits.

 

[Plexx]

tried what bogdan said and haven't seen any popup as yet.

will need to monitor further.

 

[malwarekiller]

this popped up today for me too..yet again :dash1:

 

[Tom172]

Not sure if the method still works, Re-call seeing it somewhere, You could add a few lines to your Hosts file and it stops displaying the ads, by the looks of it, Avast didn't like people doing that so now they force pop-up windows on them.

How often to do these pop-ups show? I'd assume it's just a view once, click X and never see again.

I see them almost daily.

 

[Plexx]

Ok I haven't seen any pop up since my last post, but I also have silent mode/gaming mode on and all notifications disabled in the settings.

Have a go and see if it works.

I know that disabling notifications is not really a good idea, but it should help.

Ill test again on the VMWARE since the laptop that has Avast is being used now.

 

[Plexx]

Ok I have checked. I basically have changed the following:


Settings:
Community:
Community Features: both disabled
Silent/Gaming mode: both ticked

Popups:
Disabled and all changed to 1sec duration

Only advertisement i still get is when i have avast window opened on the bottom of it, under Summary tab.

Hope this helps.

 

[Malware Maniac]

I'm not getting the ad. It must the community features because I have both disabled.

 

[Plexx]

Yeah it seems to be community features since I havent seen the popup in 2 systems so far.

Hope it helps Tom172

 

[Tom172]

Thanks guys, I've disabled those checkboxes. Let's see how it goes.

 

[Littlebits]

I have no problems with Avast showing ads for their paid products.
If you disable "Show avast recommendation features" and "show social networking features" in Settings, then you also will not be notified about Avast free promotions, giveaways and discounts for their paid products.

I won two free 1 year subscriptions for Avast Security Suite giveaways from those ads!! Because I'm not going to complain.

The notifications usually are for only promotions and discounts much cheaper than if you bought their paid products from their site or third-party resales. Clicking the links will give you there special promotional, giveaway and discount pages not shown on their website.

Avast provides the only free antivirus not limited in protection features and completely user friendly.
Their developers have to get paid for their work, they have families to take care just like anyone else. The costs of development is not cheap, especially having to keep up to date with the latest threat signatures, maintenance on their web servers, etc.

Avast doesn't ask for donations, the only source of income they receive is from their paid products. They don't bundle rogue products like many other AV vendors do to support their costs. They don't publish fake reports for adverts like most other AV vendors. They run one of the cleanest businesses in the antivirus community, they don't use any sources known to be rogue or misleading. Buying their products helps support the development and keeps Avast free.

So if the ads are too much for you to handle then either buy one of their buy products or use another free antivirus with limited protection.

Thanks.

 

[bogdan]

If avast! maintains a fairly pleasing esthetic sense and the ads are not in-your-face or displayed constantly, I completely agree with you. I don't mind avast! reminding me that I am using a free product and giving me the option to upgrade as long as they don't do it in a way that interferes with my work on the PC. I certainly appreciate that they don't bundle any third party stuff with the free version. But if there is an option within the interface to lower the number of ads, I think people should know about it and use it if they feel so. They can repay avast! by recommending their products, hopefully this business model still works for the company.

 

[Littlebits]

Ads are displayed with Info popups and Update popups.

You can change these settings to 1 sec. The size of the ads are the exact same size of all of Avast popups, they don't cover up your screen or distract your work. All popups have an X where you can simply close them without having to wait for them to disappear.

I can understand users complaining if Avast was serving large in your face ads covering up their screen and having to wait for them to close. Avast does show ads with each update like Avira used to do that did cover up your screen and had a wait period before you could close them.

But this is not the case with Avast. Users are complaining for no apparent reason.

Thanks.

 

[bogdan]

So "Show avast recommendation features" and "Show social networking features" have no impact on ads?

Personally, I have no problem with the pop-ups but since some avast users are complaining (also on avast forum: link 1, link 2, link 3) I thought that there might be a setting that can disable or lower the number of pop-ups so that everyone can feel satisfied with the free version of avast.