Serious Discussion My experience of Avast One Free as a new user

[simmerskool]

I've mentioned a couple of times in various threads that Avast was always "problematic" for me. I installed Avast One free 23.5.6066 on a newly created win10_VM cloned from a VM running stock MS Defender, no issues. After installing Avast I started getting windows popup errors - unhandled exceptions. Before uninstalling Avast, I dug into depths of the error message and discovered that there was some sort of conflict or compatibility issue with an app (unnamed on purpose) that I had autostarting with win10. I stopped that app, which I really did not need running at startup, and no error messages
Avast One is running well, no slowdowns.

 

[Bot]

Glad to hear that you were able to resolve the compatibility issue by stopping the app causing unhandled exceptions. It's always a good idea to check for any potential conflicts with other software when installing new antivirus software. If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to ask.

 

[Captain Holly]

I've mentioned a couple of times in various threads that Avast was always "problematic" for me. I installed Avast One free 23.5.6066 on a newly created win10_VM cloned from a VM running stock MS Defender, no issues. After installing Avast I started getting windows popup errors - unhandled exceptions. Before uninstalling Avast, I dug into depths of the error message and discovered that there was some sort of conflict or compatibility issue with an app (unnamed on purpose) that I had autostarting with win10. I stopped that app, which I really did not need running at startup, and no error messages
Avast One is running well, no slowdowns.

Hi @simmerskool, I wanted to ask you if you have seen Avast One have the same problem that has been reported for Avast Free where it creates new registry keys and puts up a window to install Avast Safe Price when opening FF or Chrome?

This is one of the links reporting the problem at the Avast forum. I have not seen anything about it with Avast One Essentials though.

Avast Community

forum.avast.com

Thanks.

C.H.

 

[BigWrench]

I have it installed on a desktop that Vipre beta1 blue screened. Had to restore to day one, windows 7. Works flawlessly! Quite happy with it, especially for free. Have plenty of various keys, but I’m keeping avast on this one!

 

[Captain Holly]

I have it installed on a desktop that Vipre beta1 blue screened. Had to restore to day one, windows 7. Works flawlessly! Quite happy with it, especially for free. Have plenty of various keys, but I’m keeping avast on this one!

Good to hear. Thanks.

C.H.

 

[simmerskool]

Hi @simmerskool, I wanted to ask you if you have seen Avast One have the same problem that has been reported for Avast Free where it creates new registry keys and puts up a window to install Avast Safe Price when opening FF or Chrome?

This is one of the links reporting the problem at the Avast forum. I have not seen anything about it with Avast One Essentials though.

Avast Community

forum.avast.com

Thanks.

C.H.

well I dunno, I just opened Chrome for the first time after seeing your post, and I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I was not monitoring registry, but no window to install Safe Price. no extension changes.
EDIT just opened Firefox and nothing happened. I did just skim the link you posted, it seems that if Avast is doing this you notice it and it's annoying. Did not happen here.

 

[Captain Holly]

well I dunno, I just opened Chrome for the first time after seeing your post, and I did not notice anything out of the ordinary. I was not monitoring registry, but no window to install Safe Price. no extension changes.
EDIT just opened Firefox and nothing happened. I did just skim the link you posted, it seems that if Avast is doing this you notice it and it's annoying. Did not happen here.

Good, thanks for the info on it. I had been considering going back to Avast on Windows 11 and right about the time I was ready to make the switch this new bug with registry errors and Safe Price came up. I have the Avast Secure Browser and Avast Free AV working fine together on my Windows 10 laptop. I opened FF and Chrome on that laptop as a test and both got the big prompt to install Safe Price. I have not checked the registry on that laptop though. I may try Avast One free with the Avast browser on my Windows 11 laptop and see how it goes.

Thanks.

C.H.

 

[Captain Holly]

Avast has issued an update to fix the Safe Price extension problem. The new version is 23.5.6066 (build 23.5.8195.786). After updating you still need to clear your cache in all browsers and delete temp files then restart for the fix to take effect. I verified the fix does work on my Windows 10 laptop, the Safe Price offer is now gone when starting FF and Chrome.

There is more detail here at the Avast Forum:

Avast Community

forum.avast.com

C.H.

 

[Captain Holly]

I did also find a few entries in my registry that were from Avast but written in some sort of Asian nomenclature. I read at Avast those registry entries are harmless. They were at HKEY_CURRENT_USER and Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. I just deleted them manually, everything seems to be OK now with Avast.

C.H.

 

[simmerskool]

Avast has issued an update to fix the Safe Price extension problem. The new version is 23.5.6066 (build 23.5.8195.786). After updating you still need to clear your cache in all browsers and delete temp files then restart for the fix to take effect. I verified the fix does work on my Windows 10 laptop, the Safe Price offer is now gone when starting FF and Chrome.

There is more detail here at the Avast Forum:

Avast Community

forum.avast.com

C.H.

I started with v..6066 so I never experienced this bug.

 

[simmerskool]

I did also find a few entries in my registry that were from Avast but written in some sort of Asian nomenclature. I read at Avast those registry entries are harmless. They were at HKEY_CURRENT_USER and Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. I just deleted them manually, everything seems to be OK now with Avast.

C.H.

I look at at my registry later today...

 

[ForgottenSeer 97327]

As posted here (Double cloud whitelist protection) I have AVAST One free in hardened mode (on my wife's Windows11 laptop) running without any problems with
- Smart Application Control enabled (allowing only trusted EXE and MSI programs to run)
- Software Restriction Policies using Hard_Configurator with AVAST profile (allowing EXE, MSI and TMP) with all hardening enabled and sponsors blocked (scriptors + enhanced)
- Blocked CMD, CSCRIPT, MSHTA, MSRA, MSTSC and WMIC by enabling all protections in MD Exploit Protection for those programs (trick first posted by Oerlink).

I have set AVAST to silently resolve everything (in silent mode but you need to disable prompt for USB connection scan).

Really happy with AVAST free I only removed the web-protection (because it did not seem to block anything when I was playing with malware URL's )

I thought when Microsoft Defender and Avast perform very well in both professional lab tests and @Shadowra tests in blacklist mode (blocking bad) , the combination of these two in cloud whitelist mode (allowing only known good) must be a Fort Knox secure setup. Microsoft promises that SAC can run alongside any third-party AntiVirus solution. This provides a super safe double whitelist protection for average PC users without the hassle and limitations of zero trust solutions (still running admin with ability to run programs outside UAC protected folders).

Thanks to @Andy Ful hard work and predefined settings H_C in Simple Windows Hardening mode is a proven and zero problem atack surface reduction (blocking risky file extensions in user folders which could contain scripts or code). SRP blocking sponsors for standard users is a best practice which has proven itself as problem free for years. Except for CMD the executables blocked with MD exploit protection are also in the Microsoft Recommended Block list for WDAC (so disabling them for admin should not give any problems either).

The only unproven hardening is the disabling of CMD and CSCRIPT, but I have disabled CMD and CSCRIPT on my Windows10 desktop since 2019 without any problems, so I figured that it would be safe to kill this dinosaurus. After all CMD/CSCRIPT dates back to the introduction of Windows Windows 3.1. That was in 1993, that is 30 years ago!

With above setting the monthly Windows update and Avast update succeeded without problems as well as an update of a program installed in user space (a photobook program).