Advice Request So how bad are ads on Avast anyway?

[Captain Holly]

I have read the recent posts from @McMcbrad and a few others about the newest version of Avast. Right now I am using Windows Security augmented with Trafficlight. The new Avast looks very promising, especially for a free AV. I used Avast Free a few years ago and seem to remember the ads and pop-up warnings were really not so bad back then. A few pop-ups here and there would be tolerable now, I just don't want to be bombarded with upsell attempts every day.

I have read a lot here and on Google about the various AV's out there, free and paid. Free Avast seems to have the features I want but I don't need all the extra bells and whistles. I downloaded the Avast Online Security extension and so far I like it much better than Trafficlight. My main browser is Chrome and I am on Windows 10 2004 with 8 GB Ram.

My question is how bad are the ads/upsell attempts in the free version nowadays, really? I would rather not use the Silent Mode to block anything. If something happens and Avast picks up on it I need to know about it. I also would rather not stop the ads by modifying my Windows firewall if I can help it.

Thanks for any info on this.

Captain Holly

 

[ZeePriest]

As @McMcbrad said the ads are indeed reduced. I have downloaded and used avast free for quite some time in the last two months and I can confirm that the ads are not as bad as they used to be.

 

[JasonUK]

Apart from the almost daily reminder (blue 'not urgent' circle on tray icon) that you can upgrade there's few ads. I'm using Avast free again as WD seems to be quite heavy on my PC recently for some reason.

 

[Captain Holly]

Thanks very much for your replies. I also have noticed a slowdown with WD lately. I will download Avast probably later today and see how it goes.

 

[blueblackwow65]

Any other modules other than file detection in free version that are very useful yet great on performance?

 

[Captain Holly]

I downloaded Avast Free today, so far it seems to be very good. On my system Avast uses about the same ram as WD did. So far just as @McMcbrad pointed out it has only offered me to upgrade to some of the paid Avast utilities but only when I clicked the alerts for them. It also offered a free trial of the Premium AV and a free trial of the Cleanup Premium service, both of which I declined. I have yet to see a blue upgrade circle on my task bar but it could show up later. I did download the Avast Secure Browser, it seems about the same as Chrome with less extensions but I don't know if I will use it very much. I may try it for online banking just to check it out.

All the modules in Avast seem to be pretty useful, browsing is a bit faster and so far there are no slowdowns with transferring files. I have the AV set at default settings. I bought an album from mp3million.com, it is 10 songs, 104 MB at 320 kbps and it downloaded and unzipped in about 30 seconds. I copied and moved around a few albums worth of MP3's as a test, all is good there. I will use Avast for a while and see how it works out. So far it's not bad at all. The ads and upsell tactics are not nearly as aggressive as I remember from 2016.

Thanks Very Much to everyone who replied and helped me on this. I had no idea about the new Avast/AVG until I read about it here on MT a few days ago.

Cpt. Holly

 

[Captain Holly]

I should edit here, as it turns out the Avast browser did not work out very well. I had it set to not launch at start up, but it still started up on two restarts anyway. I changed a couple other settings for it and it still opened again on a subsequent restart. Even when I closed the Avast browser my Chrome browser still ran slow. I removed the Avast browser and everything is back to normal again, nice and snappy. I did not really need the Avast browser anyway and won't miss it. Maybe on a more powerful computer it would run ok.

Cpt. Holly

 

[blueblackwow65]

Any other modules other than file detection in free version that are very useful yet great on performance?

anyone pls

 

[RoboMan]

A little more than a week has passed since I installed AVG Free in my secondary laptop. I've turned off all available tickboxes regarding ads, data sharings and privacy concerns. My system and browsing is extremely light, and I haven't had any kind of unwanted notifications or ads. Everything AVG displayes is an "UPGRADE" button in the main GUI, and a "GIFT" banner on the bottom of the GUI (which is a discount to upgrade to Internet Security). Nothing comes out of the antivirus interface, no popups or ads.

 

[Nagisa]

Any other modules other than file detection in free version that are very useful yet great on performance?

Minimal installation includes all essential modules and none of them have any significant performance impact. You may also want to include Ransomware Shield as well.

 

[ninjagaiden]

does it still have loads of pop-ups? because it seems it's gotten a lot better lately, is it still trying to trick you into buying premium?

 

[Captain Holly]

does it still have loads of pop-ups? because it seems it's gotten a lot better lately, is it still trying to trick you into buying premium?

Welcome to the Forum Ninja..

I have seen no pop ups here. Only once in the last week I had a blue offer banner that showed up when I moused over the Avast icon in my task bar. It was an offer to try the free upgrade trial and I have not seen it again since then. The only other offers I have seen are when I click on any of the locked features on the GUI. If I click any of those it shows an offer to upgrade, but only when I click the feature. Other than that Avast has stayed very quiet. I did get a status update when I started my laptop tonight showing how many scans had been done, what had been blocked, etc to show me how Avast has been protecting my laptop. I do not mind that at all, it shows me Avast is actually doing something. All in all I think Avast Free is a definite keeper and a great AV but I have no need for the paid features.

C.H.

 

[ninjagaiden]

Welcome to the Forum Ninja..

I have seen no pop ups here. Only once in the last week I had a blue offer banner that showed up when I moused over the Avast icon in my task bar. It was an offer to try the free upgrade trial and I have not seen it again since then. The only other offers I have seen are when I click on any of the locked features on the GUI. If I click any of those it shows an offer to upgrade, but only when I click the feature. Other than that Avast has stayed very quiet. I did get a status update when I started my laptop tonight showing how many scans had been done, what had been blocked, etc to show me how Avast has been protecting my laptop. I do not mind that at all, it shows me Avast is actually doing something. All in all I think Avast Free is a definite keeper and a great AV but I have no need for the paid features.

C.H.

thank you, I'm using Avast free but for me, AVG still scans for "advanced issues" is it only in beta that it doesn't?

 

[Captain Holly]

thank you, I'm using Avast free but for me, AVG still scans for "advanced issues" is it only in beta that it doesn't?

Well, I don't know about the Beta versions, I only used the regular free version but the ads were very minimal. I should add here that while I think Avast/AVG is a great AV, they do a lot of things right, I switched my laptop back to Windows Defender today. I got some of the invitation notifications from Avast over the last few days and yesterday the blue upgrade offer was back again hovering above the Avast icon. I do think Avast is a very good AV and I liked the way it works but am not sure if I could ever really get used to the upgrade offers, even with Avast toning them down the way they have. I am back on WD now after running the Avast Clear tool and doing a clean re-install of Windows and WD is doing ok.

C.H.

 

[blackice]

Well, I don't know about the Beta versions, I only used the regular free version but the ads were very minimal. I should add here that while I think Avast/AVG is a great AV, they do a lot of things right, I switched my laptop back to Windows Defender today. I got some of the invitation notifications from Avast over the last few days and yesterday the blue upgrade offer was back again hovering above the Avast icon. I do think Avast is a very good AV and I liked the way it works but am not sure if I could ever really get used to the upgrade offers, even with Avast toning them down the way they have. I am back on WD now after running the Avast Clear tool and doing a clean re-install of Windows and WD is doing ok.

C.H.

Why did you use the Avast Clear tool if you were going to reinstall windows anyway? Just curious.

 

[Captain Holly]

Why did you use the Avast Clear tool if you were going to reinstall windows anyway? Just curious.

I used the clear tool because I thought it would do a more complete job of removing Avast, I have read that it is best to use a dedicated AV removal tool if there is one. I was not planning on reinstalling Windows but after removing Avast I got an error that said WD's Virus and Threat Protection was "Undefined". I probably should have tried to fix that problem but I just pulled the trigger and reinstalled Windows anyway. WD seems to work much better now since I did the clean reinstall.

C.H.

 

[monkeylove]

AVG free comes out with a window stating that the free version will expire in a few days. Some have reported similar here:

AVGfree AV protection suddenly "expired". Why ? How to r... | AVG

Since April I got surprising "offers" to upgrade my AVGfree AV after updating regularly the installed AVGfree AV as usual.I have used AVG...

support.avg.com

I clicked on the button to select protection and chose the free version. I'm not signed in and did not enter any activation code.

 

[Captain Holly]

I have been thinking more today about Avast, I really did want to like it and I may try installing it again tomorrow and this time pay better attention to the settings on installation to see if I can limit the upgrade offers from Avast. Either that or maybe I just noticed what is normal on the new Avast and should not let it bother me. Does Avast have any settings to look for to help stop the offers? Or is AVG Free better at setting it up that way?

Thanks for any info.

C.H.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

deleted

 

[Captain Holly]

I spent a lot of time today and last night reading about different AV's. None are perfect and no AV will block or catch everything. I have decided to continue using WD but today I downloaded @Andy Ful's configure tool and set it on High. I also use UBO on default settings and the Webmail Adblocker extension to stop Yahoo email ads and that's it for me on this laptop. I removed Trafficlight and will rely on Smartscreen since Edge is the main browser I use.

I ran some Smartscreen tests from Home - Microsoft Defender Testground and it appears to work like it should. I enabled the MS Defender Browser Protection extension on Chrome, but I don't really use Chrome very often. So far after tinkering around online for a good while WD with Configure Defender is working out fine, I have seen no browser slowdowns or any other problems. I am going to stop worrying about AV's now and trust MS and my own common sense and safe habits online.

Thanks everyone for your input on this. Also Thanks to @Andy Ful, ConfigureDefender is a great utility.

C.H.