Today I went to the Avast! website to give their free anti-virus a shot. Anyway, when I navigated to the free download section I clicked on the link and was presented with a sort of pop up screen prompting me to purchase Avast! Internet Security 6. I chose to not purchase this and clicked on the button saying that I would like free protection instead. However, when I clicked it there was no response and after clicking it ten times I clicked on the close button in the pop up and that gave no response either.
Am I simply a failure at downloading free anti-virus or is Avast! trying to push sales on unwitting customers?
Seems OK to me - the 'Do you want to Upgrade?' box closed first time and took me to the free download (I didn't download it though, as I already have it). I should have another go at it. It's a great AV, in my opinion.
Now what is different about your setup and the rest of us Login, any ideas?
EDIT
Anyone else using portable browsers like Login?
I don't know what the reason is, but here is my setup in WXP.
I have Opera and Firefox portable folders installed to a folder in "C:...My Documents".
- Only run them Sandboxed when Powershadow is running, so no changes ever persist.
- Sandboxie traps the internet activity. Can see gobs of changes in the sandbox, but all go away after restart.
- Powershadow removes everything on restart. They say on shutdown, but I bet it's done at restart. ??
- Has happened that a suspected virus stopped and restarted this computer, but was all gone after restart.
Okay, it's a bit clumsy, takes getting used to. But it is darned safe. Also faster and less involved that using a VM. If a permanent change is needed, like an antivirus or windows update, I restart with Powershadow and Sandboxie off, make the change, then "Shadow up" and charge off to the internet.
- Sadly, Powershadow won't work for windows later than XP.
- Also, with PS on, you can't try out any software that requires a restart. Changes won't stick.
Edit: Maybe someone with better diagnostic abilities can say why this works while cookieeater's won't?
I just tried the experiment with Ff4, Adblock Plus, Privatefirewall, Norton Antvirus, Zemana and last but not least Sandboxie and it worked fine. I even downloaded it but did not install. It's a great free Anti-Virus, having used it for over a year on two PCs.
I agree Avast free version is very excellent. But I've moved on to MSE since W7 and it works great as well. Even better in some aspects. A free "out of sight, out of mind" AV never even occured to me before, yet here it is.
I chose to not purchase this and clicked on the button saying that I would like free protection instead. However, when I clicked it there was no response and after clicking it ten times I clicked on the close button in the pop up and that gave no response either.
Am I simply a failure at downloading free anti-virus or is Avast! trying to push sales on unwitting customers?
I have the same problem on their site and have for some time now, the solution is to just download it elsewhere; Filehippo.com, Download.com, Softpedia.com, etc.
Edit:
And it's the same problem for me trying Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera. Their site is messed up or something.
I agree Avast free version is very excellent. But I've moved on to MSE since W7 and it works great as well. Even better in some aspects. A free "out of sight, out of mind" AV never even occured to me before, yet here it is.
I'm using MSE myself at the moment since AntiVir v10 runs a bit heavy on my WinXP system, and Avast v6 well I'd just rather use MSE and leave it at that.
Is it maybe because there is no site blocking on this computer? No host file stuff?
Jackpot. I'm using the MVPS HOSTS file and when I temporarily used the default, empty one the free protection button worked. Switched back to MVPS and it didn't work.
1st: kudos to "slowday444" for Sandboxie. "Googlit, downloadit, Placuit" (I googled, I d/l'd, I liked )
2nd: please elaborate on the MVPS HOSTS file and what it's doing. I'm not quite cognoscenti.
Jackpot. I'm using the MVPS HOSTS file and when I temporarily used the default, empty one the free protection button worked. Switched back to MVPS and it didn't work.
avast not only forced to purchas, also any games are not installable like need for speed carbon, most wanted and test drive and any other, we have tried