Solved Updating Avast Program -- advice on best way?

[Stimson]

Greetings;

Been having problems with erratic startup behavior. Virus & Malware scans come up negative. Chkdsk & Scannow find nothing. Warnings in Performance Log are inconsistant.

But in the Log, at startup, I do sometimes find reference to parts of my Avast program (like, event-102, aswSnx driver not loading properly). As I'm still running v.8.0.1489 I figure it is time to update.

So, questions about updating Avast program:

1) Should I just click the "Update Program" button within my existing version and go from there? (But I'm not sure if this will still give me the full "custom" option -- so I can opt out of Chrome, etc., etc..

2) Or is it better to do a fresh install? If so, should I uninstall my present version first? -- How best?

I'd just as soon not consider a different AV program at this time.

Thanks much for any advice from those who've done this recently.

 

[Callender]

Update Avast

Greetings;

Been having problems with erratic startup behavior. Virus & Malware scans come up negative. Chkdsk & Scannow find nothing. Warnings in Performance Log are inconsistant.

But in the Log, at startup, I do sometimes find reference to parts of my Avast program (like, event-102, aswSnx driver not loading properly). As I'm still running v.8.0.1489 I figure it is time to update.

So, questions about updating Avast program:

1) Should I just click the "Update Program" button within my existing version and go from there? (But I'm not sure if this will still give me the full "custom" option -- so I can opt out of Chrome, etc., etc..

2) Or is it better to do a fresh install? If so, should I uninstall my present version first? -- How best?

I'd just as soon not consider a different AV program at this time.

Thanks much for any advice from those who've done this recently.

Well I haven't updated Avast recently. I stopped using it around two years ago as there were too many issues. Anyway the options are really these:

If you kept the installer for the version you've got installed - run the installer and choose the repair option. Once repaired - download any program updates from the program update option in the GUI.

If you don't have the original installer and you're using the free version of Avast it would probably be better to run the dedicated removal tool in Safe Mode then reboot and download and install the latest version choosing the components that you want to install. If you keep the installer I seem to remember that you can run it if you want to add/ remove components at a later date.

https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

 

[Stimson]

Callender, thank you for the response.

For better or worse I (inadvertently) took another route. Lacking any other input at the time, I decided to click the "Update Program" button within my current Avast, supposing that this might bring up some information and/or options; and, if not, I could always click the "Stop Download" button.

Silly me! The install begins instantly. There is no "stop" button. Even closing the app. has no effect -- it just keeps on loading!

The good news is that, so far, all seems well. The new install kept all my old preferences and it did not seem to install any crapware.

It will take several days of restarts to see if the new version has helped the startup problems.

Yes, I've heard much grumbling about Avast, and maybe quite justified. Just didn't have time right now for the hassle of changing AV programs. I'll have to start doing some research.

Thanks, again.