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  • Home / Windows / Antivirus / Avast! Home Edition / Changelog

    Avast! Home Edition 5.0.254 Beta / 4.8.1368 - Changelog


    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1368:

    · now compatible with Windows 95/98 again



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1367:

    · improvements in the malware URL blockers
    · solved a vulnerability in aswRdr.sys (CVE-2009-4049) (special thanks to Giuseppe Bonfa)



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 5.0.221 Beta:

    · here I am with another beta refresh of avast 5 (version number 5.0.221).

    · I don't have a change log at this time but a number of the things discussed here should be fixed in this build, as well as a good number of others that we found internally.

    · Again, it should be possible to reliably install this version over an existing avast 4.8 (or previous 5.0) installation. Actually, upgrading from v4.8 is a good test case and we would appreciate your feedback on how well it works.



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 5.0.167 Beta:

    · improvements in the Explorer right-click scan
    · improvements in the localizations (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Russian and Chinese localizations should now be complete)
    · Add and Submit commands in the virus chest now working
    · fixed a few memory leaks in the GUI process
    · boot-time scan logs now in the Scan logs folder (this feature is still unfinished)
    · added controls for actions on infected files inside archives
    · fixed the Block command in the Ask dialog
    · improvements in the silent installer
    · the program is now working under Windows 2000 (SP4 or higher)



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 5.0.150 Beta:

    · definition updates (GUI gets refreshed, new defs get reloaded etc)
    · ability to make config changes under non-admin users (or non-elevated in case of Vista/W7)
    · WebShield now working after changing its settings (if upgrading from a previous beta, and you had this issue, you need togo to WebShield's settings, Web scanning page, and ccheck the Scan all files radio button)
    · better About box
    · added help files (English and a few other languages)
    · sizes/positions of windows are now persisted
    · minimize button works as expected
    · ability to view report file after a scan
    · added "persistent cache" feature log - should be useful to troubleshoot AvastSvc.exe CPU usage peaks. The log file is called Logusntr.log



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1356:

    · solved a memory leak in the GZIP unpacker
    · solved vulnerabilities in AavmKer4.sys, aswMon2.sys and ashWsFtr.dll (special thanks to Giuseppe Bonfa, Alex and Maxim A. Kulakov)



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1335:

    · improvements in some unpackers (WinExec, Installer, ZIP)
    · improved memory scan, especially under 64-bit operating systems
    · fixed a possible deadlock condition when copying system files from some removable media
    · fixed a possible problem with access rights when deleting infected files on reboot
    · Web Shield: minor stability fixes
    · Internet Mail: smtp.gmail.com and smtp.live.com now ignored on port 25 (as these are SSL only)
    · improved healing of some infected files
    · various fixes and improvements in the scanning engine
    · Web Shield now scans pages compressed with the "deflate" algorithm
    · performance optimization of Standard Shield under Windows Vista
    · improvements in the automatic sample submission system
    · improvements in the URL blocker



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1296:

    · minor improvements in some unpackers
    · improvements in the false positive submission system
    · speed optimization in kernel-mode components
    · XML scan reports now generated in UTF-8 format (allow for non-Latin characters)



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1290:

    · improvements in the malware submission system
    · minor improvements in some unpackers
    · improvements in the rootkit scanner
    · Network Shield: solved a problem occurring on systems with missing TCP stack



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1287:

    · improvements in the malware submission system
    · minor improvements in some unpackers
    · improvements in the rootkit scanner
    · Network Shield: solved a problem occurring on systems with missing TCP stack



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1282:

    · improvements in some unpackers (Zip, 7-Zip, WinExec, Installer)
    · fixed incompatibility with ext2fsd driver
    · fixed a problem in The Bat! plugin (causing orphaned thebat.exe processes after the program was closed)
    · added new unpacker "droppers" (by default turned on in all tasks including the real time scanner)
    · fixed a problem with actions on infected files with special names
    · Network Shield: added a component for blocking of malware URLs
    · added the possibility of sending of statistical information about detected viruses
    · added a new option of reporting of false positives
    · improved the submission from the Virus Chest (now based on HTTP protocol)
    · added a component for gathering of new samples from exploited pages
    · implemented a limit of the maximum size of the selfdef.log file
    · speed optimizations in the updater
    · speed optimizations in the scanning engine
    · solved a minor conflict with McAfee SiteAdvisor
    · added support for the Windows Security Center in Vista SP1 (new API)
    · minor fixes in the Web Shield
    · removed support for ICQ a MSN Messenger alerts



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1201:

    · solved incompatibility with System Safety Monitor
    · improved compatibility of the self defense module with XP SP3 (and its installation)
    · minor enhancements in the Web Shield (detection of streaming content)
    · minor fixes in the updater



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1195:

    · solved incompatibility of the avast self protection module and the System Restore feature (Windows XP/Vista)
    · solved keyboard/mouse lags in some games (e.g. World of Warcraft)
    · "Quick" scan now quick again (in the previous version, it was usually slower than "Normal" scan)
    · fixed slow resuming from hibernation (on certain systems)
    · improved stability of aswSP.sys kernel driver
    · fixed deleting of infected files in some nested archives
    · shell extension: under Windows Vista, shortcut targets are now correctly scanned
    · boot-time scanner now correctly displays warning messages about corrupted archives
    · improved scanning speed in the Simple user interface
    · improved handling of scan exceptions
    · self protection: improved detection of changes in the INI file
    · start of the "avast! Mail Scanner" service should now be fast again
    · fixed a problem with avast being installed in a directory with name containing non-Latin characters
    · fixed entering of the license key (didn't work in certain configurations)
    · improved detection/healing of MBR rootkits
    · avast can now correctly handle the case when the INI file is missing/corrupted
    · the "Disable startup rootkit scan" option on the Troubleshooting page now effective
    · P2P Shield: added support for Azureus Vuze and Qtrax
    · taskbar messages from Internet Mail should now correctly handle most common character encodings
    · fixed problems with the boot-time scanner on FAT[32] partitions
    · small improvements in some unpackers (WinExec, RAR, CHM)
    · fixed the message announcing the license key going to expire soon
    · on 64-bit Windows, avast now detects both 32-bit and 64-bit version of the WHS connector
    · the avast Home / Pro Edition comparison window is now correctly displayed even under Windows 9x



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1169:

    · avast! now contains a built-in anti-rootkit protection
    · avast! now comes with a built-in anti-spyware protection
    · new self-defense function to prevent active malware from terminating avast! processes as well as corrupting avast! files and registry items
    · scanners now display a progress of current scan (percentage of work done)
    · fixed a vulnerability in AavmKer4.sys kernel-mode driver (problem applies to Windows NT/2000/XP, 32-bit only)
    · improvements in boot-time scanner (detection & removal of hidden or hard to delete files)
    · boot-time scanner will not start when booting into Safe Mode (the program was "invisible" in that case, no progress/messages could be seen)
    · improvements in many unpackers
    · ACE and RAR unpackers now work even in boot-time scanner
    · IM Shield: added support for QQ
    · improvements in handling of NTFS streams
    · Internet Mail provider now displays the name of the sending/receiving program in the tooltip of its taskbar icon
    · implemented a protection against false positives in critical system files
    · removed a small memory leak in one of avast! drivers (Windows Vista and XP 64-bit only)
    · added support for 64-bit WHS connector (available in WHS Power Pack 1)
    · greatly improved performance of the updater, especially in cases where many increments are being downloaded (e.g. avast! installations with outdated virus definitions)
    · silent installation now also includes scheduled tasks, if any
    · resolved a compatibility issue with Acronis TrueImage (XP 64-bit only)
    · compatibility tests with Vista SP1 and XP SP3



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.1098:

    · fixed a vulnerability in TAR unpacker (special thanks to "Sowhat" of Nevis Labs)
    · improvements in various unpackers (winexec, installer, CAB, NTFS Streams)
    · boot-time scanner now functional even with USB keyboards
    · speed improvements in the Outlook plugin (Windows XP )
    · Web Shield: compatibility improvements
    · Internet Mail provider: improvements on Windows Vista
    · CAB unpacker now working in boot-time scan
    · RAR unpacker modified so that it is now more tolerant to certain corrupted archives (issue reported by Thierry Zoller of n.runs AG)
    · Professional Edition: scheduled scan progress icon now accessible even in Windows Vista
    · Windows 9x/ME: fix in the Mail Protection Wizard (related to Mozilla Thunderbird accounts)
    · fixed a bug in the scan area selection dialog in Windows NT/2000
    · optimizations in the updater
    · removed mail heuristics false alarm (related to TNEF attachments)



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.1043:

    · fixed a problem in the boot-time scanner (prevents the intermittent "Unhandled Exception" errors)
    · added Inno Setup unpacker
    · speed optimization of certain operations (e.g. scanning of emails in the Internet Mail provider)
    · Standard Shield: fixed a memory leak (Windows NT/200/XP)
    · mail scanner: fix in IMAP handler (solves problems with Nortel CallPilot, for example)
    · Windows Vista: removed the conflict with Asus Data Security Manager
    · Web Shield: now scans even data returned from HTTP POST requests
    · speed improvements in the area selection dialog
    · fixed various small issues on Windows Vista



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.1029:

    · infrastructure changes in the scanning engine bringing higher detection rates
    · fixed a bug that was sometimes causing crash of the avast screensaver during its initialization
    · improved handling of corrupted files in the SIS and CAB unpackers
    · Standard Shield: fixed a minor memory leak in the Vista (and Vista only) driver
    · Standard Shield: improved the "move to chest" command in Vista
    · Standard Shield: the default scan exceptions are no valid for read/write access only (no execute)
    · added more "installer" unpackers
    · added more Win32 executable unpackers (Enigma etc.)
    · for NTLM proxy authorization (via ISA Server) it is now possible to specify the account under which the avast service will perform the update
    · added Arabic language pack



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.9976:

    · program installation now completes successfully even if Spyware Doctor is installed (the "OnGuard" module of Spyware Doctor contains a bug that was previously preventing the avast installation from working correctly)
    · program installation now better handles the situation when repairing previous (corrupted) installs
    · mail scanner: fix for marking of new emails as "read" (the problem was taking place in Thunderbird 2.0 in conjunction with some IMAP servers)
    · fix for scanning of areas with East Asian names (Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista)
    · added Armadillo unpacker



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.986:

    · fixed the Outlook/Exchange provider on Windows 9x/ME
    · solved incompatibility of memory scan with certain 3rd party applications
    · fixed the boot-time scan under Windows NT 4.0



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.981:

    · fixed extra-long duration of the boot-time scan under Windows Vista
    · WebShield: improved compatibility with Windows Vista
    · WebShield: better support for HTTP method CONNECT in upstream proxy scenarios
    · fixed a minor memory leak in aswrdr.sys
    · auto-updates now use much less CPU resources (should not interfere with other CPU-intensive programs running on the computer, e.g. games)
    · added a new unpacker: "installers"; useful especially for detection of malware droppers
    · Outlook/Exchange provider: improved compatibility with Outlook 2007
    · boot-time scanner: fix for the case when there's the /NOGUIBOOT option in boot.ini
    · fixed a problem in Standard Shield under Windows Vista related to saving of Word 2007 documents on FAT partitions
    · email alerts now use correct formatting even for non-Latin characters
    · fixed a rare problem in Standard Shield related to handling of disk volumes mounted to NTFS directories
    · further enhancements in executable unpackers
    · fixed a bug in ZOO unpacker (special thanks to Jean-Sébastien Guay-Leroux)
    · task scheduler: it's now possible to specify which days of week the task should run
    · command-line scanner (ashCmd.exe) now supports a couple of more command-line options, mostly related to handling of infected files[/li]
    · mail scanner: improved deleting of entire emails (virus embedded in email body)
    · fixed opening of the sounds settings dialog under certain operating systems
    · avast! screensaver now available even under Windows Vista 64-bit
    · better detection of corrupted/modified VPS file
    · WebShield: other minor fixes
    · added Macedonian, Croatian and Portuguese (not Brazil) language packs



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.942:

    · Standard Shield works on Vista 64bit again
    · fixed problems with (missing or non-functional) resident protection virus warning popup, occurring on some systems



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.938:

    · fixed a problem with password-lock for resident protection settings
    · fixed very slow updating on Windows 95/98/ME



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.936:

    · higher performance of the scanning engine (especially on new CPUs) and faster start of the avast! system service on OS boot
    · improved support for Windows Vista (added support for NTFS transactions (also known as TxF) etc.)
    · improved detection of full-screen applications
    · fixed a bug related to the demo licence not being installed during silent installs
    · improved compatibility with Windows offline folders
    · more improvements in executable unpackers
    · minor fixes in the ZIP unpacker
    · fixed Runtime error R6034 messages when Mozilla Thunderbird version 3.0 is installed
    · suppressed double scans when the user selected a local disk scan plus a folder scan (with the folder residing on the local disk)
    · added Catalan language module



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.892:

    · avast is now finally compatible with Windows Vista RC1; also, the "remediations" in Vista Security Center are now functional
    · added CHM unpacker (and this time, as an extra benefit, it should work even in the boot-time scanner)
    · fixed a bug in the UPX unpacker
    · added a couple of new Win32 unpackers
    · added a workaround to problems with compatibility with Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall (remaints of menus on the screen seldom hang of avast program on start)
    · no more attempts to delete files on read-only media
    · improved detection of ZoneAlarm Pro (to prevent unnecessary WebShield incompatibility warnings)
    · avast! screen-saver now uses better algorithm to remember last scan position
    · added Swedish and Slovenian language versions



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.869:

    · Standard Shield now compatible with NT systems set up for the C@ security standard
    · minor fixes in the data storage
    · auto-updater now run with normal priority (used to be high priority)
    · minor enhancements in a number of unpackers (e.g. added support for old versions of UPX)
    · fixed a bug in LHARC unpacker
    · fixed a bug related to deletion of files from certain special archives; the "move to chest" operation used to, under certain circumstances, cause the file to be actually extracted to the avast folder
    · attempt to solve the problem with corruption of ThunderBird mailbox when a virus is found in its first email
    · files not scanned because of scan exclusions are not displayed in the Simple UI results dialog anymore
    · hyperlinks (e.g. "virus information") are now opened in browser's new window
    · Windows 9x: fixed a bug in data storage causing incorrect behavior if the program was installed to a folder with non-Latin character path name
    · minor optimization of memory consumption of the "avast! Antivirus" service (process ashServ.exe/aswServ.exe)
    · updater now more tolerant to corrupted data files



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.844:

    · improvements in executable packers (most notably, ASProtect unpacker)
    · fixed incorrect handling of non-Latin characters in the data storage
    · Outlook plugin: now compatible with Windows Vista
    · avast! now working correctly under Windows Vista 64-bit builds
    · fixed incorrect statistics in sessions of scheduled tasks
    · fixed a problem in the creation of silent installation (Professional Edition)
    · fixed a subtle bug in the data storage (occuring after deleting an object)
    · temporarily disabled the CHM unpacker (for security reasons)
    · added Danish language version



    What's new in Avast! Home Edition 4.7.817:

    · Standard Shield: by default, system DLLs are not scanned anymore (speed optimization)
    · further improved Standard Shield speed under Windows XP (generally, less files are scanned)
    · Standard Shield: improved compatibility with Microsoft Office (particularly, saving of Excel documents on network shares)
    · mail scanner now doesn't show Timeout Expired messages; the program was modified so that the respective timeout can be controlled by the mail client itself
    · mail scanner: solved problem with the mail client reporting expired timeouts when sending larger emails via slow connectections
    · mail scanner: fixed problem with delays during IP address reverse-lookup
    · mail scanner: fixed displaying of tray icon
    · P2P Shield: added support for Winny2 and Google Talk
    · Web Shield: improved compatibility with Win9x
    · transition to new data storage - avast does not need the ODBC/Jet drivers anymore and should therefore work better even under older versions of Windows (95/98/ME, NT4)
    · fixed a bug in the Script Blocker module that was causing conflicts with some programs under non-English Windows (e.g. the German invoice system Lexware)
    · added support for additional executable packers (e.g. MoleBox)
    · fixed a bug that was sometimes causing very slow scanning of CAB archives
    · boot-time scanner: added support for additional archives (GZ, BZIP2, TAR, LHARC, ZOO)
    · improved handling of infected files with exotic filenames
    · solved a problem with setting of incorrect access rights to the avast executable files
    · removed a limit of maximal length of winpopup alerts (used to be 128 characters)
    · Enhanced User Interface: infected items are now marked as red
    · implemented new method of deleting of locked infected files (now using the boot-time scanner technology)
    · this new version is now compatible with the Windows Disk Protection feature from Microsoft Shared Computing Toolkit. For more information, please refer to the FAQ section
    · Avast should now work flawlessly with Windows Vista beta 2 and higher (Vista beta 2 will be released in the first half of May, i.e. in about 3 weeks); unfortunately, in beta1 CTP builds




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