February 9th, 2012New features:
· New installer
· UI facelift
· FileRep service (cloud based)
· Streaming updates
· Sandbox & Autosandbox improvements
· Browser protection improvements
· Remote assistance feature to help your friends with computer troubles
· Support tool
· Export/Import settings
· Screensaver facelift
· runs on Win8 Developer Preview
· and many, many security improvements
November 22nd, 2011· Script Shield now works with Google Chrome, all versions of Firefox and Acrobat Reader
· Improvements in WebRep plugins (especially IE)
· Stability improvements in aswSP.sys and the avast! sandbox
· File system shield: improved on-close scanning
· avast! Internet Security: new antispam engine
· Web Shield and Script Shield: more options in the UI
November 14th, 2011· Script Shield now works with Google Chrome, all versions of Firefox and Acrobat Reader
· Improvements in WebRep plugins (especially IE)
· Stability improvements in aswSP.sys and the avast! sandbox
· File system shield: improved on-close scanning
· avast! Internet Security: new antispam engine
· Web Shield and Script Shield: more options in the UI
November 12th, 2011· Script Shield now works with Google Chrome, all versions of Firefox and Acrobat Reader
· Improvements in WebRep plugins (especially IE)
· Stability improvements in aswSP.sys and the avast! sandbox
· File system shield: improved on-close scanning
· Web Shield and Script Shield: more options in the UI
September 7th, 2011· New Script Shield - now scanning deeper and supporting more host processes
· Web Shield now scanning all processes by default
· Stability improvements in aswSP.sys
· Better tracking of file sources
· WebRep now working in new versions of Firefox
· Under-the-hood improvements in the Behavior Shield and Sandbox modules
· Solved a compatibility problem with certain Steam-based games
· Minor improvements in the product UI
· Various other security and stability related fixes
September 1st, 2011· Solved a compatibility problem with QQ
· Solved a compatibility problem with certain Steam-based games
· Script Shield: Implemented a scanning cache which should prevent redundant/repetitive scans
· Script Shield: Implemented scan exclusion settings
· Script Shield: Now works with Firefox 7/8/9 betas
· Web Shield: scanning of all processes can now be disabled in shield's Expert Settings
· Cosmetic changes in the UI
September 1st, 2011· Solved the Firefox crash issue
· A few stability improvements in the sandbox module (e.g. PDF reader support)
· Cosmetic changes in the UI
July 5th, 2011· improved compatibility with Windows Vista SP0/SP1 (activation issues)
· attempt to solve the "Windows Media Player using a red skin" problem
· Firewall: solved the compatibility problem with uTorrent
· improved load time of WebRep IE plugin
· fixed a bug in Google Chrome WebRep plugin causing excessive CPU usage
· improvements in the silent installer
· improved the CommunityIQ sample submission process
· improved detection/removal of the most stubborn rootkits (TDL family)
· various stability and compatibility improvements in the sandbox module
· added new CreditAlert feature (US customers only)
· added Thai and Serbian language packs
July 1st, 2011Important changes:
· improved compatibility with Windows Vista SP0/SP1
· attempt to solve the "Windows Media Player using a red skin" problem
· Firewall: improved compatibility with uTorrent
· improved the sample submission process
· introduced new CreditAlert feature (US customers only)
· improved load time of WebRep IE plugin
· improvements in the silent installer
· improvements in the sandbox module
· added Thai and Serbian language packs
New:
· Firewall: the long-standing uTorrent compatibility problem should now be finally resolved
· improved tracking of file sources
· improvements in the installer
· fixes of bugs reported in the previous beta
June 22nd, 2011· improved compatibility with Windows Vista SP0/SP1
· attempt to solve the "Windows Media Player using a red skin" problem
· Firewall: improved compatibility with uTorrent
· improved the sample submission process
· introduced new CreditAlert feature (US customers only)
· improved load time of WebRep IE plugin
· improvements in the silent installer
· improvements in the sandbox module
· added Thai and Serbian language packs
May 11th, 2011· solved a problem in aswSP.sys that could lead to a system crash
· improved tolerance for corrupted installations
· when updating from a previous version of avast Pro/IS, SafeZone is now automatically added
· solved a compatibility problem with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro
· improved cleaning of rootkits
· fixes in Chrome WebRep plugin
· Behavior Shield: improved compatibility with other applications
· improvements in the CommunityIQ submission system
· various performance and compatibility improvements
April 19th, 2011· Solved a compatibility problem with ZoneAlarm (WinXP)
· Added WebRep Chrome extension
· Improved installation of the WebRep plugins (especially Firefox)
· Various fixes and improvements in the avast sandbox
· Setup programs now smaller by ~20%
· Community features and the Welcome screen can now be turned on/off directly from program settings
· Solved a compatibility problem with Outpost firewall
· Solved a bug related to the AutoSandbox offer (WinXP)
· Gadget can now be removed by simply closing it
· Solved a compatibility problem with GameGuard and sXe
· SafeZone improvements
· Improved sandbox logging
· SafeZone is now a standalone setup package (can be installed/uninstalled separately)
· Improvements in password processing
· Improvements in the program uninstaller
· Solved a memory leak in the avast gadget
· Fixes in the File System Shield transient cache
· Various stability/compatibility improvements
March 8th, 2011· NEW! AutoSandbox suspicious programs will be optionally run sandboxed
· NEW! avast! WebRep browser plugin for website reputation rating; a combination of data from our virus lab and community voting
· NEW! SafeZone a special virtualized area for sensitive transactions (e.g. secure online banking) (paid products only)
· Script Shield now even in the Free AV
· Site Blocking now even in the Free AV
· fixed USB Safe Removal issue
· Restore factory settings command (Settings -> Troubleshooting)
· Automatic actions in the boot-time scan
· Script Shield now functional even with IE8/IE9 Protected Mode
· Sidebar gadget
· Improved stability/compatibility of the Behavior Shield
· Improvements in the avast! sandbox
· Fixes in the Outlook plugin
January 31st, 2011Main changes/improvements:
· AutoSandbox - suspicious programs will be optionally run sandboxed
· avast! WebRep - browser plugin for website reputation rating; a combination of data from our virus lab and community voting
· Script Shield now even in the Free AV
· Site Blocking now even in the Free AV
· Restore factory settings command (Settings - Troubleshooting)
· Automatic actions in the boot-time scan
· New compression method in the installer makes the setup packages about 20% smaller.
· Script Shield now functional even with IE8/IE9 Protected Mode
· Sidebar gadget
· Improved stability/compatibility of the Behavior Shield
· Improvements in the avast! sandbox
January 13th, 2011· solved a compatibility problem with CorelDraw X5
· solved a compatibility problem with Acer control software
· solved a problem inserting a license file via the installation wizard
· solved a compatibility problem with some Dell wireless network adapter drivers
· solved a compatibility problem with Game Guard (used by a number of games)
· solved a compatibility problem with Sibelius
· solved various 0xC0000005 and 0xC000007B errors (e.g. with some .NET applications)
· issues related to upgrades from v5.0 (inactive shields, missing right-click associations, missing 64-bit boot-time scanner etc)
· solved some possible deadlock conditions (relatively rare but possible)
· performance related improvements
· various UI related improvements
January 3rd, 2011The most notable improvements are:
· boot-time scanner now available even in 64-bit Windows
· big improvements in the Behavior Shield
· improvements in the antirootkit engine
· improvements in the cleaning module
· stability/performance improvements in the Web Shield
· CommunityIQ improvements
· added support for sound packs
· minor improvements in the user interface
· minor fixes in the firewall
December 7th, 2010Most notable improvements include:
· Boot-time scanner for 64-bit OSes (finally!)
· Behavior Shield improvements - now with more sensors and able to detect exact offenders*
· Improved cleaning of infected computers
· Improved anti-rootkit engine - now capable of dealing with the latest TDL variants, for example
· Web Shield improvements (both stability and performance related)
· Mail and Web Shields not hosted in separate NT services anymore, resulting in much faster starts
· IS: new version of antispam engine
· Sound packs (more info coming later)
· *The Behavior Shield functionality is still incomplete in this build. And even in the final v5.1, it will work only in "passive mode", which means that the new sensors will be active but won't be stopping the attacks, just reporting them to our backend infrastructure (unless you have opted out from the avast! community membership). This is to allow us to collect enough data before enabling the real thing in Q1 2011.
September 8th, 2010· solved a problem that could lead to disappearing of the avast service
· Behavior Shield: solved a minor stability issue (aswSP.sys) + solved a Win7 issue
· performance and stability improvements in the avast! sandbox
· changes in the engine allowing us to generically detect/block some new types of exploits
· speed improvements in the updater
· IS: fixed a vulnerability in aswFw.sys (Secunia Advisory SA40868)
· solved a vulnerability related to license files (Secunia Advisory SA41109)
· solved a problem with scanning of files with very long path names
· fixed the updater in East-Asian versions of avast running with Windows set to a different locale
· IS: improvements in the Outlook antispam plugin
· IS firewall: improvement in the path name matching
· IS: upgraded to the new version of antispam engine
· minor changes and fixes in the GUI
· fixes in the screen reader support
· fixed a bug where the File System Shield was scanning some files even after being disabled
· added trimming of setup.log
· added Danish, Hebrew and Urdu language packs
September 4th, 2010· more improvements in the avast sandbox
· few fixes in the new language modules
· Firewall: improvement in the path name matching (now handling correctly symbolic links etc)
· added trimming of setup.log
· a stability improvement in the avast service
September 1st, 2010· solved the pesky memory leak introduced in v5.0.661
· a few cosmetic fixes in the UI
· improvements in the avast sandbox
· improvements in the Outlook antispam plugin (it would be helpful if users of the avast Internet Security could test this one).
August 28th, 2010· solved the vulnerability related to license files (Secunia Advisory SA41109)
· solved a UI crash condition during File system shield detections
· solved a problem with scanning of files with very long path names
· fixed the updater in East-Asian versions of avast running with Windows set to a different locale
· added Urdu language pack
August 24th, 2010Most notable improvements include:
· solved a problem that could lead to disappearing of the avast service
· Behavior Shield: solved a minor stability issue (aswSP.sys)
· performance and stability improvements in the avast! sandbox
· changes in the engine allowing us to generically detect/block some new types of exploits
· speed improvements in the updater
· IS: fixed a vulnerability in aswFw.sys (Secunia Advisory SA40868)
· IS: upgraded to the new version of antispam engine
· minor changes and fixes in the GUI
· fixes in the screen reader support
· added Danish and Hebrew language packs
June 29th, 2010· improved interaction with Windows System Restore; namely, avast now auto-repairs itself when it detects a corrupted VPS due to a System Restore (or other reasons)
· aswSP.sys: solved a minor stability issue
· solved a problem related to inserting of the license files
· added the activation codes feature
· improvements in the avast! sandbox
· solved a problem when avast was continuously slowing down (especially in conjunction with the screensaver)
· performance improvements in the Behavior Shield
· avast Screen saver now accessible even in 64-bit Windows Vista
· stability improvement in aswTdi.sys (solved a compatibility problem with AVG)
· IS firewall: solved a potential BSOD condition
· various improvements in the avast! sandbox module
· minor fixes in the GUI
· added Catalan and Belarusian language packs
May 7th, 2010· Solved a bug related to submission of false positives
· Improvements in the Behavior Shield (realtime antirootkit part)
· Sandbox: many functional, stability and performance improvements
· Firewall: VPN compatibility fixes (should now work even in Public zone etc)
· Firewall: solved an issue related to hang and/or crash of the afwServ.exe process
· Finally works with major screen readers (avast is now blind-friendly)
· Compatibility improvements in the Web Shield
· Various fixes in the Outlook antispam add-in
· Improved detection of droppers
· Setup program of the Pro AV now also accepts v4.x license keys
· Right-to-left support
· Added Croatian and Arabic language packs
April 15th, 2010· scanning and virus chest features now accessible even from Windows Safe Mode
· aswSP.sys: solved a minor stability issue (fixed duplicating of protected handles)
· enhanced compatibility with various Winsock LSPs
· various improvements in the avast! sandbox
· improved cleaning of file infecting viruses
· added compatibility with screen readers; avast! should now be reasonably accessible to visually impaired users
· system files imported to the virus chest after upgrade from v4.8 are now removed
· various fixes in the Outlook antispam add-in
· fixes in ashUpd.exe
· minor improvements in the installer, especially when upgrading from avast v4.8
· avast! Screen saver can be now configured via the screensaver properties dialog
· minor fixes in the GUI
· added Dutch, Portuguese (Portugal), Norwegian, Finnish, Slovenian, Turkish and Vietnamese language packs
April 11th, 2010Most notable improvements include:
· scanning and virus chest features now accessible even from Windows Safe Mode
· aswSP.sys: solved a minor stability issue (fixed duplicating of protected handles)
· Pro AV / IS: solved file enumeration problem on FAT32 partitions
· enhanced compatibility with various Winsock LSPs
· various improvements in the avast! sandbox
· improved cleaning of file infecting viruses
· added compatibility with screen readers; avast! should now be reasonably accessible to visually impaired users
· system files imported to the virus chest after upgrade from v4.8 are now removed
· IS firewall: solved a problem related to VPN connections (Windows XP)
· IS firewall: solved a problem related to Xbox360 media sharing
· IS firewall: solved a potential BSOD condition when changing logical drive mappings
· IS firewall: solved a potential crash when saving the packet rules
· Pro AV / IS: solved a compatibility problem with PerfectDisk 11
· Pro AV / IS: ashCmd.exe switch /@ should work again
· minor improvements in the installer, especially when upgrading from avast v4.8
· avast! Screen saver can be now configured via the screensaver properties dialog
· minor fixes in the GUI
· added Dutch, Portuguese (Portugal), Norwegian, Finnish and Slovenian language packs
January 19th, 2010· The main goal of this new version is to improve stability of the Behavior Shield and Firewall components. It would be great if it could be tested especially by those who have had problems with the previous betas (e.g. bsods etc).
January 16th, 2010· flaky browsing (in IE)
· high CPU usage in the System process
· general stability issues
· BSODs caused by the sandbox
January 15th, 2010· crashes related to the Behavior Shield module
· many improvements in the firewall
· improvements in the sandbox
· other stuff in the Behavior Shield
· fixes in the antirootkit module
· cosmetic fixes
December 31st, 2009· crashes related to the Behavior Shield module
· few more memory leaks in the firewall
· other stuff in the Behavior Shield
· a few issues in the sandbox
December 29th, 2009· solved a nasty memory leak in AIS (reported a few times on the forum)
· (hopefully) solved all the issues related to trial licenses and registrations
· solved scan areas in custom scans
· solved areas in boot-time scanner
· solved some Behavior Shield -related crashes in aswSP.sys
· solved some sandbox-related crashes in aswSnx.sys
· stability and functional improvements in the firewall
December 24th, 2009· There are many fixes in this build as well as some new stuff (sorry, no detailed change log for now). Stability of the IS should now be substantially improved. A few things are still not implemented (a few of the firewall features, such as the Firewall logs, the low-level packet rules and the Process control expert settings).
December 1st, 2009· solved the pesky updater issue (AvastUI.exe error 0xC0000022)
· solved a rare BSOD issue in aswSP.sys
November 28th, 2009· now compatible with Windows 95/98 again
November 26th, 2009· improvements in the malware URL blockers
· solved a vulnerability in aswRdr.sys (CVE-2009-4049) (special thanks to Giuseppe Bonfa)
November 6th, 2009· 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.
October 16th, 2009· 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)
October 8th, 2009· 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
September 25th, 2009· 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)
February 6th, 2009· 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
November 27th, 2008· 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)
November 19th, 2008· 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
November 18th, 2008· 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
November 13th, 2008· 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
May 16th, 2008· 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
May 13th, 2008· 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
March 30th, 2008· 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
December 5th, 2007· 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)
September 6th, 2007· 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
July 28th, 2007· 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
April 30th, 2007· 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
April 19th, 2007· 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
April 14th, 2007· 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
January 16th, 2007· Standard Shield works on Vista 64bit again
· fixed problems with (missing or non-functional) resident protection virus warning popup, occurring on some systems
January 16th, 2007· fixed a problem with password-lock for resident protection settings
· fixed very slow updating on Windows 95/98/ME
January 13th, 2007· 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
September 26th, 2006· 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
August 7th, 2006· 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
June 1st, 2006· 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
April 19th, 2006· 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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