Avast Releases Fix Update Utility For Corrupted Installations

The release of Avast 7 has caused anger and confusion in part of the security software’s user base. Especially the fact that Google Chrome was installed in a sneaky way during updates or new installations fueled criticism of the new version. Some users on the other hand reported that the application did not install or update correctly. The installation basically hangs and exits with an error message.

Especially users who try to upgrade from version 6 to 7 are affected by corrupted installations of the security software. The core issue here is that it is not possible to update the program anymore. Some users have experienced other issues as well, like crashing third party applications, slow system starts or shutdowns or related issues.

Experienced users may have resolved the situation already by running Avast’s Software Removal Tool which uninstalls all traces of Avast software on the system. A clean install of Avast 7 runs through without problems afterwards.

Avast has released a Fix Update utility for users of Avast 6 and Avast 7 who are experiencing issues with their antivirus.

Here are the instructions on how to use the program to fix Avast on the computer

• Avast 7: Run Fix Update first, then go Maintenance > Update and click on Update Program. This should resolve the issue.
• Avast 6: Run the Fix Update program as well. You will then be asked whether you want to update to Avast 7. Click Yes and the update will be installed. This can take a few minutes before the update completes. Restart the computer in the end to complete the update

The tool can be run on systems that are not affected by the particular issue. It will simply exit in this case telling you that the avast installation does not seem to have the problem that the fix is supposed to resolve. (via Techdows)

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday February 29, 2012 -
Tags:avast

Responses so far:

1. Roman ShaRP says:

   February 29, 2012 at 11:36 am

   I learned the hard way not to be early adopter when I’m not paid for that.

   And when some years ago I looked at Skype 4 release known issues list, I was astonished.

   So I have a piece of advice here: if it is not really necessary to update something quickly – better wait week or two, and you might escape serious issues.

   Reply
2. Robert Palmar says:

   February 29, 2012 at 6:32 pm

   This was a mammoth PR disaster for Avast.

   Reply
3. my-t-man says:

   February 29, 2012 at 6:56 pm

   So Google has become the new “toolbar” where people are paid to install unwanted programs without your knowledge or consent. Avast isn’t the only one Google has paid for this privelege. I thought Google chrome was supposed to be good enough that they shouldn’t have to resort to this kind of tactics.

   Reply
4. Richard Steven Hack says:

   March 3, 2012 at 3:17 am

   ALL the AV companies have REAL quality control problems. I dumped Kaspersky from my clients when it was unable to properly update itself, especially its license blacklist file, and updates took 15-30 minutes to run.

   These companies are so behind on keeping up with new malware that they can’t spare the time to do real QA testing on new versions. With any AV company, sooner or later you’re going to get hit with a bad update that screws your system or just generally bad design decisions that affect the usability, reliability or effectiveness of the AV software.

   It’s symptomatic of a software industry that adheres to Woody Allen’s famous dictum: “Nothing works and nobody cares.”

   Reply
5. Rosa says:

   March 14, 2012 at 7:26 am

   I can login in my Facebook.

   Reply