Worth going from Avast 4.8 to 5?

M

Mark

I have an slow XP system running Avast 4.8.

When Avast version 5 came out, early reports said it was slower than 4.8 so
I didn't install it. Recently I noticed that Avast says v5 is faster than
4.8. Is v5 performance better or worse?

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/lp-upgrade-4-5

Also, is v5 better than 4.8 for virus detection?
 
V

VanguardLH

Mark said:
I have an slow XP system running Avast 4.8.

When Avast version 5 came out, early reports said it was slower than 4.8 so
I didn't install it. Recently I noticed that Avast says v5 is faster than
4.8. Is v5 performance better or worse?

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/lp-upgrade-4-5

Also, is v5 better than 4.8 for virus detection?


While free, Avast still requires registration for use after the 30-day
trial period. Registration lasts for 1 year. After that, you have to
install it again (like getting the latest version) and register that
installation. It is unlikely after a year that you can even download
the old version to reinstall it. Even if you don't replace Avast with a
new version and you ignore the prompts to update the program, there are
no updates once the 1-year registration expires. This is Alwil's
attempt to eliminate users that continue to use outdated and less
capable versions of their anti-virus software.

A nice feature of 4.x was URL filtering. I didn't need to install a 3rd
party firewall to block unwanted sites, like for ads, or use upstream
DNS filtering, like with OpenDNS. Alwil decided to discontinue the URL
filtering feature as of version 5.

I have noticed no increased degradation in responsiveness of my host
when going from 4.8 to 5.0. Actually it seems their Web Shield got more
stable. I only install the File, Web, Behavior, and Network shields.
The rest is unneeded (by me) or fluff. However, I haven't notice less
impact on my host, either. Basically I don't notice any significant
impact EXCEPT when the program decides it is time to get updates;
however, I've noticed this impact with all AV products that I've tried.
Obviously if you schedule it to perform a scan of your drives then an
impact in responsiveness will be noticed at that time (so kill the scan
if you can't stand any jerkiness in use of your host). A scan by any AV
product (quick or full) is going to impact the use of your host.

So are you really going to continue using an old version which doesn't
update after its registration period expires (if it hasn't already)?
 

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