April In June !
A while ago, I had such a terrible experience with the installation of version 2012 Plus, purchased from Flipkart, that I had to return it to them for a refund.
But after the 2013 version was released, I wanted to give it a go, but first I wanted to try out the 2013 free version first. Today I did. I'll try to describe my experience here.
I downloaded the usual "Antivirus_Free_Edition.exe" from the main page of the Bitdefender web site and ran it.
It downloaded another file called "Antivirus_Free_Edition_x64.exe" (I have Win 8 x64) and ran it automatically. A screen was displayed with the option of uninstalling the existing AV (Avast Free) first or "install anyway...". I chose the first option.
The program closed itself and the Avast uninstaller was started. The process was completed and I was asked to reboot. I did.
After booting, the Bitdefender ...x64.exe program started automatically.
<Start>
No user interface / window / pop-up was displayed. But it did the following things (as reported by ZoneAlarm):
1.
Removed it's own instance from startup list in registry.
2.
Access the internet.
3.
Load the driver "WINDRVDIR\fltMgr.sys".
Then it did some disk I/O. Then nothing. That's it.
No user interface / window / pop-up was displayed.
<End>
I was completely in the dark as to what exactly has happened.
Has the software already been installed? No, it wasn't on the installed programs list.
So, is it doing / downloading something in the background? No, it wasn't on the task manager's App or Background Processes list.
So I visited the support web page and noticed that a special program ("aswclear.exe") was needed for effectively removing Avast.
Why wasn't I told this earlier? I promptly download it, reboot, run it (in safe mode), reboot, run the bitdefender ...x64.exe again, as an Admin this time.
It behaved exactly as earlier, repeated all above steps between <Start> and <End> faithfully and went to sleep.
At the end of June, I started to feel it was the beginning day of April !
I'm going back to Avast free and not coming within 25 miles of Bitdefender again.
Comments
I'm sorry to have bought a license for bitdefender, they had a good product but left to ruin. Support does not exist, just bugs etc.. The final destination will be trash, I have already moved to another antivirus, bitdefender never more.
HAS
But after the 2013 version was released, I wanted to give it a go, but first I wanted to try out the 2013 free version first. Today I did. I'll try to describe my experience here.
I downloaded the usual "Antivirus_Free_Edition.exe" from the main page of the Bitdefender web site and ran it.
It downloaded another file called "Antivirus_Free_Edition_x64.exe" (I have Win 8 x64) and ran it automatically. A screen was displayed with the option of uninstalling the existing AV (Avast Free) first or "install anyway...". I chose the first option.
The program closed itself and the Avast uninstaller was started. The process was completed and I was asked to reboot. I did.
After booting, the Bitdefender ...x64.exe program started automatically.
<Start>
No user interface / window / pop-up was displayed. But it did the following things (as reported by ZoneAlarm):
1.
Removed it's own instance from startup list in registry.
2.
Access the internet.
3.
Load the driver "WINDRVDIR\fltMgr.sys".
Then it did some disk I/O. Then nothing. That's it.
No user interface / window / pop-up was displayed.
<End>
I was completely in the dark as to what exactly has happened.
Has the software already been installed? No, it wasn't on the installed programs list.
So, is it doing / downloading something in the background? No, it wasn't on the task manager's App or Background Processes list.
So I visited the support web page and noticed that a special program ("aswclear.exe") was needed for effectively removing Avast.
Why wasn't I told this earlier? I promptly download it, reboot, run it (in safe mode), reboot, run the bitdefender ...x64.exe again, as an Admin this time.
It behaved exactly as earlier, repeated all above steps between <Start> and <End> faithfully and went to sleep.
At the end of June, I started to feel it was the beginning day of April !
I'm going back to Avast free and not coming within 25 miles of Bitdefender again.
ME TOO, kind of . . . I had the bitdefenter installed and working beautifully and I loved it, then one day I noticed it was GONE. I tried to download. I don't know what version I had, but when I unzipped to file again, it did NOTHING . . . FRUSTRATING! Next I came to download a fresh copy . . . it was loaded with a bunch of stuff I don't want . . . they call it a suite; I call it forcing their choices onto me. I want the old 'Antivirus_Free_Edition_x64' and want to know why it won't install on my Windows 8.2 64bit system.
I went to my big sys at a different address to seek answers and found it was gone too so tried the new version; didn't like it! I've been running with nothing but Windows defender since and I don't like that either . . . it interferes with some of my programs so am constantly using restore so I can run those programs in peace.
I was told I could get the file in this community, but need to know why it won't work as well. I am blaming Windows because they are always destroying what they built. I have one system left with XP Pro 64bit left and it is, in my opinion the cream of their crop and they have been going downhill ever since.
So, where can I get the file and a genius that can tell me why it won't work???