Well I’m overjoyed to say that after a long struggle (removing all files from the prior install attempts) and removing all traces of Avast from the registry that Avast 9 finally loaded on my home PC.

This is a great relief as my license runs until January 2015 and of all the competing products I’ve tried I’ve had issues:

  • Bitdefender - issues with the firewall
  • F-Secure - limited control over the system, trial can not be reloaded
  • Kaspersky - unstable, slowed down Outlook 2013 and tended to suffer from loading failures

I may not be overjoyed with some of the Avast 9 UIX changes and the embedded adverts for other services but at least it works with little CPU impact, etc.