May I ask two questions about Avast Free 2015? (1) Is it a Beta version? (2) Is the small orange circle in the Taskbar meant to revolve while checking?
1]
No, it is a RC (Release Candidate)
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=168189.0
2]
If you mean the spinning, yes
Of cource there also a last “stable” version https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=167184.0
Greetz, Red.
Thanks for the info.
I recall you’ve mentioned in another topic the spinning icon before (when you stated quote: “;… the Avast Taskbar circle revolved and checked each and every new site and email, thus extending my already slow computer to infinity.” LINK TO THAT TOPIC And in that topic I posted "the purpose of Avast is to actually check “each and every new site and email”.
Just to let you know that you can turn that feature off if you want.
To do this go to “Settings” > “Appearance” > uncheck “Animate the icon when scanning”, and as you can see there you can even remove the icon altogether by unchecking “Show Avast tray icon”.
I prefer to see the spinning icon reassuring me that Avast is doing it’s job and when my emails come in (which they do automatically in batches through a notifier) I can see there getting scanned. (it’s a relatively unique feature that in my mind is helpful to the user)
Oh and if you don’t want to receive “release candidate” (RC releases) program software than you can set the PROGRAM “update” setting to either “Manual” or “Ask when an update is available” by going to “Settings” > “Update” and peruse the update settings for “Program”.
One thing no one can complain about in Avast, that is it can’t be said that Avast does not offer the user a vast assortment of options (ad popups the exception unless you pay for a version that is).
many thanks lakrsrool.
Your most welcome Jack. 
One thing I’d like to know is why Avast needs to be updated so often. I don’t mean regular updates to its virus database, but a new version apparently. I had just restarted my laptop after doing a Windows update, and then Avast indicated it needed updating. So I clicked on it to make that happen, and it took about a half hour to download 3 parts of the newest version. While this was happening, my computer ran very, very slow which kept me from doing anything else. After it was done downloading, it said I had to restart the computer again.
Is there a set amount of time that goes by before a new “version” comes out? Is it even necessary to upgrade to a new version, or do updates come out automatically for the older ones too?
It’s up to you if you want to receive program updates “automatically”. The setting for this is described in “REPLY #4”, 4 posts above this.
The concept here is that if you are set to “automatic” then you presumably want the updates as they are released.
It's up to you if you want to receive program updates "automatically". The setting for this is described in "REPLY #4", 3 posts above this.
Actually, that would be even worse for me. This time I did it myself, but I didn’t know it would slow my computer down to a crawl and then force me to restart. If it happened automatically, then it could happen when I really don’t want it to. That’s what happened the last time I had a Windows Update, and it ruined everything, so now Windows Update is set to Manual update. I have everything set that way so updates don’t get in the way of everything else I want to accomplish.
That was my point when you had asked quote “why Avast needs to be updated so often”?, which I assumed in that case you must have had program updates set to “automatic”. I was not at all suggesting this setting necessarily. It sounds like you’ve solved the issue since you do not have program updates set to “automatic” apparently, but because you were asking about this I had assumed you had not done this so I mentioned the options available to you in this regard.
I’ve got all my updates for ALL software set the same as you do (regardless of how “risky” some people perceive this to be), as I personally prefer to have control over this myself.