I agree, after many years of recommending avast to family and friends, some of which have chosen to purchase a paid version, I will no longer recommend a company that employs bait and switch tactics on their customers. I just spent an hour on the phone with my 78 yr old mother trying to renew her key but only to have a working option to purchase the paid version. I did find out that if you go through the renewal and start closing the windows before checking out you will get to the Avast console that now has a button to renew (this option was not there when the tray icon was right clicked) and at the bottom of the console page was a bar for offline registration and mom was able to enter a new key there. Next time I am at her house Avast will be removed completely and AVG installed.