Avast Starts a link to Google Chrome - on Login to Win 7
I am very angry with Avast for this latest invasion of privacy to my system. I have been using Avast Free for quite a while and see more and more intrusions recently.
I use a software firewall for such issues, specifically an older version of Comodo. It allows me to deny access to the net for any specific program, at any specific range of address’s. For instance, let’s say that avast starts your browser, sending it to the chrome signup page, simply do a “nslookup” on the web address to find the IP, then a “whois” on that IP to find the entire range of IP’s. Now create a rule in your rule based firewall that says for this program, either avast or your browser, which ever is affected, to not allow an out going connection to either that single IP or the entire range. Now you never have to worry about that again. Of course always remember that if you use the entire range owned by a company, you shall never be capable of getting to other sites that may be hosted by, that company, say google, for instance. You can find “NSLOOKUP” and “WOIS” interfaces on the web, but I use an old version of Net Scan Tools Pro, that I bought way back in 2000, that’s still just as viable today!
Fred,
First, that isn’t happening here - Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit. Firefox 25.0.1 Avast 2014.9.0.2008 Free.
If I understand what you have said correctly, as soon as you log into Win 7, Chrome opens at that URL.
Did you perchance miss the “opt out” box when you installed/upgraded Avast that stops it installing Chrome?
It might be an opportunity to find out what the tick box at Avast->Settings->Trouble Shooting->Do not use Chrome as Avast Default Browser does, otherwise I would uninstall Avast using Avastclear.exe in safe mode, if Chrome is installed uninstall that, cleanup, reboot and then reinstall Avast.
Why uninstall avast? Just do GUI>Settings>Troubleshooting>tick “do not use Chrome as avast default browser”.
From your deaktop…Control Panel>Default Programs>select your choice>click “okay”.
You can uninstall Chrome…Control Panel>Uninstall a Program>click “Chrome”>click “uninstall”.
There is no need to do a clean install of avast.
That is like going around your elbow to get to your thumb.
I am also having this issue and both ideas don’t work.
Going to Avast and changing the settings to not use Chrome as the default browser, did that twice today and has not changed how my laptop starts up the browser session. I click on Firefox and it takes forever to load but within seconds Chrome pops up and suggests I give it a try. I don’t want to, I hate Chrome.
I have gone into the control panel and have Firefox as my default browser, and Chrome only has Chrome HTML Document as its default.
So does anyone have any idea’s beyond those 2 suggestions please suggest away.
Cathy
I think I may have found the cause of and then solved the problem.
I’m running Win7 so this may or may not apply to other OS’s, but I suspect it will work at least for all Windoz users.
The cause is a file named Offers.ini located in Program Files/AVAST Software/Avast/Setup/ . Yeah, it’s not easy to find. If you look inside (it’s a text file and Notepad opens it nicely) you can see a whole list of potential offers with variables that indicate whether or not you were silly enough to say “yes.” Unfortunately I could not edit or rename it, even when I logged in as Administrator. Not sure how Avast! managed that little trick.
However, despair not! I found a workaround. I found the Avast! icon in my “Show hidden icons” box, right clicked on it and selected Update> and selected Program. Avast! then updated the program and asked to reboot the computer. I allowed it to do so and on rebooting, Avast brought up a box which said “Almost Finished” and that box had a checked box beside a question, “Do you want to install Google Chrome?” I carefully UN-checked the box, then clicked on Finish.
I then rebooted the computer and voila no more pop-up Chrome!!!
I investigated the mysterious Offers.ini file and discovered that the variables attached to [Google Chrome] had been changed.
So: At least for me that file was the problem, and it could be fixed by updating the program and being careful with checkboxes.
You have to disable avast! self-defense to modify any files in avast! directories. Don’t forget to re-enable it later and be aware that you can easily break things (including VPS updates etc.).
Solved - Easy fix, This happens on boot… Checked start-up items… and there it was. Best way to get rid of this is to open msconfig.exe, Start-up Tab, You will find two Avast Startup Items. Uncheck the one with the command "C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\setup\emupdate.… and apply… Done. Tricky Avast… Good way to lose a loyal fan base.
Hi Para-Noid your suggestion was good but at the end of day I found un-installing and then reinstalling (being careful of the default tick boxes the simplest solution to this problem).
When I open firefox, MSN.com comes up in the first tab (thats my homepage) but then a second tab would open with avast changes to their Browser Security and Web Reputation Plugin. At the bottom of the page was a link to the settings page where I could accept or decline. I set my preferences…several different ways ansd time, save it, close firefox, reopen and the same tab would reopen. Uninstalled avast and reinstalled (unchecked the boxes that wanted google chrome installed) still same problem. Final solution was to open firefox addons and disable avast online security.
For heaven’s sake. If you don’t want to use Chrome, uninstall it!
Surely that’s not too hard to figure out.
But having said that, I suspect that bandit1167 is right and this is just one of many cans of worms that the Avast Online Security Firefox extension has introduced. I disabled that some time ago, and hell will freeze over before I enable it again.
