Downloaded and reinstalled ASB after the “takedown” of my computer due to the Window 10 update and avast AV conflict. Lucky for me, despite the clean install, many files were saved including files (but not so lucky in that several programs were lost, the most costly being an older full version of MS Office that i can no longer find the disc for) on my desktop with my favorites/bookmarks in them for import and export to different browsers. As a habit in the last several years i have never picked a default browser. Today i was forced to- thanks to Avast.
I used ASB only for certain websites and chose not to import bookmarks, adding only those sites i would use it for as i visited them. Despite making that choice, on restart, the files with bookmarks in them were “captured” by ASB. Bad behavior I think. In order to wrest control of those files from ASB i designated a different browser as default and the files returned to their original state. Now i have a default browser forced on me by Avast.
Then,just a short time ago, this morning on start up, ASB Opened itself despite it not being the default browser. May be my bad as i did not monitor the express install and make any choices as it was loading up and did not fully review the settings immediately following install, but no other browser i have ever installed did that, and i have tried most of the popular ones. Firefox, Opera, Comodo Dragon, Chrome, IE/Edge, and a couple of lesser knowns.
I went into settings to find that it was already chosen to automatically open on start up. More Bad behavior i think.
As a long time past user of Avast AV and the Safe Zone browser, I can say that in the last 5 days the Avast reputation has been badly corroded.