Avast free running on a 32 bit XP system.
Despite having turned off the browser cleanup option in the tools tab the damn thing still runs itself every few days.
Surely off should mean off.
Not sure how or where you turned it off - but you can uninstall it - not just try to turn it off.
Control Panel > Add Remove Programs > avast antivirus > Change - from the next screen look at the Tools options and uncheck the Browser Cleanup option and OK your way out. A reboot may be required for this to be applied.
OP probably turned it off here.
Better to let the OP answer than to speculate, whilst it may be correct, uninstalling the module is best if you don’t want to use it.
Indeed I did turn it off in the tools tab as -midnight indicated.
If the tools tab has the option to turn it off then surely the onus is on avast to make that action work, not for me to have to go around deleting system files?
Your system, your choice entirely, but what you have tried clearly hasn’t worked - as an avast user like yourself (not an avast employee) I offered a way to get rid of it completely if you don’t want it.
You aren’t having to delete system files you’re simply asking avast via the Windows Control Panel Change option to remove the avast module, no system files involved.