Ideas for an alternative to Avast?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I really enjoyed Avast for years but it has gotten awful. On all my computers the near hourly popups and ads from it are more than annoying. I don’t care how many blocks Avast has this year. Also I don’t trust anything that is offering to “improve the performance” of my PC nor did I ever ask for that service, so I am very leery that is being packaged in with avast now.

The last straw was today when I went to update my other malware, SuperAntiSpyware (free) which I have been running these two without a problem for years. Avast now blocks running the installer for that, even after you tell Avast you trust it! There is no way to install it without disabling Avast! To be sure, I submitted the SuperANTISpyware installer file to a couple of the online virus checkers that use multiple malware scanners and no problems were found.

So it appears Avast has lowered from a good product to bloatware/adware to now an anti-competitive product blocking competing software from installing.

What are some good alternatives for real-time protection?

Thanks!

2

As has been explained many times already, you can disable the pop-ups/notifications in the settings if you have a paid version.

3

You can report a suspected FP here: https://www.avast.com/false-positive-file-form.php

4

Ah ha, did not realize Avast is more aggressively pursuing paid subscriptions.

5

It isn’t, there are no hourly popups (as you implied in your OP).