My avast! informed me its time to update, and I’ve been aware of this update for a few months now.
I’ve been reading the forum off and on, I’m aware of some lots of the problems.
But,
Is it safe?
http://i892.photobucket.com/albums/ac123/pennknig/2013-11-28_084553_zps654e81f2.jpg
I have been with Avast! 2014 since the beta days and apart from a few problems early on (to be expected) I have had no trouble with it. Of course reading these forums you are going to see the worst side of any new program as it is the place to air problems, but by far and away the majority upgrade and run Avast! 2014 quite happily.
So yes, upgrade now.
Safer than going to that dentist! ;D
That’s NOT a Dentist…
EDIT
Christian Szell character was a Dentist.
from the movie Marathon Man. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074860/?ref_=nv_sr_1
recomended if not seen. 
With sir lawrence olivier and Dustin Hoffman.
But,
IS IT SAFE?
Works fine here and for the millions of others that don’t respond on this forum
“Note” posting in capitals is regarded as shouting
Ah, Life is never SAFE, it is Savored!
As far as the latest version of Avast, there are not guarantees in life or Software but I can say all works fine on both MY xpSP3 and Windows 8.1
Definitive answer is maybe.
I agree with abruptum…a big, huge, definite maybe.
I believe the correct answers are:
“I don’t know what you mean. I can’t tell you something’s safe or not, unless I know specifically what you’re talking about”
Which can possibly lead to:
“Yes, it’s safe, it’s very safe, it’s so safe you wouldn’t believe it.”
Or,
“No. It’s not safe, it’s… very dangerous, be careful”
Geesh…
Look HERE> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074860/quotes?item=qt0247572
How so ??? there’s around 200,000,000 users and how many do you see here with complaints ? very few would be the answer.
Even if the user base was dropped to 1 million there is still less than 50 people I’ve seen here with actual problems and not some issue they themselves have caused by playing around with thing they don’t understand
Forget the question of “is it safe” the correct question would be is it stable and imo yes but you never know to you try it yourself as there are millions of different system configurations, so make an image of your system first then install avast and test for yourself 
Craigb, she asked if it was safe, and I should have said it’s probably “safe,” but it’s definitely a huge “maybe” on not having issues (some major) with the upgrade.
Saying that only a few people are on here complaining compared to how many are using it, well, how many are just dropping avast! and going with something else, never to even come to the forum? Who knows. Anyway, it’s always a “maybe” on whether there will be issues with an upgrade because there are more different combinations of computer systems, programs, and experience levels of people using them than we can count. It seems to me, though, that this particular program upgrade is having more than its share of problems.
Let me put it this way…200,000,000 users receive updates each day.
So, yes there are that many people using avast!
So, how many of these are V9 versus V8 ?..give me “that” stat.
@PennyKnight,
This message must have hit a jittery nerve somewhere…
Some people get humor out of all sort of things and situations.
@the others,
Well the overlap for users and where and how used is a valid denominator for scaling this total down “a shade or two”.
So assumed numbers should be taken “cum granis solis”, but nevertheless the final total outcome is still impressive.
polonus
For my two pennorth I have AIS installed on windows 8.1 and have experienced no problems at all apart from AOS and IE11 initially, although that appears to be cured now (for me at least)
No slow boots
No connection problems
No safe zone problems
Don’t use Java so I cannot comment on that
No problems with deepscreen or hardened mode
No mail problems
I know where you are coming from with your question. I see the update popup and always choose to wait a while to see how many major bugs are in it. Usually I head to the forums, but I also realize that the people who usually have no issues don’t bother to come to the forums because they have no issues to seek answers too. Mine updated (forcibly I might add lol) on Thanksgiving and I really was not happy even though I did understand the reason why it did it. Having said that, I have had no issues with it on Windows 8. Took a while to work thru the new interface (personally I did like the old one better) but I believe I have everything set now how I want it. It doesn’t bog down the internet and my mail is being scanned. It did not slow down the boot time. And I feel like I am protected. So all in all I am happy with this new version. I think where I panic is when I see all the BSOD complaints and the networks don’t work, etc and as everyone’s computer is configured differently with different software/hardware, you just never will know for sure if there will be issues. I have gotten answers from this forum just be reading the posts.
Just my opinion…not that of the management ;D