My opinion.

Hello, I have registered on this forum ONLY to tell you what I think of your product.

The quality of this software has been falling like a rock for a few years now. When Avast came out it was originally one of the strongest and least intrusive antivirus software packages in the world, and it was free.

Now, the program eats literally TONS of memory, bogs computers down without warning, conflicts with other programs, harasses you about buying “upgraded” versions if you are using Avast Free, and if your license is near expiry it will bother you every single hour about it.

Let me cite a direct example of Avast’s quality decline.
Just now, I got the notice that Avast needed updating. While I was busy typing something up for a different forum, I assumed it would not be that much of an issue to allow a background update to Avast and started the process, then went back to typing.

Some minutes later, in the middle of my communication, Avast abruptly CLOSES my Firefox browser without a warning; it is shutting down my machine. I stop the process JUST before it closes a critical notepad with unsaved changes, but I’ve lost a good 40 minutes of typing.

I would expect this kind of crappy, invasive, selfish activity level from NORTON.
Your software should:

  • ALWAYS ask before restarting the machine. Always. Closing programs without warning, when there is no detected virus in the system, is ABSOLUTELY, 100% UNACCEPTABLE. This is even if your virus software is in the process of update.

  • Greatly reduce its processor shadow. I know it’s a busy software and fighting viral infection is hard work, and a clean bill of health is a sign that everything is going fine. But when 80% of the processor is suddenly used, without warning, this can be hard on gamers and others. They may be led to deactivate the software, which creates more problems than it fixes.

  • STOP harassing users whose license is about to expire. One notice a day is already a lot. Your software currently gives a notice EVERY TIME it updates. And 30 days prior notification is excessive. I have held off renewing my license SPECIFICALLY because your software keeps pestering me!

Thank you for reading and listening to these comments about your avast! Free software.

avast! does ask for a reboot, of course.
Maybe the question popped up in the middle of your typing and you accidentally confirmed the question without even noticing, but the reboot certainly doesn’t occur automatically.

Unfortunately it did this time. It bothered me a lot mainly because it hasn’t done it in the past.
Thanks for your attention to this issue.

With all due respect, I feel your anger is somewhat misdirected. If you were having problems you are welcomed here. As far as slowing down your machine, I have found the opposite to be the case. Even during a full scan my machine does not bog down. When it comes to reminding a user their registration is due, I’m glad avast reminds me or else I’d forget. About being harassed into an upgrade, I don’t see it. If you mean the thing at the bottom of the GUI, that doesn’t bother me at all. Believe it or not avast is “not” a non-profit organization. I can understand that their employees would like to be compensated for their efforts, as they should. The quality standards of avast are very high and their products reflect that ideal. Instead of insulting or degrading a well known and respected product I would truly prefer that a disgruntled user would bring constructive criticism to the table :slight_smile:

edit: If there is a software conflict let us help you to locate the reason for the conflict. What OS, security software you have now or ever had? If uninstalled how was it uninstalled? There are more users here that are willing to assist than you can shake a stick at. Honest! :slight_smile: