This page/tab hast started to show up every friggin time I start FireFox (28.x) since I’ve installed the latest AVAST update a couple of days ago.
How do you get rid of it, dammit…? I’ve been unchecking/have disabled everything under “Enable and Disable Services in Settings” and I still got this annoying tab showing up all the time I start Firefox.
Thank you very much.
By the way, I’m new. Greetings to everybody… 
Rudk,
Try this, it worked for me.
Open Firefox, open the page you want as the start page and close all other tabs. Go to ‘Tools’ > ‘Options’ and open the ‘General’ tab if it is not already open - now click the ‘Use Current Page’ button. As I said, this process worked for me although it is possible that the problem may return after Avast updates.
Thanks for the reply, Kesetyan. Unfortunately it doesn’t help. I’ve tried an empty page, the FF startup page etc. - everytime I start FF it opens the start page and additional tab with that Avast page that I’ve posted before.
Also, I’ve been unchecking the checkboxes on the “Enable and Disable Services in Settings” page and hit SAVE at least 10 times …
http://i57.tinypic.com/2e31zyu.jpg
somehow later everytime they’re re-checked again by themselves. Don’t ask me why. I’ve been contacting AVAST two times now and have yet to get a response. How long does it take to answer such a question…???
http://i57.tinypic.com/m7k7o.jpg
Why do they change stuff and then it’s worse than before…it’s really a PITA.
Regards
Seems a lot of people are having problems between Avast AOS in Firefox 28, for the time being you can go to remove programs - click on avast then click uninstall, once you get the popup screen choose change and then untick Browser Protection, save and reboot.
I get the same and it’s to do with data being cleared when Firefox exits. Likely you either permanently use private browsing mode or have set firefox to clear the history every time you exit.
This is a PITA but hopefully the Avast! engineers will fix it in the next update.
Yeah, you’ve nailed it. Was never issue before the update, ever. Obviously now they screwed it up, as usual with updates nowadays. Anyway, I’ve deactivated the avast add-on, which has stopped this annoyance. Will check back in a couple of weeks if they’ve fixed it.
There are a bunch of threads on this topic.
As stated above, Avast now seems to use “cookies” to keep settings.
Thus, you delete cookies on exit…which BTW is a good thing to do…then you are clearing Avast settings.
To me…this is a BUG…but I am betting Avast changed things to operate this way.
Hopefully, they will take note of all these posts and find a better way to save settings…maybe within the Avast App itself.
If “me@gregsnell.co.uk” is either your website or email I strongly urge you to change your screen name
or you may get a ton of spam.
That’s an opinion, not a fact.
Allow site cookies. Block third party cookies. And install SpywareBlaster and keep it updated. All you need. And yes, that too is an opinion.
Exact same problem I HAD…When I open firefox, MSN.com comes up in the first tab (thats my homepage) but then a second tab would with the page in the first post above. At the bottom of the page was a link to the settings page where I could accept or decline. I set my preferences…several different ways and times, save it, close firefox, reopen and the same tab would reopen. Uninstalled avast and reinstalled (unchecked the boxes that wanted google chrome installed) still same problem.
Final solution was to open firefox addons and disable avast online security…till avast answers why this happens over and over again.
I too have the exact same problem. Technical support was absolutely no use. Interestingly, I have the problem only on the non-admin account. I too feel this is a bug if it relies on cookies which I have set to clear on FF exit. I will try the work-around or, if all else fails, another anti-virus solution. I also dislike the fact this this time around I was not given a choice to opt-out of installing Google Chrome. These program updates have become a HUGE time waster for me.
This worked for me: I accept cookies from sites and all third party cookies “until I close FF.” On the exceptions tab I “allow *.avast.com.” On the settings tab for “clear history when FF closes” I unchecked “cookies” and “offline website date.” I no longer get the dreaded Avast page asking me to configure my settings.
If it’s like that, not only it’s retarded from AVAST’s part, but plain stupid.
I have the ~exact~ same problem here. Given that security experts universally suggest that users should fully clear browsers on exiting, it’s surprising that anyone would use cookies to hold important setup information which needs to persist from session to session, from day to day. Let’s hope they fix this soon. Until then, I’m going to disable the Firefox plugin and hope this works…
That’s an exaggeration. For many years I have followed a suggestion once found in a security forum to allow and keep site cookies, but reject third party cookies. Used in conjunction with adequate security programs, always including SpywareBlaster, that has proved more than enough for me. MalwareBytes scans occasionally throw up one or two doubtful cookies, but never anything worse.
On the other hand, while I consider Avast to be a fine AV, the AOS Firefox plugin is more trouble than it is worth. Hell will freeze over before I enable it again. The majority of posts here in recent times have been regarding AOS rather than Avast. If you want the website ratings, use WOT instead.
I use the Chrome browser version 34.0.1847.116, Avast version 2014.9.0.2016, and Avast! Online Security version 9.0.2018.95. I have the same problem with Avast! Online Security information page opening in another tab. It seems to be random. I don’t mind Avast sending me a notice about their products but I don’t like it opening a tab without my permission. There may be a setting I need to check or un-check but I haven’t been able to find it. Will there be an update to fix this?
IT happens in Chrome too…