DavidR
20
It will still be protecting your system, up to a point, e.g. if any changes in the program update related to scan improvements, new features, etc. then you wouldn’t see these. But for the most part program updates will also include stability updates/fixes so you don’t benefit from those. If you are not seeing any actual notice that you aren’t protected an X or ! symbol over the avast tray icon or error messages, etc. then you should have the protection limited to that version.
Essentially I believe that security programs should be fully updated wherever possible at all times and it looks like avast are pushing that viewpoint also.
In all honesty if you are going to monitor the forums to see if you should update or not, you may never update. That is the nature of a support forum people who have problems report them, those with no problems generally don’t register and post that they aren’t having any problems. So up to a point the forums are going to have a skewed viewpoint.