Hello All,
I am having some issues removing some subsystems from Avast, that is my biggest issue but after going there will note some other matters that may be of some import.
I used; Programs&Features> avast > uninstall > change > on My Home Premium Windows 7 to remove the following; Mail Shield, P2P Shield, IM Shield, Software Updates, and Browser Cleanup from my Avast 8. That seemed to work fine, except some of the features are called by different names in “Change” mode than in the program displays under normal use, that caused some trial & error problems, but was able to deal with that easily.
Would love to remove everything under the Cloud heading, both Streaming Updates & Reputation category. Also would like to remove the Ad Blocker.
Am experiencing odd issues while browsing, mainly hangups and page functions that do not work. Tried disabling Avast and problems went away. That was main reason I started removing parts of Avast, but have not yet found the problem. Never liked having any of the Cloud functions, and even turned off that does take up space, as to the Ad blocker, again taking up space in hard drive that is not needed.
Above is the main issue, but would like to mention some other matters that concern me. An ANTIVIRUS is mainly used to protect a computer from infection by virus & some other undesired programs. That is all I want an Antivirus to do. There are far too many programs of various purposes that are adding more & more Gloatware which causes multiple programs doing the same thing and often conflicting and sometimes making none of the programs work. That uses more space on the hard drive and can slow functions. I understand how programs like to offer more & more to attract more customers, also there are many programs that like to collect information, & adding functions gives the program more access to more data on the computer. But I prefer “keep it simple” and lower the kb & mb used by the program on the drive.
I too have noted that this new 8 Avast starts a quick scan as soon as I click on the scan section before I have selected which scan I want to run. I rarely use a quick scan because it is a non-complete function.
Don’t get me wrong, in the past I have always enjoyed Avast and considered it better than Norton, Norton became slow and bloated, but perhaps the worst Bloatware out there is AVG. Time can be vital when confronted with an attack, so an antivirus should be quick & complete.
I’m not sure why I’m having current issues with Avast, but would like to delete all of the cloud features anyway, while I have that section disabled through Avast Control, when viewing the programing of the Cloud features I would be concerned if I manually removed the Cloud programing, there might be a chance of causing issues with Avast AntiVirus functions. I would like to know if it is safe to remove those sections manually?
As to some of the other features I removed such as Mail Shield, IM Shield, P2p Shield, I don’t have those programs installed, I consider all security risks especially Messenger or Skype programming , so there is not much need to protect what does not exist. I do have some “hidden” folders with names of popular programs of that type in my programs section, but they contain nothing that would be expected.
Let me finish with what I like about Avast; Great AntiVirus, scans for Pup, Web Shield, Network Shield, File System Shield. Those are the basic need to have parts of Avast, & I would be happy with just those.
Thanks,
Mystery 8)
