On the desktop gadget in avast! 7, is it possible to remove the ‘social networking’ buttons? We have this option inside avast!, so it would be nice if we could be able to reduce our exposure to this dross on the desktop.
Since I like to be in control of my own desktop’s look-and-feel, this is a bigger annoyance than the damned ‘like’ button inside avast! is.
I like the new avast! desktop gadget and I like its features.
I love the new (and old) avast! and in fact never said I didn’t.
I just don’t like facebook, Twitter and the other social networking crap and enjoy the fact I don’t have to be exposed to them. The present UI in avast! 7 is a disappointment solely in that it tosses links to those privacy-intrusive time-wasters on the desktop, but it’s not a reason to dislike the program or the UI. Hopefully the avast! developers will offer users (especially paid users such as myself) the option of nuking them at a time in the not-to-distant future as they did with the original ‘like’ button inside the UI.
Other than offering the ability to leave these things off the gadget, the only other issue that I’d raise is that a smaller version of the small gadget might be appreciated by users who don’t have a surfeit of desktop real estate. I’m fine with it, but it’s a bit of an issue on my wife’s netbook.
If you do not like Facebook then do not use it!
If you do not like the gadget then do not use it.
I have no problem with the size of the current gadget in fact I like the size of it in avast V7. 8)
Are you related to Gert Frobe?
http://www.007james.com/actors/gert_frobe.php
I don’t use it.
I do like it and use it.
I don’t have an issue with the gadget per se. However when avast! provided the option in V6 to delete the blue ‘like’ button in the UI, they opened this pandora’s box. Someone at avast! may be a facebook evangelist, but until facebook buy avast!, I don’t think I should see their unpaid advertisements if I don’t want to. It can be there for all the (anti)social networking people, just give me the ability to eliminate it.
I accept I am in the minority on this. I have a feeling if avast! had a “Mitt Romney for President because he likes avast!” (for example) button there would be more people requesting an opt-out. But I do design work for a living and to me the best UI is a simple, unlcuttered one.
Links/buttons/whatever to facebook and Twitter do nothing to improve the functionality of avast! - they are like racing suits, helmets and horns in Sony’s Grand Turismo 5 PS3 game. The fanboys may love them but they do not improve the racing. These add-ons do not make avast! a better internet security suite.
Gert? Could be…
Seriously, you have to know by now, every business with anything to gain from FB or Twitter is “all in”. And until the wind blows a different direction, it will stay this way.
For those of us who don’t participate in social networking, we are left in the cold at this point. I don’t know if a desktop gadget could even be configurable enough to do what you want. If so, I doubt Avast! would make a separate gadget to suit the small minority who don’t want the icons when you have the option of not even using it if you can’t stand it.
edit: as to how it helps Avast!, the same way it helps every other business…it gets them massive exposure for little to no cost, therefore making them money, with which to make a better product.
I know at least 40 people using Avast. Not a one of them is computer savvy. Only 3 of them even have facebook accounts. None of them use twitter. They want the gadget, but not the extra crap. I would expect the MAJORITY does not want the social networking buttons on a web gadget. But lets be realistic. Maybe .05% of avast users come to this forum, and .05% of them post. Most computer users don’t even know forums exist for software on their machines.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you can opt-out inside avast!, then just have that reflected on the gadget.
Please.