I have had to do a reinstall of my computer and am battling with unwanted programs being forced on me. No Avast I don’t want Chrome!!! One issue is that every time I go to www.asus.com.au or to the Asustek forums I get Norton’s PC Health check installed on my computer. I rang Asus and they say they are not affiliated with Nortons and couldn’t help me. I have gone to Control Panel and deleted it 8 times in the last 3 days.
While I’m ranting I also hate that programs are able to change my homepage without permission and try to push yet another toolbar on me.
Ok so my question is, finally 
Can I set Avast to stop the Nortons from downloading? Is it clever enough to stop browser settings being changed without permission, or as I’m not too computer literate, have I missed out on something on the computer??
This stuff is annoying. I remember adobe tries to bundle flash player with mcafee security scan which is the same thing. Norton wouldn´t download and install on its own, it should come from an installer. I somewhat remember from the past it was included in some yahoo toolbar thing. If you want to block its download with avast, you must do so in the firewall (avast internet security). Look under the second tab in firewall interface. Or you can set firewall to ask and when it detects whaever downloading Norton, block it and save answer.
No…the proper way to avoid getting unwanted programs and toolbars is by not allowing them to be installed in the first place. And to do that, you need to READ before you click what you are installing. I also suggest that you always do a Custom Install, so you only get the things you want to install and not a default install (which often includes toolbars).
If you accidentally get something you do not want, then simply uninstall it. But the key is to not install it in the first place, and you need to read before you click when you install things.