system
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If you had read my message thoroughly, you would have seen that Avast did not crash at any point in the update hell process.
I am going away on vacation, but when I get back I will try the uninstall tool. It is sad that the normal uninstall process does not remove the software completely, and we have to take extraordinary measures to clean our systems.
BTW everyone, I did not see a way to opt out of Chrome installation. I did choose “Custom” installation, and opted out of all of the bogus Avast features that track my behavior, interfere with my browser, etc. But I saw no mention of Chrome. When I do the clean reinstall after the holidays I will go more slowly and scientifically, ever vigilant for undesired bloatware, etc.
But as I said, Avast has become increasingly deceptive and sneaky over the years. The interface is untrustworthy and one must exercise extreme critical thinking in order to prevent the program from nefarious activities, up to and including tracking all user actions, aggressively scanning all everything, constantly spamming users with “helpful” marketing pop-ups, and essentially taking over all functions of the host machine. Just one more example of how antivirus software acts like a virus.