Chrome Plugin: do I need it?

[cinesimon]

Hi there all,
I've Avast free and it works swell.  But I now have Avast's robot advocate telling me I really ought to install their Chrome plugin... despite attempts to, I cannot figure out the two most important things: do I actually need the Chrome Plugin on top of the already perfectly adequate free, system-wide Avast Antivirus?
It's not as if I have been having issues.
Also, is my system actually going to be safer, vs the hassle factor so many plugins can add once installed: slowing down/interrupting what I am doing, etc.

Hopefully someone understands what it is that I'm on about, and has an answer.
Thanks in advance!

S

[igor]

Some of the protection features (anti-phishing, SiteCorrect, possibly WebRep if you consider it a security feature) are implemented by the plugin inside of your browser - they will be missing without the plugin.

[cinesimon]

OK thank you - sounds as if I should, then.
And such a quick response is really appreciated - thanks so very much.

[davews]

Yes, but why on earth is it asking to install the Chrome plugin when I don't have Chrome on my machine (and never will...)?

[ManyQs]

Yes, but why on earth is it asking to install the Chrome plugin when I don't have Chrome on my machine (and never will...)?

It might be because even if you opt-out of the Chrome installation Avast still installs some files for Chrome on your system, to include in the registry.

[itpixie]

It's not an essential plugin - I have disabled this in Chrome however the same type of add-on is made available to Firefox which I do leave running. It doesn't appear to have any impact on performance and I find it quite reassuring to have that extra assurance in place.

[bob3160]

Yes, but why on earth is it asking to install the Chrome plugin when I don't have Chrome on my machine (and never will...)?

Did you mean the Chrome Tool Bar for IE