You want to make sure Avast is installed first, then OA second. Make sure your exclusions are in place in Avast before you install OA. Remember the 2 reboots for OA and add your exclusions.
As for Chrome installation with Avast, you can do a Custom Install and there are 2 boxes in the lower left corner to untick so you do not have to install Chrome (or anything else you do not want). Also reboot after you install Avast.
Go back into OA and make sure nothing is blocked in OA from Avast.
Unfortunately with Free version of anything, you do get ads. You may want to consider OA Premium, which I use and no conflicts with Avast, but Free version shouldn't give you conflicts either. BTW, the OA uninstaller > Start > OA > drop down or pull-out menu > uninstall OA...or go into Safe Mode and Uninstall this way.
There was a new version of Flash that came out 2 days ago. Remember to uninstall all previous versions prior to installing the new one(s); Flash has it's own uninstaller tool. Reboot after uninstall; reboot after each install.
Let us know if you have any questions.
@ SafeSurfTnx again for sticking with me, but I'm afraid it's just no use. This is what I've done:
- boot in Safe Mode
- use aswclear.exe to uninstall avast (.1426), chose the option
avast! 7 Free/Pro/Internet Security- reboot in Safe Mode and delete folder C:\Program Files\AVAST Software
- uninstall OA Free using its uninstall tool
- reboot (Normal Mode)
- download avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe and Custom Install (uncheck: Chrome, Mail Shield, P2P Shield, Components)
- add exclusions -
C:\Program Files (x86)\Online Armor\* -in
Settings/File System Shield/Behavior Shield- reboot
- test Flash in Fx (no problems at this point)
- download and install AO Free (this is 5.5.0.1557 instead of .1616) - I chose the
limited freeware version (which only has Standard Mode)
- OA Safety Check Wizard runs and I trust every program step by step
- reboot
- OA Learning Mode kicks in (and there's no option to reboot after it's done)
- reboot
- open Fx and...
... it hangs yet again.
I appreciate your help, but I'm pretty fed up with (un)installing avast/AO for days now. I must have (un)installed almost
20 times during the last few days. And today, when I tried to downgrade back to .1426, all of a sudden, Fx
freezed and I almost threw my computer out the window.
I uninstalled avast
and OA Free
again and now .1426 runs fine.
As for the ads, I think we can all agree that avast! has become
Adware. In the beginning (Home Edition), it would suffice if you registered and gave your name and an e-mailaddress. Now you get window after window to install Chrome, to remind you of avast for Android (yes, it's free), then Register or Upgrade now and then try Internet Security for FREE. There's even a pop-up window for avast! Pro if you download the (free) EXE.