OS: XP Pro SP3
I install (yet another) program update, the frequency of which is becoming somewhat of an irritant of late. Upon reboot, internet access slowed to a crawl and then nothing whatsoever would load in either IE8 or Chrome. Without having hours to wade through forum posts, I elected the repair option via Control Panel whereupon Avast! claimed to be successfully repaired, yet promptly showed the yellow triangle exclamation point on the tray icon informing me my system was not secured.
Going into the UI, I see all shields up and running and cannot find any reason for the warning shown on the tray icon. Ironically, I must decide whether to believe the icon or the UI as Avast! contradicts itself.
Web access is now back, but (again) at the speed of snail.
Frustration wins out and I utilize system restore to the prior day. Bad choice. Although the restore went without a hitch, I now have no Avast! whatsoever (red "X" over the tray icon) and cannot get it back (UI opens but everything is greyed out and inaccessible) and also shows me as a trial user rather than a registered one. Wheee!
Now, with no active AV, I return to Avast! forums for the Avastclear and Rejzors uninstall tool to perform in Safe Mode. (Successful.) For the time being, I have reverted to version 8.0.1483, which I obtained from OldApps. Prior to this 2014.9.0.2011 update, I was using 8.0.1501 but it seemed buggy too ... randomly giving me that yellow triangle and informing me my system was not secured but then disappearing to a normal system secured status upon reboot. Also, I wasn't very pleased with the randomnumber (emupdate) file in my start-up folder which appeared whilst using that version.
I am aware that mine is not an ideal fix and do not invite criticism ... I only offer it because nothing should be this complicated and frustrating. Perhaps it will help someone else but my real wish is to send my message to the Avast! dev team who seem hell-bent on ruining what was an extraordinarily great product. I am a long-time Avast! user and have recommended it to countless people but I am becoming disillusioned. I grow weary of the need to re-register every year; the constant push to "buy" this, that or the other program; and random bugginess with each increasingly frequent program update ... not to mention the butt-ugly, user-unfriendly UI which has evolved since version 4.x.
It makes me very unhappy to say that I will be exploring other AV options.
