When Avast 2014 was first released, I voluntarily installed it only to have it render my (admittedly aging) desktop unusable: to wit, very slow boot, would only load one webpage very slowly and then not allow other (multiple) webpages to load in new tabs at all (even after 20 minutes of leaving the tab open).
Needless to say, I reverted back to Avast 8.0.2021 which I already had saved on my computer, thinking I would wait until the bugs in 2014 got worked out.
Yesterday I was taken aback to find that Avast updated my usable version 8 to the 2014 version, despite my preference for program updates being set to "manual." Once again, my pc was painfully unresponsive. Once again I uninstalled 2014 (via Add/Remove Programs, followed by Avast Uninstaller all in safe mode) and removed the emergency update startup file. I reinstalled my trusty Avast v8 and carefully checked the "manual" upgrade preference (all in safe mode).
All seemed well until the definitions updated, at which point I was informed via dialogue pop-up that the program updated itself. I am now determined not to reboot to finish the unwanted upgrade. This is really, really bad form Avast ... if MS ever forced Win8 on me in this manner, I would go back to reading books!
In any event, although I (like many others) vehemently hate the new UI and the bloat, I am willing to hate it so long as the program actually works as well as I have always trusted it to ... but more importantly ... does not bog down my computer to the point of dysfunction.
I have XP Pro SP3 and FF v30. I spent all day yesterday searching a variety of forums reading hundreds of similar complaints so please don't lead me down a path blaming everything else in my computer but Avast when clearly Avast 2014 is the cause of the problem since it functions perfectly well with the older version. Many, many other users on every possible OS/browser combo have experienced the same problem as well.
I would very much like to continue using Avast but cannot find a resolution to this problem anywhere. Any help would be appreciated.