Disable Avast "Store" tab

[lakrsrool]

...That said, after 20+ years with Avast I'd MUCH RATHER STAY WITH AVAST!!!!!

... Thanks for the tip, I HOPE I DON'T HAVE TO FIND OUT FOR MYSELF as long as Avast would not continue on this obtrusive path they are on trying to generate revenue at the expense of their loyal users....

... I'm assuming you have you used   Bitdefender Antivirus Free ?  (if you haven't check out the link in regards to what I've posted below)

Really ?

I would not change Avast just because it got a Store Tab in its UI or that it gives a couple of popups advertising promotions to better your security, but if you think, it deserves to be changed for another AV because of these points, be my guest, try another AV. It is your computer anyways, but do not bash Avast and then use bitdefender promotion site to advertise another AV here.

I have never posted about another AV until now and my intention is NOT to "bash Avast", but rather I'm more interested in "customer retention" in regards to Avast.

IF YOU NOTICE I WAS RESPONDING TO A POST WHERE THE PERSON WAS SAYING THEY WERE GOING TO CHANGE TO MSE (here's the post I replied to below):

Any registry edits I can do to remove this?

I don't think paid subscriptions should be forced to have a tab full of advertisement of the company's product.

If I cannot, I will not be renewing my subscription. This program is going downhill each update. Between bloat-ware and customization removal, this program is becoming shit.

I am so close to going MSE route.

The ONLY reason I posted what I did was that in my opinion they would be much better off NOT "going the MSE route" and posted a better alternative assuming of course this user was going to leave Avast anyway.

So you see your conclusion is absolutely INCORRECT.

I've posted that I've been using Avast for 15 years or possibly even 20 years (can't really recall the exact date but it's somewhere around that time give or take a few years).

..... So with that in mind what would be my reason for "bashing Avast" after all these years.

And why would I have recommended Avast to family/friends and I would add literally 100's of classmates and many instructors when I returned to college way back with Avast was new on the scene and virtually "unknown" to learn Information Science and start a whole new career in computer programming following my previous year in psychology as a counselor for 15 years.

I can tell you I've probably promoted Avast more than anyone on this board to be perfectly honest.  But with that said, I am getting a bit tired of hearing an increasing number of family and friends complaining to me about my recommendation over the years when they bring up the advertising approach Avast has been taking in recent years.  And as I've said before, I do have a lot of contacts as result of my past career (now long ago retired) and to be fair I now have to warn people about the approach Avast now takes regarding advertising to people who ask for advise as to what to us for an AV program (most of the time it is for FREE protection btw).  I will continue to say I myself use Avast, but I feel in all fairness they have to be forewarned of the advertising they will incur if the elect to go with Avast and I do feel an obligation to offer to them alternatives that do not do this.

My point in all of this is I'd rather be able to recommend Avast unconditionally to all new prospective customers, but I simply cannot in all fairness.  And so the bottom line is that in my opinion I question the direction Avast is taking considering the fact that there are a certain number of people who will simply go in another direction because of the way the feel about this.  So this is the very reason why I have posted alternative approaches that would still provide Avast with solid advertising for "newer" customers of Avast and on the other hand more long-term customers can look forward to being rewarded for their loyalty and incur less advertising of products that through the many years they are clearly already aware of anyway and would by that time very likely not be interested anyway for reasons that they either could not afford it or are just simply not interested in anyway.

I don't see how my ideas and opinions are detrimental to Avast in the least, but I salute your loyalty to Avast.  All Avast users should continue to be "loyal" customers and it would be nice to know if there could more reason to feel this way if in fact Avast were to be more conciliatory and take a slightly different approach than they have been in recent years regarding this topic.

BOTTOM LINE: I WANT TO REMAIN WITH AVAST, period, and I would like Avast to make moderate changes in the direction I've suggested to make this possible.  Whether I leave Avast after all this time or not I would wish the best and I think it is fair to help others out who would have otherwise stayed with Avast as well but feel compelled to leave for the same reasons.  If Avast were to moderate their approach to advertising I'd likely be back at that time or of course would never leave in the first place if this were the case.  In my view I am offering alternatives that from my perspective actually HELP AVAST to compete at a higher level in the market place.  But then if you don't agree, that's fine I respect that as well.

[REDACTED]

1) MSE is sh*t... even MS has said MSE is sh*t.

Do you have references for both of those claims, especially the latter?

[bob3160]

1) MSE is sh*t... even MS has said MSE is sh*t.

Do you have references for both of those claims, especially the latter?

Her's just one link from what I consider a reliable and reputable source:
http://www.howtogeek.com/173291/goodbye-microsoft-security-essentials-microsoft-now-recommends-you-use-a-third-party-antivirus/

[REDACTED]

1) MSE is sh*t... even MS has said MSE is sh*t.

Do you have references for both of those claims, especially the latter?

Her's just one link from what I consider a reliable and reputable source:
http://www.howtogeek.com/173291/goodbye-microsoft-security-essentials-microsoft-now-recommends-you-use-a-third-party-antivirus/

That article is an interesting one, stating conflicting messages from MS.  The author claims that "Holly Stewart, the senior program manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, said that Microsoft Security Essentials was just a 'baseline' that’s designed to 'always be on the bottom' of antivirus tests" and that Microsoft directly states that "We believe in Microsoft antimalware products and strongly recommend them to our customers, to our friends, and to our families."

If the quotes are verifiable, one can conclude from that single article that MS has sent mixed messages regarding MSE, not that they don't recommend it.  Personally, I don't recommend it, because of the horrible AV-Test.org scores, but that's just me.

The article goes on to state: "We still don’t recommend purchasing a paid antivirus because there are solid free options."

Regarding Avast, they say "Unfortunately, [Avast is] heavier than MSE, its interface is more overbearing, and it tries to upsell you to a paid product you don’t really need", but at that point in time they would recommend the older version they tested.

As to evaluating an Antivirus, they recommended consulting sites like AV-Test.org, where, as of this writing, Avast 2015 sits at #13 out of 28 products for protection, #18 out of 28 for performance, and #2 out of 28 for usability.  Avast 2015 conclusion: Great usability, average protection, below-average performance.

[REDACTED]

Strangely enough I haven't got a Store Tab, I can remember it from a long time ago and at that point there was an option to disable it, which I did. I don't believe this is held in the registry, more likely it is in the various avast .ini files, probably avast5.ini - But looking in mine I don't see anything obvious.
...

I noticed that there are no Store tab in Windows XP.
Anyone who uses Windows XP: have you ever seen Store tab in avast 2015?

[lakrsrool]

1) MSE is sh*t... even MS has said MSE is sh*t.

Do you have references for both of those claims, especially the latter?

Her's just one link from what I consider a reliable and reputable source:
http://www.howtogeek.com/173291/goodbye-microsoft-security-essentials-microsoft-now-recommends-you-use-a-third-party-antivirus/

That article is an interesting one, stating conflicting messages from MS.  The author claims that "Holly Stewart, the senior program manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, said that Microsoft Security Essentials was just a 'baseline' that’s designed to 'always be on the bottom' of antivirus tests" and that Microsoft directly states that "We believe in Microsoft antimalware products and strongly recommend them to our customers, to our friends, and to our families."

If the quotes are verifiable, one can conclude from that single article that MS has sent mixed messages regarding MSE, not that they don't recommend it.  Personally, I don't recommend it, because of the horrible AV-Test.org scores, but that's just me.

The article goes on to state: "We still don’t recommend purchasing a paid antivirus because there are solid free options."

Regarding Avast, they say "Unfortunately, [Avast is] heavier than MSE, its interface is more overbearing, and it tries to upsell you to a paid product you don’t really need", but at that point in time they would recommend the older version they tested.

As to evaluating an Antivirus, they recommended consulting sites like AV-Test.org, where, as of this writing, Avast 2015 sits at #13 out of 28 products for protection, #18 out of 28 for performance, and #2 out of 28 for usability.  Avast 2015 conclusion: Great usability, average protection, below-average performance.

I've seen those same results regarding MSE which is why because someone on this board was saying they were going to try MSE I recommended they try another AV program instead.  Of course as a result I get ripped for allegedly bashing Avast for recommending something other than MSE when as I understand it the Avast user was going to give up on Avast anyway.

I have, just as you have said as well, through the years been undoubtedly involved in recommending Avast to literally many 100's of people between family and friends but even more so by recommending to entire college classes and every instructor I came into contact with during a 2 year certificate program I attended when I changed careers from the field of psychology to that of Computer Science that led to my second career as an application programmer for over 21 years up until my retirement in 2007.  The literally 100's of people I came into contact with during those 2 years was I am certain a very big help to Avast in its early formative years at a time when it was my experience that from very few at best to virtually no one was familiar with Avast at the time.  When I left there, I had many instructors ultimately recommending Avast to the entire classes as opposed to the alternative AV programs they had been recommending up until that time.

So those who insinuate that I'm not interested in the well being of Avast or am perhaps a so called interloper on this board in regards to having any ill-intent toward Avast is totally unfounded.  The fact is however that I am admittedly becoming increasingly less likely to recommend Avast in recent years and certainly getting tired of trying to defend the more recent practices of Avast to those who I still have contact with that I have in the past recommend and won them over to Avast through the years.  I am not at all happy to have to say that I now feel I must in all fairness offer disclaimers regarding Avast when asked by people interested in an AV program as result of the more recent advertising practices of Avast and in so doing feel it only proper to include alternative choices that do not impose these same practices on their users as is the case concerning the current situation with Avast.  I'd rather be able to recommend Avast unconditionally as was the case in the past and would much rather not have to hear the increasing number of complaints about Avast from those who I have through the years convinced to go with Avast during the period of time that Avast was far less intrusive in their methods of advertising their product line.

What I've been suggesting on this board are what I consider as alternatives to the present course Avast is taking that from my perspective would be a better path to take which I contend will benefit Avast in a more profitable ways in the long-term.  How doing this is anything other than wanting what's best for Avast is beyond me.  It would seem to me that anyone truly looking out for the welfare of Avast would either adopt a stance similar to mine of make an honest attempt to come up with an alternative of their own that would help bring about a change in attitude with the management of Avast for the better.  But instead what I see from a number of people on this board is a dogged stance to defend Avast at all costs regardless of whether the direction they may be going could potentially lead to customer base attrition.  A relatively short lived increase in revenue stream over a narrowly defined number of years accomplished by means that eventually lead to a degree of dissatisfied existing customers can potentially jeopardize the growth of Avast over time if these practices ultimately result in an overall lowering of their customer base in the long-term relative to competing AV programs.  I have previously posted my personal conclusions, as speculative as they may be, as to possibly why Avast has changed course in recent years and are available for all to read that may be interested in doing so. It is my opinion that these concepts I've discussed are considerations that I feel that "loyal" customers of Avast should keep in mind and take seriously, that is assuming their intentions are to promote the success of Avast in the long-term.

[Bowdon]

I just had to do a re-install because of a messed up program update. When I did it give me the chance to untick options (when I picked the custom option).

Why not just uninstall Avast, re-install it and make sure you untick store?

This is the advice I was given on my thread.

You need to do a clean install of avast!...

1. Download Avastclear and the appropriate Avast edition.

Note: It's important you used the stub online installer from the one I linked.. NOT the offline one.

Note: You need to be ONLINE during this install (online installer works in all cases whereas offline sometimes doesn't)

http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_pro_antivirus_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_internet_security_setup_online.exe
http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_premier_antivirus_setup_online.exe

Avastclear : http://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avastclear.exe

2. Uninstall Avast by control panel  [If you don't have Avast in control Panel go to #3]
3. Uninstall in safe mode using Avastclear. [Running Avastclear is normal mode will give a prompt to go into Safe Mode]
Check : Once uninstalled check in device manager>view>show hidden devices if there is anything related to avast with a yellow triangle.. if so, uninstall it and reboot.
5. Install the version you downloaded.
6. Reboot.

Note : If you have a paid license, insert the license key/activation code after the reboot at stage 6.

[lakrsrool]

I just had to do a re-install because of a messed up program update. When I did it give me the chance to untick options (when I picked the custom option).

Why not just uninstall Avast, re-install it and make sure you untick store?

This is the advice I was given on my thread.

Thanks for the tip  ,  .... that's good to know.

Now I can inform all of the people about this that I've recommended to Avast through the years that have been complaining to me concerning the increasingly intrusive advertising practices Avast has been using in recent years.

Hmmm, that would mean that there is most likely a setting in the Avast .ini configuration file for this as well.

What that .ini configuration file is called for Avast is another question altogether.    I can't find any information anywhere on that one. 

And of course even if we know what the Avast .ini configuration file is called then the name of the specific switch for the "Store" tab is the next question to be asked, fact is .ini file setting names are very rarely intuitive it seems. 

[REDACTED]

In theory, the change option button, in the uninstaller, should offer this option. Yet I still have this store option present.

[Lisandro]

In theory, the change option button, in the uninstaller, should offer this option. Yet I still have this store option present.

No, it will be there. Just the user can configure later in settings.

[DavidR]

In theory, the change option button, in the uninstaller, should offer this option. Yet I still have this store option present.

No, it will be there. Just the user can configure later in settings.

Unfortunately, it isn't in the settings to configure as it was before - unless you know something we don't, like the option will be there in later updates.

[REDACTED]

...That said, after 20+ years with Avast I'd MUCH RATHER STAY WITH AVAST!!!!!

... Thanks for the tip, I HOPE I DON'T HAVE TO FIND OUT FOR MYSELF as long as Avast would not continue on this obtrusive path they are on trying to generate revenue at the expense of their loyal users....

... I'm assuming you have you used   Bitdefender Antivirus Free ?  (if you haven't check out the link in regards to what I've posted below)

Really ?

I would not change Avast just because it got a Store Tab in its UI or that it gives a couple of popups advertising promotions to better your security, but if you think, it deserves to be changed for another AV because of these points, be my guest, try another AV. It is your computer anyways, but do not bash Avast and then use bitdefender promotion site to advertise another AV here.

Why do you treat your customers like absolute shit i used to respect you alot but i have seen nothing but disrespect for the people who actually buy your software including me, so we are upset that you're forcing ads and other things we don't want in a already overpriced software, how hard is it for you to understand that if we pay for something then thats what we want, we don't want pop ups about cleaning our pcs or anything like that, you say you can disable them but NOONE wants them you are forcing them in to make MONEY off people who already paid you, you are treating your customers in such a horrible way that i am tired of it, i found this thread because i can no longer get rid of that ugly store icon, i just renewed my soon to be 7 year old subscribtion but i am refunding it now i am sick of your complete lack of respect you have gone down hill in such a way i can't even recognize you any more,

You've seen windows 10 right and how upset people are about it being monetized you know the free version of 10? now add ontop of that a yearly subscribtion fee to use it, and add ontop of that ads and thats you, you've seen how upset people are about what microsoft are doing and look at yourself you're doing it 100 times worse, but the absolute worse part of it all is how you respond to this you show no respect what so ever for your customers none zero, you practically yelled at a customer for being upset about forced ads in their product, he wasn't even swearing he said nothing he was just speaking his mind and you yelled at him, you've done it to me too. "oh you can disable the ads" do you think anyone who pays money for something WANT ads? i can live with ads that can be disabled if you weren't so awful to customers, not to mention the store page thats now forced you can't even turn it off just so you can make more money off people paying nearly $100 per year to use your software, and i've used avast since 2006 and i like it but you've ruined it, i think reading that response was the last draw for me.

you are absolutely awful

[bob3160]

...That said, after 20+ years with Avast I'd MUCH RATHER STAY WITH AVAST!!!!!

... Thanks for the tip, I HOPE I DON'T HAVE TO FIND OUT FOR MYSELF as long as Avast would not continue on this obtrusive path they are on trying to generate revenue at the expense of their loyal users....

... I'm assuming you have you used   Bitdefender Antivirus Free ?  (if you haven't check out the link in regards to what I've posted below)

Really ?

I would not change Avast just because it got a Store Tab in its UI or that it gives a couple of popups advertising promotions to better your security, but if you think, it deserves to be changed for another AV because of these points, be my guest, try another AV. It is your computer anyways, but do not bash Avast and then use bitdefender promotion site to advertise another AV here.

Why do you treat your customers like absolute shit i used to respect you alot but i have seen nothing but disrespect for the people who actually buy your software including me, so we are upset that you're forcing ads and other things we don't want in a already overpriced software, how hard is it for you to understand that if we pay for something then thats what we want, we don't want pop ups about cleaning our pcs or anything like that, you say you can disable them but NOONE wants them you are forcing them in to make MONEY off people who already paid you, you are treating your customers in such a horrible way that i am tired of it, i found this thread because i can no longer get rid of that ugly store icon, i just renewed my soon to be 7 year old subscribtion but i am refunding it now i am sick of your complete lack of respect you have gone down hill in such a way i can't even recognize you any more,

You've seen windows 10 right and how upset people are about it being monetized you know the free version of 10? now add ontop of that a yearly subscribtion fee to use it, and add ontop of that ads and thats you, you've seen how upset people are about what microsoft are doing and look at yourself you're doing it 100 times worse, but the absolute worse part of it all is how you respond to this you show no respect what so ever for your customers none zero, you practically yelled at a customer for being upset about forced ads in their product, he wasn't even swearing he said nothing he was just speaking his mind and you yelled at him, you've done it to me too. "oh you can disable the ads" do you think anyone who pays money for something WANT ads? i can live with ads that can be disabled if you weren't so awful to customers, not to mention the store page thats now forced you can't even turn it off just so you can make more money off people paying nearly $100 per year to use your software, and i've used avast since 2006 and i like it but you've ruined it, i think reading that response was the last draw for me.

you are absolutely awful

If you don't like the ads, in your paid version you simply turn them OFF:

[REDACTED]

I am refering to the store button and the way you treat your customers that reply I quoted does it look respectful?

[Eddy]

If you don't like the business model that avast is using, tell them in a nice way and make a suggestion on what they should change and into what.
https://support.avast.com