They should really look into changing that then
avast is already (trying to) change things and they are making progress.
Several things already have been improved.
We (as well as avast) wish things would change/improve faster but there are things that avast can't control.
To say it really simple: Company A can not force company B to do certain things.
I don't know your friends and what they know about computers ofcourse, but I strongly advise to do as Asyn suggested.
Asyn, Lisandro and I (and many others here) do not work for avast, but we do know our way around when it comes to hardware/software.
I'm almost 100% sure that your system will be up and running again without loss of data within a hour.
That is if there are no really strange things going on.
After 33+ years of working with computers, programming, building, troubleshooting etc...
I do know a thing or two about them
Build my first computer with transistors, resistors, capacitors and such.. (in 1982)
If you don't have a (recent) backup of your data I suggest to get a live-cd/dvd.
Boot from it and backup the data you want before starting to work on the system.
Ofcourse you will need to decide if you want your friends to help you or one of us here.
We will ofcourse respect your choice.
We will be here if you need us