Basically my priority list what needs to get fixed and improved within avast! if I'll ever consider using it again. I may come to like it again, but currently everything around it is so out of control and broken I just can't use or recommend it.
What needs to be fixed, presto!
- Protection. Focus on it like you mean it. Stop being so damn passive about it. Sure people hate false positives, but they hate getting infected even more. After all, people come to use AV's because of protection, not because of a browser cleaner or password manager... They are safety additions, but they aren't core protection.
- Stop pushing Chrome (and other crap) on every program update. If I said no the first time, there is NO need to remind me on every bloody program update after that.
- Stop showing a dialog where Free users have to decide between Free and Paid version on every bloody program update. It confuses the hell out of users and they call me every freaking time for it. Replace it with a separate popup once a year reminding users they've been using a Free version for 1 year and they might want to consider going for a paid version. A separate stand alone popup not fused with anything else, like program update changelog notification.
- Get rid of the damn registration and don't even bother adding activation. Why is any of this nonsense necessary? It again just confuses users. Just make avast! installable like AVIRA or AVG and people don't have to worry about any registration or activation. Use unique GUID generator to track individual clients within your cloud or whatever.
- Fix the Remote Assistance. I've needed it 3 times so far because of the above things and all I got was a black screen from the remote client, so I had to do it the old way with lengthy directions by phone.
- Fix the damn NG once and for all. And try not to break it on the next update/hotfix released after that.
- Make HIPS blocker actually do anything.
- Make file heuristics found under each shield actually do anything.
- Anti-ransomware anyone? Everyone's working on this tech, just avast! again has nothing to offer. I don't care about anything else more than about ransomware that can ruin everything big time.
- Add optional "Aggressive Heuristics" mode which would be, well, more aggressive and would feed more unknown apps back to your backend. So you can analyze more potential malware, create even more heuristic rules and move heuristic rules for malware from aggressive sensitivity level down to levels used by casual users, in a more refined form.
- In general, stop pushing out protection features that are not ready and which don't actually deliver results. What good is all the hype about a new cool feature which doesn't show any results and won't do so for the next year or so. And even after that, it's performance is very questionable to the end users despite what avast! team says about their telemetry and statistics. If users can hardly see it anywhere, then it's not particularly effective in my book. Don't make new stuff so damn passive. It's impossible to highlight these features when users never see them actually do anything.
- Stop making ad popups that make people think there is something wrong with their avast! installation or that there is something essential missing. They look like those cheap scam ads within fake AV's. Just don't do this.
- Webpage rating within avast! Browser plugin is pointless. The ratings should be linked to avast! account and permanent. Like WOT does. Because what I rate webpages remains selected across all installations. But now, every time I reinstall Windows or avast!, I have no clue if I have rated certain webpage already or not. Which makes me not want to even bother rating it. But in WOT, I love rating webpages that I haven't yet but I want to warn others or assure them the webpage is fine.
- When releasing or transitioning new things to Free users, don't do it like you've done with SafeZone Browser. It was a sloppy and botched release. Think things through before doing things like this. If unsure, just ask Evangelists. They may disagree, but that's the point of asking it in the first place. It ruined your reputation for tons of people and you thought they'd be happy to get things for free. Now you see it's not just having it for free but also how it is delivered to them.
- (EXTRA ADDITION) Files submitted via Virus Chest for malware or false positive should ALWAYS be resolved within 3 days maximum. They often took weeks or sometimes they just never got a verdict.
What is fine despite people disliking it in general.
- Offering Chrome during avast! installation is fine. Even with it being pre-checked. Just don't bother users about it again (read above)
- Ad banners within program interface are ok. So far they were not intrusive, they didn't pop outside of the interface like AVG does it. No objections here.
- Popups that are informative are fine. Don't make them too frequent, but if they just point out what paid versions offer as an extra, that's perfectly fine.
