As of Avast free antivirus 17.7.2314, Minecraft will not work anymore. It blocks after launching with "Java(TM) Platform SE binary has stopped working".
The only way to get Minecraft working for me is to add Minecraft game path to Avast exclusions.
On the web I found some hotfixes related to nVidia drivers but this does not solve the issue.
It is worth noting that Minecraft uses its own, old version of Java so it does not seem to matter which Java you have or have not installed on your system.
Edit: Win 7 64-bit OS. if the mods so prefer, please move this to the patch topic which I noticed only too late.
