Update to 17.8.2318 freezes three machines

[glnz]

Yesterday's update to 17.8.2318 froze three machines.  Two are running Win 7 Pro 64-bit, and one is running XP SP3 32-bit (that I keep updated using the POS hack).

Everything froze on numerous re-tries and reboots.  I was able to "repair" Avast in the XP machine but not in the 7 machines.  I have now used avastclear on one 7 machine and reinstalled from the off-line installer (about 233 MB).  Shall do the same shortly on the other 7 machine.

And I'm not the only one.  See https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=210678.msg1430198#msg1430198

There might be a connection to the prompt to install Chrome and make it the default browser.  That's when everything freezes.  On a fourth machine (also 7 64-bit), there was no such prompt and the machine did NOT freeze.

Once again, Avast does things that are the OPPOSITE of its central purpose.  For shame!

[REDACTED]

Hello glnz,
I felt the pain as well, all day yesterday after this last update. Avast used to run OK before so many upgrades. I was a paid customer for many years. However I had the same problem yesterday. I was lucky to be able to open the context menu after the nth re-boot and Disable Permanently AVAST. Everything went back to normal. I removed completely AVAST from my PC and I have another machine with Win 8.1 64bit where I also plan to remove AVAST (just in case). This last PC is still running OK because I did not updated AVAST. There are a lot of opportunities for improvement still with AVAST.
Hope this helps.
Luis.

[glnz]

Luis - Yeah!

And I just wasted 90 minutes uninstalling and re-installing on two machines.  Just so Avast could push the Chrome browser in the setup window.

I also have a Win 10 machine, without Avast.  I'm happy with Windows Defender.  I really dislike Avast doing anything that is the opposite of its mission to provide security.  Look what happens.

[REDACTED]

Hi. I'm having the same issue.  I've been doing a little trouble shooting for 2 friends running avast as I've been a user for 8 years now.  And the last update basically killed both their machines.  Both of which are running Windows XP.  One is a dual core HP DV5000 laptop, the other is a Asus Dual core Desktop.  After the update both machines will suddenly freeze after about 20 minutes of use.  I've tried System restore which fails every restore point I try, Avast repair, Avast uninstall, and reinstall with the same result of full system freeze about 20 minutes in.  If I do a full uninstall, leave it off, and have no antivirus on their systems they run fine as they should.  So it's definitely the update causing the issue.  Just not sure what in the update would of caused it.  I also have one of my own systems with the same update running windows 7 that is popping 3 full screen adds for avast to upgrade to premium every time I boot.  Same update, different problem.  That update might need to be inspected a little closer by tech support.