On an unrelated note - maybe you have noticed that starting from 20.7, Avast stores most of its configuration settings (previously in avast5.ini / settings.ini) in registry. This is due to performance considerations of the ever increasing amount of settings we store - it was beginning to show.
So
you will no longer find avast5.ini and most of other ini files in Avast’s Program Data folder and the new home for them is in Windows Registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AVAST Software\Avast\properties. You can perform modifications using Windows Registry Editor or prepare .reg files to perform the modifications automatically; these can then be shared with other users as well. Note that Self-Defense must be turned off to perform the modifications (but you can turn it on automatically by including its SelfDefense=1 setting in the .reg file).
While this might break age-old habits, we believe this will significantly improve the performance of any settings-related tasks
INI files were comfortable to work with but they are inherently slow due to their text-encoded nature. This change additionally enables easier automation of changes to settings - you can now send custom-tailored .reg files to any users who need your help with a more complex configuration without affecting any of their local settings.
Hope it helps and let us know of any issues with this!