An acknowledgement to the Avast Practical Jokes Department

[loungehake]

Yes Bob and Asyn.  I appreciate the significance of the distinction you are making between Free users and Beta testers.  You are right and I apologise.

[loungehake]

Yes Avast.  My TLS-only web connection is encrypted because HTTPS Everywhere is installed, enabled and Encrypt All Sites Eligible is ON on all my web connections.  Like the WebCam alert on PCs where the camera/microphone drivers have been disabled, Avast is not checking the real situation.  How am I to believe what it tells me?  This calls Avast's credibility into question which is a shame because I place full faith in this magnificent product for my protection.

[loungehake]

I will say two final things and then I will be forever silent on the matter.  It is objectionable that the popups do not time-out after, say, 30 seconds.  By all means draw the user's attention to paid-for features but this is coercion.

[bob3160]

I will say two final things and then I will be forever silent on the matter.  It is objectionable that the popups do not time-out after, say, 30 seconds.  By all means draw the user's attention to paid-for features but this is coercion.

Which popups aren't timing out?

[loungehake]

They take too long which gave me the impression that the timeout was indefinite.

I have yet another grumble.  Avast Free 21.5 kept requesting that a new (free) licence period needed to be begun on a friend's Windows 10 PC.  These requests were endlessly repetitive inspite of many attempts to act on them and the only way to eliminate them was to uninstall and reinstall Avast.  This was successful and the behaviour now seems to have ended.  Is Avast attempting to self-harm its reputation with this nonsense?

[DavidR]

If I were suffering the issues, annoyances or grievances you appear to have I would have abandoned Avast long ago.

[loungehake]

I have possibly been using Avast for nearly as long as you have David.  It has not yet reached the level of intolerable and it would have to be at that state of (dis)grace for me to forsake it.  Avast is without peer for its efectiveness.  I assume (hope?) that the practical joke software will not eventually degrade the serious security and protection stuff that is the basis of Avast's effectiveness and reputation.

I do hope that the processes in which the practical jokes operate are well isolated from those used by the serious side of the Avast operation.

Nope.  Avast is so good that I have nowhere else to go which will provide me with the peace of mind that Avast security does.  I find it hard to believe that the high-ups in Avast are able to approve of the reputation tarnishing side of its operations.  Maybe things will eventually improve.   I would certainly demur at becoming a premium product paying customer while this cloud persists.

My chief worry is that my friends and relatives who use Avast Free are not duped into installing software which they do not need or want.  When this happens, I get round to uninstalling that software along with a brief lecture on what to look out for in order to avoid unwanted installations.

It's the sheer crassness of the juxtaposition of the gleaming excellence of the Avast security product against its clumsy attempts to promote sales that gets me.  BTW, I am going to evaluate the cost of licences for the premium product for all my systems and those of friends and relatives.  That should comprise 12 installations.   It's just an academic exercise at this time.

If payments for premium Avast lapse, does the product become the free edition minus paid-for features?

[bob3160]

"If payments for premium Avast lapse, does the product become the free edition minus paid-for features?"
You'll get nagged to renew. Uninstall the paid version if you don't intend to renew.
An option during uninstall is to change to the free version.