Okay, here's the [preliminary] results of my testing which POPULAR programs/processes had to be added to the Behavior Shield's trusted processes list --- over and above those that I had already added in under v6 --- in order to avoid getting ASK-prompted each time:
Programs:
Adobe Reader
Auslogics Disk Defrag
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Open Office modules (e.g., Writer, Calc)
Sandboxie
Secunia PSI
Windows Processes:
csrss (Client Server Runtime proceSS)
explorer (windows explorer)
svchost (generic HOST process for win32 SerViCes
It appears that, with the above white-listed, the behavior shield is now essentially quiet under ASK mode. However, given the popularity of the above (especially IE, FF, and Reader), I think that Avast is asking way too much, if "average" users will have to whitelist them all (for ASK to be "quiet"). Surely Avast knows about, and should tolerate these mainstream programs/processes, without users having to declare them "exceptions".
(Note that some of the above programs had to be added, only for the sake of checking for their updates.)
(Also, I am intentionally not mentioning here one or two "unpopular" programs that I have/use, as I fully understand why the behavior shield questions them).
I'm curious if Iroc and DavidR can take a moment to look at their whitelists, to see if they needed to add any/all of the above... or is something weird happening on my system.