oklajohn, don't feel badly. I lost 11 months of paid subscription. And don't tell me all new versions have problems. I had one problem with version 6 and that was the suggestion to delete a suspicious file. It was a hard lesson, since it messed up my computer, but somehow Windows 7 managed to give me an option that rolled it back and I learned to never delete a file without checking first. Version 7 put a file I needed to install a new program, into it's "lock box (or whatever you call it)." And there was no way that I could see (because I am limited technically) to tell avast to leave that file alone. So I had to completely, one by one, disable everything to install the program. For me, version 7 was a complete mess. That was just one of a bombardment of pop ups and problems.
Whoever said that it was "fun" trying to figure out how to find work arounds and get it running correctly, forgets that a lot of users are interested in other things, like running Photoshop and related programs, and other software. They are, like me, technically challenged, and don't want to spend hours trying to figure out how to make something work. We want to spend those hours using our computer.
In the past, I kept my working computer off line and surfed with a laptop. So many programs need the internet now to activate/update etc. that's become almost impossible.
I always wait with other software before updating, and have never had a problem like this new Avast has caused me. I know that it takes time for the bugs to be worked out. But with an antivirus program it seemed important to update.
I suspect there are a lot of silent users out there, many paying clients like me, who have just gotten rid of avast and are trying other programs now. Basically I stay loyal to companies, realizing that all will not be perfect. But this version was so different and so horrible that I am left with a bad taste concerning avast software.
If there was an option to roll back, or a place on the site to download the last working version, it would have gone a long way to keep me and likely others as clients.