Avast starting to seriously intrude where it wasn't asked

[FullOppositeRudder]

Win XP machine (yes I know), Firefox 26.

This morning Avast (free) advised in its little popup window (bottom RHS) that it wanted to clean the "Grime" from my computer and recover about 400+ Mb of disk space.

I expect Avast to do the anti virus thing and protect me from nasties, not assume other roles for which I gave it mandate or invitation.

I use a few other programs to do the housekeeping in this area. I don't trust them all (CC Cleaner did more damage than good - important things disappeared). Malwarebytes and Hijack This are trusted, and I use Registry Booster every few weeks to keep that area up to speed.

I've noticed that Firefox has slowed considerable since the last Avast "update" was installed. It hardly seems a co-incidence. Methinks it's become ever more involved in new areas at the cost of overall speed.

So do I give Avast this new freedom to mess about with my data or not?

I can only echo the sentiments of a few others here: "Why do they always have to mess about with these things?"

[John Hill]

Try this page for useful information
How to Uninstall GrimeFighter from Avast?

[FullOppositeRudder]

Thank you John. Most helpful. A de-install of the offending bits will commence shortly.

Best wishes from across the ditch (where it's presently 42c ).
FoR

[vulcanised]

Selecting 'gaming mode' results in a quieter life.

[Keef]

It sounds as if Avast is going the same way AVG went a few years ago.

Last week, Google Earth (which had been fine for years) wouldn't start. After much googleing, I found that the problem is that Avast blocked some feature of it. Avast seem not to plan to fix it, but I was given a workaround, which involved switching off Avast for ten minutes, starting Google Earth, turning off the "Non-Mouse Navigation" whatever that is, then turning Avast back on.

Then I tried to connect to my bank, and up popped Avast SafeZone which did not want me to do that. Fortunately, I'd not used SafeZone before, so could still turn it off. Apparently, if I'd once used SafeZone, I would have had all sorts of problems.

There seems to be no way to remove SafeZone - not even a password system. It's a bit like Trusteer Rapport, which I don't let anywhere near my PC.

[Booglebox]

I suggest you uninstall every third party "system utility" / "antivirus" on your PC and stick with the free Microsoft Security Essentials.

[PJD1]

Another vote for Microsoft Security Essentials here. I changed from AVG to MSE a couple of years ago and would never go back. It does exactly what an anti virus program should, you can basically install it and forget about it and it has kept my computers virus free without any added unnecessary bloat-ware.

[llondel]

Depending on what you use it for, you might consider ditching it and using Linux Mint instead. That way you can ditch the AV world completely. Mint, along with most modern distros, has a LiveCD (or DVD) edition that you can boot up on most hardware to try it out and see what you think.