HEAR! HEAR!
I unchecked that option a half-dozen times and every time I would reboot there it was, the damned thing was running again. No right-click to force close as you pointed out. Open, uncheck, rinse, repeat. Just a few moments ago I became really irritated with it. I don't have time to launch a formal investigation into every perceived bug in an application, so I decided to come straight to the source to see if this issue was unique to me before digging into it. I ran straight into this post without searching.
I couldn't have expressed my feelings about this situation any better than you. A company's practices are a direct reflection of their core principles, and one doesn't have to look too far to see the agenda here. Avast and Piriform are referred to as separate entities, so I will address them as such. This was not a mistake or miscalculation. This was not done for your benefit or mine, to protect us from the digital world as we know it. (<--- That will be their official stance) Both have been around for a long time and knew exactly what effect this would have. That's precisely why they didn't put anything about it in the release notes and have yet to make a statement. There's no excuse for it. Here's them describing themselves in the press release of the acquisition:
That's rich isn't it? 2016 might have been a fun ride for some, but the rest of us have been on a long, long slide. Well, I'm getting off. I uninstalled that garbage as soon as I read your post. I make it a policy not to willingly run spyware so I showed CCleaner what the recycle bin looks like. I would have came here and called a turd a turd cliftonprince but you beat me to it.
