Yes, you heard me right. There is a BUG in one of the most WIDELY-USED antivirus programs.

Basically there is some kind of issue in the aswSnx.sys file (which belongs to Avast) that can cause Windows to STOP/bluescreen/BSOD/crap on itself whenever you attempt to stop the Auto Sandbox

What is this "Auto Sandbox"? The Auto Sandbox basically searches for executables and other files and checks them for malicious code. It does this through a variety of methods, one of which being "Prevalence" (as in, whether or not the executable is a common file with common practices and methods contained in it).

What I began finding was, after I started using my own Windows machine for coding and compiling C++ executables, it was checking every single file, no matter how many filters I set (which is a bug in and of itself, but that isn't the point). Finally, I just got so fed up with it that I hit the "Terminate button", at which point I'm greeted by a wonderfully bright blue screen with white courier text telling me Windows was shut down. Well gee, what could be the problem here?

Not to mention that bullcrap set me behind a class in school because it happened in the MIDDLE OF THE CLASS. It took me a while to track it down and figure it out that it was Avast.

Sure, I could turn off the autosandbox, sure I could waste one or two minutes while it checks a file that I know is clean because I just created the damn thing, but that doesn't make the program any less buggy, now does it?

I didn't think so. Avira is better, even if it has a tendency to break itself for a few days at a time...