>I'm using Avast (the free version) as my antivirus. I don't see anywhere where I can suspend it or exclude files from its protection. Also, how wise would it be to suspend it and remove my protection?
>
>Rich

Rich

#0
AV does not protect you. The malware those days is much faster moving then the AV. We are no longe in the 20 century where malware spreads in weeks. We have hours now. The AV folks can not be that fast.
It can not protect you against rubber ducky

#1
get yourself a recent OS. This one as becoming a problem with e^t. No AV will fix this.

#2
MS Defender works pretty well for the older stuff and for all other problems:

do not work as admin
read mail only as plain text (all the fancy links are no more fancy then)
use an Ad Blocker in the browser (most problems those days are delivered by ad banners)

Back to you problem

Have you done my approach to compile file by file?

Lutz