Too bad I spoke too soon. I'm at a house right now, where I noticed the Avira umbrella won't open in the systray icon. On both of their computers.

A right click shows the Guard enabled, and a greyed out "Web guard" option. On reboot, Avira prompts to install the toolbar for Safe Searches. The only choices are Install Now or Later and the umbrella that people are used to, won't open without it.

That's not an "optional" component if the UI displays what is essentially a fault condition without it.

This is awful and it's going to cost me time, I know it.