Avast 7 unregistered after upgrade

My Avast 6 (free) registration expired a couple days ago. I clicked the option to re-register and filled in the blanks. Seconds later, my Avast 6 was registered for another year, no problems.

So I’m looking at the page in Avast with updates listed and of course, since my Avast was unregistered for a couple days, I chose to update the definitions file. I also see that I can update the Avast program, so I choose that option also.

The Avast 7 installer downloads and runs. I step-through the installer, and restart. After restart, I’m surprised to see a message that says my system is not protected. I click on the option to start the live monitoring service, and I get an error message that a bunch of files cannot be found. I click around more inside Avast 7 and am frustrated to see that my Avast 7 is “unregistered.”

This seems like a minor issue, because registering is pretty easy, but why can’t Avast 7 see that today - 5 minutes ago - I ALREADY re-registered with Avast 6? I’m sure there are many users who went through the same steps as I did. I’m sure they were frustrated as well. Avast needs to think about the user experience in these cases, and make sure Avast program updates don’t invalidate a brand-new (hours old) registration.

Avast 7, XP SP3

There were problems on the registration server earlier.
Maybe you can use the trial version until this is solved.

I suggest an installation from scratch:

  1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility and save it.
  2. Download the latest avast! version and save it.
  3. (Optional) If you want, save your avast! settings for later restoration (Settings > Maintenance > Back up).
  4. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
  5. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1 in Safe Mode. Boot after you’ve run it. Repeat this for any major avast! version you have ever installed/upgraded in your computer.
  6. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.