Windows XP SP3
Firefox 3.0.4
Since I installed Avast update 4.8.1290 I have been having problems with Outlook 2003. Most of the time the program freezes and I have to end it with control/alternate/delete. When it occasionally works it takes forever to receive and send emails. I finally terminated the Outlook/Exchange scanner and Outlook now works fine.
Is there anything I can do so that OL works with the Avast Outlook scanner on?
Thank you.
Maybe Avast is disabled in Outlook 2003? (Help → About → Disabled items)
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Maybe Avast is disabled in Outlook 2003? (Help → About → Disabled items)
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It is disabled because that is the only way that Outlook will work correctly. I would like to find a way to have Outlook work with Avast enabled.
Outlook disables things at the drop of a hat, many have found that simply enabling the plug-in within Outlook gets it back up and running.
So are you saying that you have enabled it and it doesn’t work or that Outlook disables it again ?
Unfortunately I don’t use MS Outlook, so I can’t be much practical help.
Actually both. OL disables it and I then enable it and OL does not work. When I terminate the Avast Outlook scan from within Avast, OL works fine. All the other Avast scans are activated.
Unfortunately I don't use MS Outlook, so I can't be much practical help.
I do appreciate your trying to help me with this. I guess the best thing for me to do at this point is to continue using OL without the Avast scanner activated.
We have no information on your email accounts.
Small comfort perhaps but if you use the Internet Mail provider of avast without the Outlook plugin then any unsecured POP (port 110), IMAP (port 143) and SMTP (port 25) connections of Outlook will still be scanned by avast.
Thanks for your comment. I had noticed that my emails were scanned on the Avast Internet scanner. It is more than a “small comfort.”
Are you sure? avast can’t scan SSL (protected) email, for instance, GMail (without using 3rd party programs). Do you have such email accounts? Hotmail?
My email is Verizon (so is my DVR) and when I look on the Internet Mail screen for Avast On-Access Scanner it indicates that the scan count is 61 and that the last scanned was an incoming email and the topic indicated is the same as the last email that I actually did receive. The sensitivity is set on high. Is there anything else that I should do?
For email, no, it’s ok 
I know this thread focuses on Outlook, but…
Are your referring to avast! scans for Web based mail viewed in a browser opened under https?
Or avast! scans using an email client accessing POP3 SSL servers (usually port 995)?
Or both? ;D
I would also think that either way, if there was an infected file attached to the email, if all else failed up to the point of opening that attachment, Standard Shield would then catch it. Correct?
I’m running Outlook 2002 and avast! without issue. But I think 2003 is about the same from the standpoint of configuration.
Here’s something you might try to trouble shoot your situations.
Form your Outlook menu, drill these items, tabs and buttons:
Tools > Options > Other > Advanced Options > Add-In Manager
If that path doesn’t exist, check your Help or google for where the 2003 Add-In Manager is.
In the Add-In Manager there may be several items, including avast. This is a common area for clashes in Outlook. You have the option of un-checking stuff. Un-check everything but avast! and verify avast! is then OK. Then check the others one at a time until you have problems again. Then it’s up to you if that Add-In offers more value than avast!
Also consider that even without avast!'s Outlook provider, its Standard Shield offers an outstanding level of over all protection for your system.
Good luck!
Thanks for trying to help me. There are only two items in Add-In Manager and Avast is already the only one that is checked. As I said earlier, the Avast add-in under help>about Microsoft Office Outlook>Disabled Items has the Avast item there as disabled. and OL only works correctly when it is that way. My problem happened only after I upgraded to the new version.
Yes, I think that with this and the Internet Mail scanner I am fine.
Caryl, did you have any other antivirus before avast? How did you uninstall it?
I had Norton antivirus. I do not remember how I uninstalled it, since I changed to Avast about 16 months ago.
A little while ago I decided to try Outlook again and enabled Avast in it and activated the Outlook\Exchange scanner. It works! I did nothing different than what I had done many times earlier, so I do not know what happened and if it will continue to work. Now the emails are not scanned by the Avast Internet scanner since the Outlook scanner is working.
I will leave it this way for the rest of the evening–assuming that it does not go back and freeze again–and let you know tomorrow if there are any problems.
I appreciate yours and everyone else’s help.
You still could use Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista or Norton Removal Tool for Windows 98/Me. Boot.
Anyway, glad you’ve sorted it out
At your suggestion, I used the Norton Removal Tool and hopefully everything will work from now on. Thanks.