I use windows 7 home - 64 bit. Avast does not load at start up, the icon also does not appear. I have to run it manually for the guard to appear in the task bar.
Just recovered (perhaps partially) from a fake AV scam using Rkill. Got rid of the Trojan.Fake alert that came with it. Are these related to my problem ? Now even win-patrol and other security tools wont come on start up !
Please advise !!!
Apparently still infected. You posted into a wrong section. Read the sticky posts in Viruses and worms and attach the logs.
which logs ? i did not do any scan with avast - should i scan and send logs ?. just kicked avira out (damn thing has no password protect) and ran malware bytes - clean ! but Rkill always deletes these files and they reappear :
InfDefaultInstal.exe and runonce.exe in my SysWow64 folder…
The first thing to do is verify that Avast is listed in your “Startup” programs
Click on the Windows world ball, type “Startup” and then click on “Startup Manager”.
If Avast is listed there then check the startup path.
It should be C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\avastUI.exe
The “regkey” should be "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
I already told you which logs.
Its there in the start up. Now what ?
The logs. 
dont post all over the forum
stay with one topic ( the one in the virus and worm section ) so those helping you know where to post the answer