I am running Windows 7 64bit, and I have been using avast! Free Antivirus edition for years. I have never installed any other version of the program.
Today, I have noticed that I do not have the free version installed but avast! Pro Antivirus, Trial period not activated, which I DID NOT install.
Control Panel>Programs and Features only shows avast! Free Antivirus.
I guess this must be a automatic update issue? Please advise.
hey i suggest you ow a clean instillation of avast.
download a fresh copy of avast.
download and run the avast uninstall tool.
reboot your computer.
install the fresh copy you downloaded.
http://www.avast.com/en-se/index link to avast program
http://www.avast.com/en-se/uninstall-utility link to uninstall tool.
Yes, I have done a clean install to revert to avast! Free Edition. Thanks for the advice.
But this does not explain why I am running software I did not install.
I have the same problem. I installed the free avast thereupon I introduced the code of the license to have validity for one year, but the problem is that when I go to connect to the internet so that the definitions are updated (VPS), I get a blue box at the top of the clock, forcing me to install the update avast pro version.
Why does this happen?,
I appreciate your thoughtful answers
My desktop machine is a Compaq Evo D310 Desktop Windows Xp Professional Sp3
hey again could you give us a picture of that popup ladwan11.
I have been having the same problem: on several occasions, once before reinstalling it and at least five times a few days after reinstalling it, my avast! Free Antivirus has changed to avast! Pro Antivirus. It then says the trial period for avast! Pro Antivirus has expired and asks me to activate it by buying it, which doesn’t interest me. Then I get a message saying the trial period has expired and that my system is no longer protected.
I am running Windows XP Pro SP3 with no other antivirus installed. I have uninstalled the avast! multiple times using both Add/Remove Programs and the aswclear tool in Safe Mode. Yesterday, the last time around, after doing so I also manually deleted the empty C:\Program Files\AVAST Software folder, I removed previous downloads of the setup tool, I ran ccleaner to remove unwanted files and fix registry problems. And I searched C: for anything that says avast, and deleted those files.
I then downloaded a fresh copy of avast! setup from the avast site. I installed it, got a screen that said I was registered (it picked up a previous registration date). And all was perfect until I restarted my machine. I got a red popup stating: “Your subscription for avast! Pro Antivirus has expired. As a result, the program will not download any further updates.” I then clicked on a link on the popup that took me to a screen that said, “Your trial protection will expire in 10 days.”
I now get a page that has changed from white to the black background for avast! PRO ANTIVIRUS and a message that says “The trial period has expired.” Avast’s red ball now has an X through it. And I am unable to turn avast! back on.
I suspect the problem I am having may have originated when a month ago I may have inadvertently clicked on the green “Upgrade” button in avast! Free Antivirus, having confused it with “Update.” But after several uninstalls and reinstalls the program keeps trying to switch me to avast! Pro Antivirus.
What can I do to fix this problem?
Many thanks.
jdalkas welcome to Avast! Forums
There are countless topics about this Avast! behaviour in the Forums. You only have to look for it in Search. From user who inadvertently click a promotion alert window to increase their security to Pro or IS to not running the right installer, but most of them are due to run Windows Restore to a previous date (State).
Avast! does not like it when Windows Restore is applied. So to minimize this odd behaviour, it is recommended to deactivate Avast! self-defence module before doing a Windows Restore.
Open Avast! > Settings > Troubleshooting > Disable Avast! self-defence module.
This or other might be your case and the only solution is to do a clean install of the FREE version.
Note: When running aswclear.exe in Safe mode, run it first for previous Avast! versions. ie, v.5, v.6, and v.7 and last for v.8.
Thank you irocc9555.
I’m unsure what you mean by Windows Restore. If you mean System Restore, I have no idea what date to restore to, since I can’t tell exactly when the condition began, and it did so on multiple occasions. But perhaps you are referring to something else called Windows Restore.
I have done multiple clean reinstalls of the Free version as I described in my post.
Also, when running aswclear.exe in Safe Mode, unless I’m mistaken you only get one choice in the drop-down menu for what you uninstall. I selected one of the choices, and the tool then said it uninstalled everything in the C:\Program Files\AVAST Software folder. Should I run it multiple times for each program?
FWIW, last weekend I noticed avast! had simply disappeared from my machine. The red ball disappeared from the system tray, the icon disappeared from my desktop, and the only link in the Programs list was to the setup file; when clicking on it I got an error message. I thought my machine had been infected with a virus, so I ran Malwarebytes, which found nothing. Neither did avast! when I next installed it. I don’t know if that info helps.
Many thanks.
Yes. Just a translation glitch.
In the drop down menu you choose first the oldest version of Avast! that you ran in your comp. Let’s say it was v. 6. You run aswclear, but do not reboot when it finish. Just run it again for v.7 and then for v.8 then you reboot.
That is strange. Since when you don’t run a CHKDSK, or sfc /scannow to check out integrity of you OS files. How about defrag.
If you feel you may have some malware in your sys, you can have someone in Viruses and Worms forum to check it out for you.
Follow this guide: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0
Since this topic is about FREE going Pro and you just jump in, it is better to open a new topic in:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=4.0
and attach ( Do not copy/paste ) logs for AdwCleaner, malwarebytes’, OTL, and aswMBR.exe, where an expert in the removal of malware will help you.
Thanks for your advice on all these matters. In particular, I will now try removing the different versions in the order you suggest, and report back.
And thanks for the pointer about starting a new topic about possible malware.
iroc9555: I’m back 2 days later with bad news.
Despite following your instructions to the letter, avast is again trying to move me to avast Pro Antivirus despite my having uninstalled and reinstalled avast! twice using aswclear.exe in Safe mode without restarting until done with each listed program. I’ve run chkdsk and scannow. I removed a virus that avast! found in a boot scan of the machine. I’ve scanned the C: drive with malwarebytes, which found nothing. And I’ve run ccleaner to fix issues it found. All to no avail.
I don’t know what else to do to solve the same problem, which keeps reoccurring, of avast! trying to move me to avast! Pro Antivirus. So any further help is welcome. Many thanks.
So you’ll know, here’s what I’ve done (from the notes I’ve kept throughout this ordeal):
On May 1 to remove the installed version of avast! I booted into Safe Mode by pressing F8 when starting up, and ran aswclear.exe. I selected and supposedly uninstalled in the following order without restarting the machine: avast! 4 Home/ Professional, avast! 4 Server Edition, Bart CD manager, avast! For Kerio, avast! PDA edition, avast! 32, avast! Managed Client, Avast! Distributed Network Manager, avast! Windows Home Server Edition, avast! 5 Free/Pro/Internet Security, avast! 6 Free/Pro/Internet Security, avast! 7 Free/Pro/Internet Security, and avast! Business Protection (Plus). Note there was no avast! 8 in the list. With the exception of avast! 32, which aswclear.exe was unable to uninstall (it hung), I got a report for each of the items uninstalled saying it had been removed.
Out of curiosity, I tried uninstalling a couple of the files I had already uninstalled, and got the same reports as before. Note I did NOT restart the machine until this point.
I then restarted the machine in Safe mode. I again ran aswclear, and saw the same list as before and the same report after I uninstalled avast! 7 Free/Pro/Internet Security, using it as an example.
I then restarted the machine. The avast! red ball had disappeared as well as the avast! Free icon on my desktop.
The folder C:\Program files\Avast Software was now empty. Properties showed 0 bytes.
I then went to Add or Remove Programs, and saw an entry for avast! Free Antivirus. I clicked on it, then on Change/Remove, and I got the following message: “An error occurred while trying to remove avast! Free Antivirus. It may have already been uninstalled. Would you like to remove avast! Free Antivirus from the Add or Remove programs list?” I clicked Yes.
I then ran ccleaner for Windows, Applications and the Registry; the latter fixed a number of “issues” pertaining to avast!, in particular a number of missing links.
I then installed avast! Free Antivirus, skipped the Chrome choices, chose “Custom,” installed only File shield, Mail shield, Script shield and Behavior shield, and none of the items in the “Components” column.
The setup then said it created a System Restore point, then proceeded to install itself.
I got a voice message, “Welcome to avast!” The red ball appeared as well as an avast! Free Antivirus icon on my desktop. I then heard the message, “Scan has been completed.”
I then clicked on the red ball, opened the white avast! Free Antivirus window, clicked on Maintenance, which reported “Current version: 130411-0.” “Release date: 4/11/2013 9:28:26 am/.” Latest update received: 5/1/2013 7:09:12 pm.” The database then automatically updated to the current day’s version, 130501-0.
I then restarted the machine to see if doing so would cause the red window to appear – as it has in the past – informing me that “Your subscription to Avast Pro Antivirus has expired. As a result, this program is invalid or has expired.” It didn’t, so I proceeded to register. I chose “Base protection” and proceeded to register using a new name and e-mail address. I declined “Try Internet Security” for free. Clicked on Stay with basic protection.
I got a message saying I am registered until 5/1/2014, not the date I was previously registered for. So I thought maybe changing my user name and e-mail address had something to do with the program working normally. But no as it turns out.
I then rebooted the machine, and everything seemed normal.
Yesterday, May 2, I turned off the computer, restarted it and got the error message: “Failed to init aswData.dll (126/126) with the following in the blue surround: “Avast UI.”
Clicking on the Avast icon on the desktop produced the same error message. And there was no Avast icon in the desk tray.
Clicking on Add or Remove programs produced the message: ““An error occurred while trying to remove avast! Free Antivirus. It may have already been uninstalled. Would you like to remove avast! Free Antivirus from the Add or Remove programs list?”
The support info button said I was using version 8.0.1483.0.
Ran ccleaner to fix registry issues, all related to Avast. Five said “Open with Application Issue,” the sixth said, “Uninstaller reference issue.”
One error said, “The uninstaller file or directory referenced at C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\aswRundll.exe “C:Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\Setup\setiface.dll” RunSetup could not be located. These references are often left behind after uninstalling software. Solution: Delete the registry key.
After running ccleaner I turned off the computer and restarted it. No Avast icon appeared in the desktop tray. Clicking on the Avast icon on the desktop produced the message: “Windows is searching for AvastUI.exe. To locate the file yourself, click Browse.”
Ran ccleaner again to check registry for issues. Got “Problems” stating in order: ActiveX/COM issue referring to Avast\ashShell.dll; Application Paths Issue, Missing Startup Software, and Missing MUI Reference, all referring to AvastUI.exe; and “Invalid file reference,” referring to avastsvc.exe.
Ccleaner “fixed” all the issues and reported simply: “The file referenced at HKLM\SYSTEM\CourrentControlSet\services\avast! Antivirus\ImagePath could not be located. These references are often left behind after uninstalling software. Solution: Delete the registry key.” “Issue Fixed.”
I then ran chkdsk. No errors reported.
I ran sfc /scannow. No errors reported.
I restarted the computer in Safe Mode. As it started I got a Windows pause screen that I don’t usually get, so something changed between running chkdsk and sfc/ scannow.
I ran aswclear.exe as before, only this time it worked for all the files I removed including avast! 32. But this time around aswclear.exe didn’t suggest a folder from which to remove the files. Nonetheless, when done I checked the Avast Software folder and saw it was empty.
I then restarted the computer.
In Add or Remove programs I found no listing for Avast, and the Avast Software folder was gone from C:\Program Files.
I reinstalled avast! Free Antivirus. I registered, chose “Base protection” and used the same name and e-mail address as the last time. I got a message saying I am registered through May 2, 2014, not May 1, 2014 as for the last time I reinstalled avast! Free Antivirus.
Like the last time, on the Update page I saw that the version installed was 130411-0. After a few minutes, the program updated to the latest version.
I turned off the computer, then restarted it. I didn’t get the previous error message: “Failed to init aswData.dll (126/126) with the following in the blue surround: “Avast UI.” And the avast! Red ball and desktop icons were still there.
I ran a quick scan with avast! When done it found suspected threats that were all password-protected files. The program then asked if I wanted to do a quick boot-time scan. I said yes, the computer rebooted, and a blue window opened before XP loaded showing avast scanning local drives. avast! found the virus win32:kryptik-JUP [Trj].
I pressed 3 to “Move to chest.” Got a message that said something like “3 Esc.” Pressed 1 to delete. Nothing happened. Pressed Esc. Got “Move to chest” error. “Scanning aborted.”
Machine continued to boot, but seemed to freeze with dark blue bands at bottom of screen over task bar icons. Couldn’t shut machine down, so I forced it to turn off by pressing the Off button.
I restarted the machine. It booted normally. I found inbox.dbx folder in Outlook Express where the virus was located, scanned it with avast!, found the same virus: Win32:kryptik-JUP [Trj]. Avast suggested “Move to chest.” I clicked, and in the right column got message saying, “Action successful.”
Today May 3 after hibernating the machine overnight I restarted it, avast! seemed normal, but as a precautionary measure I did a full scan of the C drive with Malwarebytes but found nothing.
I clicked on the avast! red ball; at the top of the white screen that comes up it said: “avast! Free Antivirus Trial period not activated. BUY NOW.” And the rectangle that opened at the foot of my screen said “avast! Pro Antivirus.” I also noticed that the virus definitions were one day out of date compared to the definitions on my other machines that run avast
Also on the Maintenance page instead of an item that says “Registration” it said “Subscription.” On the “Subscription” page it said: “SUBSCRIPTION STATUS: TRIAL PERIOD NOT ACTIVATED. Activate trial period. The trial period could not be activated. In order to start receiving updates, the trial period must be activated.”
I turned off and rebooted the machine, clicked on the red ball, and the avast! window now has a black surround that says: “avast! PRO ANTIVIRUS Trial period not activated. BUY NOW.” But the virus definitions have now been updated to 130503-0. The “Subscription” page says the same thing as before.
So I’m back to where I started. What more can I do to fix this problem?
Many thanks.
A last thought: Since the move from avast! Free Antivirus to avast! Pro Antivirus seems to occur when I hibernate or turn off my machine and then restart it, I wonder if a program that runs on startup may be causing the problem. If that could be the case, I’m unsure how to identify that program.
As a reminder, I’m running Win XP Pro Sp3.
jdalkas
Try the new Avast! version 8.0.1488:
Run http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility this one has Avast! 8 in it.
Download and install v. 8.0.1488
http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_free_antivirus_setup.exe
Thanks for the suggestions.
In fact, out of desperation earlier today I reinstalled avast! Free over my existing install without uninstalling it. (The latter had started displaying the dreaded red popup: “avast! Information. Your subscription for avast! Pro Antivirus has expired. As a result, the program will not download any further updates.”
I’m now back to the regular white avast! Free Antivirus interface, for whatever that’s worth. And I then updated the program to version 8.0.1488. If these steps don’t solve the problem, I’ll go through the whole routine again using the tools you mention.
Maybe worth knowing: I have avast! Free installed on another machine, also running XP Pro SP3, on which the screen saver wouldn’t activate. Updating to 8.0.1488 seems to have solved that problem.
I too have been bugged by the “your subscription has expired” messages I receive on Avast Free, plus all the other features disabled such as Software Updater.
I didn’t want to go to all the trouble of uninstalling and reinstalling Avast, so after reading this thread I decided to try the solution that was successful for jdalkas in message #13, that is to reinstall Avast over my existing version.
To do this I selected the link provided by iroc9555 in message #12, which was for a later version than mine.
The download and install was progressing fine until I suddenly spotted on my screen “Installing Google Chrome”. Aargh!!! I don’t want anything to do with Google!
I am used to downloading freeware and I am always on the lookout for boxes to untick to prevent the download of unwanted programs, but if there was anything in this case I didn’t see it.
Escape didn’t work nor did Ctrl-Alt-Del and I had to force-stop my computer with its on/off button. However, the outcome is satisfactory, I now have Avast free back again as it should be and the only Chrome file I can find on my system is a temporary one. Phew!
I am receiving the following message from the installed Avast! on my MacBook Air “Your Trial version of avast! Pro Antivirus expires in 11 days”. Do you have any information about this issue? Did Avast left to be free for Mac? Thanks in advance!
Well avast! Pro is paid for all system, and you are running its trial version. You need to install avast! Free for Mac:
Thanks for reply. Sure, it makes sense. I just don’t understand why Avast Pro is installed in my note… I don’t remember…
So, thank you!