Avast Free interferes with Outlook 2010 - How do I fix?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

I’ve searched the forum but can’t find the answers I’m looking for… so here goes:

I’m using Outlook 2010 and find that Avast Free 2015 is interfering with it in 3 ways:

  1. It prevents me from opening or viewing new emails.
  2. It prevents synchronisation of my Outlook folders.
  3. It prevents me sending new emails.

I’ve fixed no. 3 above by removing the tick from the Scan outbound email (SMTP) checkbox in Settings > Active Protection > Mail Shield. Not an ideal solution.

After exploring all the other options in Settings I’ve been unable to fix nos. 1 and 2 above permanently. I’ve found that I can fix them by turning Mail Shield completely but a) that defeats the purpose of having AV protection and b) Mail Shield keeps turning itself back on. So now what I do is disable Avast completely for 10 mins whilst I deal with my mail. Again, not good.

Any Avast user out there who’s had and sorted this behaviour (which was the same in Avast Free 2014)?

PS - I’ve recently changed to Avast and had no similar problems with my previous AV product so I’m a bit frustrated with this.

2

Did you remove your previous av with the uninstall tool for it?
If not, do so.
http://www.ache.nl > malware > remove (old) av < for tools/instructions

Dit you import the avast certificate in Outlook?
If not, do so.

3

Hi Eddy - Many thanks for your reply.

I had previously used Control Panel > Programs and Features to un-install my previous AV. I have now used an un-install tool from my previous AV vendor’s site to remove any outstanding fragments.

Outlook 2010 uses the Windows Certificate Store rather than it’s own certificate store. I checked that the avast! Mail/Shield Root certificate was in place and, as a precaution, exported the certificate from Avast then double-clicked on it to re-import it into Trusted Root Certification Authorities > Certificates.

I re-enabled Scan outbound email (SMTP) in Settings > Active Protection > Mail Shield and sent a test email to a webmail account. This worked perfectly so many thanks for this.

During all this I received a new email but, once again, could not view it in Outlook’s Preview pane nor open it.

I also tried to do a Send/Receive All Folders in Outlook but, once again, the folder synchronising folders failed.

I disabled Mail Shield temporarily and I was both able to view my new email in Outlook’s Preview pane and synchronise folders without any problems or errors.

I would be grateful for any more advice or suggestions.

4

Ok, at least we know that it was/is your previous av that was/is conflicting.
Perform a repair of avast and check if things are working (ofcourse reboot thirst after the repair)
If that doesn’t solve it, perform a clean installation of avast. (use also the uninstall tool for it).
I can’t promise anything ofcourse, but this could solve the remaining problems.

5

The repair didn’t work but the un-install-clean-re-install did! Everything now working to my satisfaction. Thank you so much!

6

Great to hear it is solved now.
I already had feeling this would work.

What happened here was that the remnants of your previous installed av prevented avast from installing/working properly.
Removing the left overs and installing avast from scratch made sure avast installed properly and was able to setup everything as it should.

Don’t thank me, you did all the work ;D