Avast problems with Windows Vista & Windows Defender???

Hello, i’m using Avast 4.7.1001 on a computer running Windows Vista Home Edition & it will NOT allow Avast to load up on startup. I keep getting a popup saying that it was blocked & then i have to manually start it up. I’m the system admin of this computer & I’ve even tried forcing the program to “run this program as an administrator” under properties—>compatibility & that doesn’t make a difference.

When i click on “run Blocked Programs” the following is listed:

avast! service GUI component

So when i click on that, it loads fine but it should be doing that on it’s own & I don’t want the hassle of loading it up manually every time the system starts.

When i load up Windows Defender it says that Avast! Antivirus is set to “permitted”

The problem seems to be with the permission of loading up the ashDisp.exe file for the avast gui!

I don’t know what else to do, i’ve read for a few hours on this forum & searched google for an answer but can’t find what i’m looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated as i’d love to continue using this software!

Thank you in advance for your time & help!

micahismyname@hotmail.com

Hey man Sorry for the basic things but check that defender is up to date, then try going into avast program settings and then troubleshooting, from there you can check a box that tells avast to delay loading until all other system services are up, then restart your machine, after this one if that doesn’t work just for sake of it check your firewall that its not interfering . Lastly remove defender all together and reinstall it.

Windows Defender is up to date, Windows Vista is up to date, Avast is up to date, already tried the delayed loading of avast, still didnt make a difference. I tried re-installing avast a million times but didn’t make a difference, i even tried copying a shortcut from the ashDisp.exe file into the startup folder but still no dice. Defender is tough to get rid of/disable cuz it comes pre-installed with Vista Home Premium. I actually disbaled Windows Defender in the Admin’s system services & it STILL stopped the avast gui from loading on startup! Oh yeah, checked the Firewall & it’s not interfering either…

Can you get a screen snip of the pop-up that says its blocked,and check that you avast properties are like the attached screen snip I’m not saying that you haven’t check its just protocol when trying to track down errors.

It won’t let me do a screen dump, i think cuz it’s a popup message & not an active window. I took a look @ your screen shot & when i load up defender, it looks pretty much the same as yours except i’m running v4.7.1001 (newest version). I found a way to enable the TRUE administrator account (which is meant to stay hidden) in Vista & when i logon to that account, avast works fine, but when i log back into my account (which is also an administrator account), it still will not let it load up. I’m gonna try creating a few other users (1 admin, 1 regular user) & see what happens when i load them up.

I was wondering if it might be an Admin issue, Vista is a pain in the (bleeeps) with some common things requiring Admin rights, the best way to setup your system is to have at min 2 accounts like you said 1 Admin and 1 Normal user (you use this all the time), when you install anything that requires a system change like any software that relies on database, low level folder and file access, service or memory monitoring you should be rights install using the admin account. But you should always use the standard user account.
A way to alleviate program problems is to run the exe or install file as Admin from standard user account, just right click on it and select run as Admin. If you have problems with any program not starting not running or play up this can alleviate it.

For you problem trying telling the file itself to always run as admin just follow the screen map i have attached and tick the box on the compatibility tab that says run as admin so it runs in elevated mode all the time, i have two dialogs there because you may have to click the button show for all users

Forgive me where i have told you things that you may know, i don’t assume anything just going through the steps.

Totally appreciate the help. Just to recap, i did install the software as the admin, i did force the files to run as an admin & still no dice. It totally IS an admin issue. Vista is for sure a pain in the @$$ when it comes to permissions & rights. What i found out is that the admin which is created on the initial Vista setup does NOT have True Admin rights & there IS a hidden true admin account in the O/S which for some reason is disabled & not meant to be enabled or used. After doing some reading, i found a way to enable this admin account so i did just that. Sure enough, logged on as the True Admin & Avast loaded up without any problems. When you load up as the True Admin, you don’t get a million popups asking if you want to confirm your actions. When logged in as the true admin, you are back in control. So all i did was copy all my files & data over to the true admin account, renamed it, added my personal touches & voila!

I know there HAS to be ppl out there running Avast on Vista without any problems & without having to do this, i’m just wondering why it works for some ppl & not others. I installed Avast Free edition on 2 ppl’s computers running Vista Pro & no problems what-so-ever but now when i try to install it on Vista Home…nothing but headaches.

Anyhow, if anyone wants to know how to access the True Admin account on Vista (for this problem or any others related or not) here are the directions. Please keep in mind that if you ONLY have a true admin account on your computer (without any other admin accounts) & you create a password for the true admin & then later on forget it, you’re pretty much stuck wiping out your computer & starting with a fresh install so DON’T forget your password. I also recommend making a password recovery disc which can be created from the password recovery wizard. CHEERS!


For Windows Vista Ultimate/Business/Enterprise:

1- Click Start, and type “secpol.msc” in the search area and click Enter. (You may receive a prompt from UAC, approve/login and proceed)
2- In the left list, choose “Local Policies”, then “Security Options”
3- Set “Accounts: Administrator account status” to Enabled.
4- Set “User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account” to Disabled.

For Windows Vista Home Basic/Home Premium:

1- Click Start, and type “cmd” in the search area, right click on “Command Prompt” and select 'Run as Administrator".

2- In the command prompt type “net users Administrator /active’” (Note the capital “A” in Administrator) and press Enter, you will get a confirmation as “The command completed successfully”.

3- Click Start, and type “regedit” in the search area and click Enter, navigate to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
Double click on “FilterAdministratorToken” and set it to “0”

Now log-off, and you’ll see new account named “Administrator” is available, click on it to login.


No worries, man thats a whole a crap to go through just to allow an antivirus program to run properly.

I have it on vista running fine, just watch your security running in that mode if virus gets in undetected, its gonna hurt.

Cheers for letting me know…

I must admit I’m lucky…
I have avast Professional on Windows Vista Ultimate and have no problems…
Neither with Windows Defender (turned on here).
Sorry, I can’t help as I can’t reproduce the problem.
Is there any info on avast logs?