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.