i recently had to reinstall avast home because i got the error message “the package is broken” Now I can not get it to run. On the small a symbol there ia a red crossbar .What am I doing wrong ?
Welcome to the forums, maggie. 
Perhaps a repair of avast will help your problem. Please follow the procedure below.
Add/remove programs > click once on avast to select it > click on Change/Remove > scroll down the left pane and click on repair > click OK> follow directions
~NOTE~ you must be on-line for this to work.
Which is your Windows? 98, Me, XP, Vista?
Do you use any other antivirus in your computer?
Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair) as CharleyO said?
From where are you downloading avast?
I tried to repair avast and it said repair complete, but I am still showing the same on the icon. When it is highlighted it says 6 scanners 0 running .I am using 98 se on a quite old system. I download avast from a site I was sent to from avast. sorry but I am not very computer literate. Any additional help will be appreciated and thanks for trying.
Is there any other antivirus installed in this computer? Had in the past?
It seems that the scanners are disabled. Click on the icon with the right button of your mouse and when the menu will appear, click on the option at its bottom. It will enable scanners and the icon will come back to its normal appearance.