There’s a conflict between Avast 7 (possibly also other versions) and the InstallShield 6.x files. I recently attempted installing some older games (Baldur’s Gate II and Gothic) and ended up with a myriad of errors from ikernel.exe. This error seems to be surprisingly poorly documented as none of the InstallShield FAQs or forum entries covered the possibility of conflicts with the antivirus. Disabling Avast solved the problem.
Were any avast popups shown when you were trying to install the program(s)?
None whatsoever.
EDIT: I must correct myself. It does in fact show a pop-up that the program has been sandboxed. The popups don’t show up if the gaming/silent mode is enabled though.
Which is your avast! version? 7.0.1414 ?
I’m on version 7.0.1407. According to the updater, it’s the latest one available.