After some fiddling around I did manage to get it to work (or rather stop it from working :)) by disabling the self-defence module, and then disabling the program itself in MSConfig. Had to restart the computer a few times as well (even before accessing MSConfig). It was quite tricky, and in future this feature could probably be made more intuitive, but a relief to know it’s possible.
Apart from this minor issue, Avast! is a great defence program and ultimately I would choose it over all of its competitors.
Thank you very much for your help!
avast will have to keep up with the efforts of the malware developers to overcome its self-protection.
I think it would be foolish to assume that it will ever become more intuitive to disable the self-protection features that are in the best interests of the overwhelming imajority of avast users.
For the users who say:
[b]It shouldn't even matter WHY one may want to exit AVAST[/b]. When a program runs on my computer I want to have control over it, rather than be protected in spite of everything - against myself and for my own good.
-or-
I like it that way, I want it that way, I need it that way for programming and debugging and general operation.
I would have to say … sorry but avast is not a product built for individual user’s needs but for the avast community.
In the end the product is provided as is - if the product, as designed, not as an on demand scanner, is not to your liking then your best choice may be to seek a product more to your needs. The vast majority of users, I suspect, want a product that cannot be hijacked by “intuitive disabling” available to every script kiddy on the block.
Again: avast is not intended to be run only on-demand, not resident.
Also, you’ll have problems if you try to install other on-access, resident, antivirus.
No,
4.8 wont hold its checkmark either but it seems to be an issue I have alone.
Anyway Avasts’ goal to help those who can’t help themselves is noble.
However Avast Home Ed. supplies an effective warning asking if it is indeed our intention to uninstall it when it is being uninstalled… could not a similar warning be provided should a script kiddy , lol, try to turn off resident protection?
Anyway, you seem to have made up your mind.
Good bye avast, sniff sniff… you got me out of a few big jams.
Well, there’s a password protection there for the resident protection…
Wait…
I’m not paying attention to myself…
So if the self-defense module did hold its check mark, could I in fact prevent Avast from loading?
If not then of course I’d have to conclude that the disabling of the self defense is just for show…
If you disable the self-defence you can do what you like to avast, even prevent it from running, disable services, etc.
It most certainly isn’t for show, or we wouldn’t be able to disable it to install the pre-release version that we are testing.
You’re installation seems somehow damaged… Self-defense module can be disabled for sure…
Maybe you should install from the scratch.
Ok great,
I apologize for the implication.
Ive uninstalled 4.7 and 4.8 down to the very last reference as far as I can see.
However I will keep trying. Getting that checkmark to hold seems to be the only issue I have with the whole program! Just my luck! I have a ton of services disabled, I suppose it needs one of them. Maybe I can find its dependency. Thank you for your help. ;D
???
I wasn’t submitting a personal request for you to make Avast! more “intuitive” but actually thanking you for your help and commenting that apart from minor issues I still prefer the program to all its competitors.
So why get so defensive? After all you’re here to help people (I assume), not tell them that if they aren’t happy with some particular program feature they should just go and use something else…
I do not own this product, I do not work for this product. I merely support this product for myself and a number of other users (without remuneration). If you are unable to determine the difference between defensiveness and honesty - then sorry I am not about to expend the effort to make it more clear.
Please do not assume that this is the limit of the self-defence features of avast. You may find future features make it less easy for you prevent avast from running as it is designed to do for the vast majority of users. I have ask that you do not over estimate my purely personal thoughts here as a threat as you did my previous comments as defensiveness. They are merely offered as a warning in line with my earlier post that all of us should understand the design intentions, capabilities and limits of the products we choose.
It’s prudent to temporarily disable anti-virus software before installing new software packages. Many AV apps offer a quick way to do that from the Notification Area (formerly systray).
Prudent? On contrary - it’s ridiculous, and dangerous.
Shame of these many AV… it’s not prudent, it’s imprudent, less technical, reasonless suggestion…
I am new to both Avast and this forum but also use my PC for developing and programming…
I was having problems with tick/check boxes registering changes and it was due to an incorrect registry entry relating to Internet Explorer ActiveX compatibilty. Apparantly caused by MS-Visual Studio. I found a fix which I have posted here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=36818.0
It cured the checkbox issue for me and I hope it does the same for you. 
~Mike~
I still can not turn off the self defence module. I did apply the Internet Explorer ActiveX compatibilty reg adjustment but this didnt work for causing the disable avast! self-defense module check box to hold its checkmark.
An interesting thing happened however after I did another install of 4.8 Home Edition on my WinXPP. I copied the contents of avast4.ini and made a new one placing it outside of the avast/data directory. I cant edit the programs own avast4.ini as it is locked solid.
After installing but before the re-booting I over-wrote avast4.ini, before it became locked, with the one I had edited with the setting I wanted including SelfDefenseEnabled=0. All modified settings including StartupRootkitScan=0 and RawBootTimeScan=0 appeared as I had set them except one… SelfDefenseEnabled=0 was back to SelfDefenseEnabled=1
Help…
Thank you
perigee22, I suggest an installation from the scratch:
- Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
- Boot.
- Download the latest version of Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
- Boot.
- Install again the latest avast! version.
- Boot.
- Check and post the results.
Yes I have used the avast un-install utility after uninstalling from Add/Remove, thrice. With this install I even installed to the default location on the C:\ drive and not to my logical partition E:. Avast on a friends comp holds the checkmark fine. As I have said I am running a very lean WinXPP but this last install had many services that I had turned off turned back on, including Cryptography. I am a firefox user and some components of IE are disabled in Autoruns. Is Avast expecting full IE functionality?
Thank you very much
avast only uses IE for the help files (the same as many other applications) as far as I’m aware, so it isn’t really dependant on IE.
Not IE, but avast need Internet connection to update, i.e., if you change any IE setting that avoids connection, or mess it… avast just uses IE for some help files to be read as David said.