Hello – I am new to this version of AVAST - free home edition.
Some years back, I used AVAST but I stopped because the boot scan for Win98se was removed from the program. 
I have to stay with my Win98se – but, I can no longer use the antivirus progam that I was using – subject I do not wish to get into in this post! :
Is there anyway to make this version of AVAST do a boot scan again?
???
Hi LambChop,
Welcome to the Avast forum ;D
After advising you on the other forum to post your question here, I did a quick search and found this link http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=5174.0.
It would appear that the question has been asked before, but I am sorry it does not look very likely that you can do your boot scan 
Cheers,
Thorny
I don’t think there ever was a boot-time scanner for Win9x in avast (certainly not in avast! 4.0 or later) - so no, it’s not possible, sorry.
avast isn’t alone in this respect, there are very few AVs that offer a boot-time scan even when you are using XP much less win98se. So not to use avast at all because of this seems an over reaction.
avast will scan memory and files that are loaded during the windows startup so you do have limited cover at that time, but not before windows boots. Most people only require a boot-time scan if a file is in use or in one of the system folders protected by windows. You can boot into safe mode with win98se and run a scan from there that should help to a degree with the lack of a pre boot scan.
Welcome to the forums, LambChop!
I hope you come back and read David’s post as this would be the next best thing to what you asked. I have Avast on my old computer (I still use it) which is still running W98SE and a scan in Safe Mode works well.
Please come back often, learn more, and maybe help others.
Why not use command line scanner from dos promt?
// it comes just with “pro” version
I never traid that but I think that it will work well.
The command-line scanner (ashCmd.exe) is a Win32 application. So, you can run it from the command prompt, but only from within Win98 (i.e. not from autoexec.bat, for example).
Thank you for the welcome and the link Thorny!
I would like to address something that was said in the link that you provided –
“Boot-Time Scan is only available on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 and its NOT available under Windows 95/98/Me. This is operating system limitation not avast!'s.”
posted by:
RejZoR Re:rebootscan with windows 98???
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2004, 04:01:19 PM »
[i]This was not the case for me[/i] –
I was using AntiVir version6 until the recent Version 7 – I had a boot scan, and I have always had the Win98se system!
Therefore it is NOT an operating system limitation!
Many Thanks for your replies and information
igor, MrBabis, CharleyO, and DavidR.
I am still learning – and will more than likely make errors or ask what may seem to be silly questions, so please make allowances for an old dog learning new tricks!
Well, yes and no.
The “boot-time scan” that avast! uses is a 32bit native Windows NT application. Such a thing certainly cannot be run elsewhere.
For Windows 9x, a DOS program would have to be used - that’s the only possibility for this platform. Yes, it would be possible, but it would be a big step backwards. I mean, avast! 4 is a full-featured Win32 application; making an old 16bit DOS scanner would be going 10 years back - and it would also require a lot of work, which is hardly worth it.
You may actually use avast! for DOS for this purpose - but this edition is very old and mostly unsupported (meaning that the updates of the virus database are still released for it at the moment, but it may change very soon, and even today it cannot detect all the viruses that avast! 4 detects, due to various limitations).
Yes, I can see that AVAST is for a system that is NOT like mine.
Since, I do not have the ability to upgrade my system – AVAST is just not for me.
thanks one and all for your replies!
avast will still work fine and give adaquate protection on win98se, just not everything you want, which I think you will find hard to find a program to fully meet your requirement, nor give you the protection comparible to avast.
However, that is your choice and in my opinion your loss. Sorry we couldn’t pursuade you to at least give it a fair trial (60 days unrestricted use) and join the many other win98 users happy with avast as their AV.
Lambchop,
As I stated above, I still use Avast on my old W98SE computer and would use nothing else. For the last 2 years I have used Avast on it without one single infection and I was all over the net almost everyday … being that I have been retired with plenty of time to do so. Yes, a few viruses tried to enter my computer but Avast stopped each one. 
I hope you will think about it again and stay with Avast … you will be glad you did.
LambChop, why is the boot-time scanner so important for you?
Btw, DavidR, how many other AVs with XP-compatible boot-time scan do you know? ;D
Off the top of my head none ;D but I didn’t want to say there aren’t any, as some smart a** would say yes there is ;D
For the fun of it, I just spent 30+ mins searching “boot-time scan” and found no other AV that has it … only Avast! 
Hi, I’m a 98SE user who is at the end… no there is about 18 days left on my Avast4 Pro trial. My personal trial is over. I had been using AVG Free. That had a boot time scan. It also was causing other problems, like it wasn’t doing anything until something got on my computer… then, I could use AVG to check it. Somehow, that’s just wrong. Avast is doing something to check it before it gets on. That seems right. I use Ghost from a boot disk to Clone my hard drive. I’d restore the clone (I’ve done it too… frequently). I think if you need the boot-time scan… it’s probably already too late.
Let me welcome myself to the forum. And, say thanks to the forum for all the anonomous browsing I’ve done during my trial period. Now, I’m off to send the money. I have a couple weeks left on trial. But this is the first software I’ve used and felt a DESIRE to pay. Those guys deserve it.
Well, you are right in that the boot-time scanner is no prevention.
It might be handy, however, to remove the infection if it already got to your computer (no protection is 100%, and there’s a lot of new malware appearing every day, so it sometimes may happen). Since it is started before (most of) the malware has chance to activate, it’s more likely to be able to remove it easily.
As I said, however, making a boot-time scanner for Windows 98 would require “back-porting” our scanner to the DOS environment, which is really hardly worth the effort.
Welcome to the forums, Asop!
You have discovered we so many of us users love Avast and the awil team.
And you are right, the boot-time scan is only a reactive tool for those times when a completely new virus might get into your computer before the VDB can be updated. As a user for more than 2 years (without any infections though there have been attempts), I can assure you that the awil team works very hard to get these updates out earlier than most other AV companies.
Please come back often, learn more, and maybe help others.