folks:
hoping you can provide some assistance.
I really like Avast.
However, since last week I cannot get the interface to open up.
cannot get advanced or beginner to open.
running Windows XP, Inspiron 710M. lots of RAM, big hard drive. all tests on system are good. have uninstalled and reinstalled Avast to no avail.
right click on blue ball in tray,
click on Start Avast AntiVirus
get an hourglass next to my pointer.
after 6 to 7 seconds the hourglass disappears. no interface.
when I shut the laptop down, the error msg relates to the skin manager…
What is the full error message or post a screenshot ?
Anything in the windows event logs or avast Log Viewer ?
Try the no-skin interface for the moment until the problem is resolved. Create a desktop shortcut for C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashSimp2.exe this will run the Simple User Interface without skins.
nothing opens up.
cannot show picure of the interface, because the interface, neither basic nor advanced will open.
no have not loaded advance skin, this time.
four or five days ago, i tried to load a skin, but did not change the problem.
right click on ball,
click on “Start Avast! Antivirus”
get the hourglass for 6 or 7 seconds next to my cursor, then nada.
hourglass disappears,
and when I close computer down, get an error msg stating that Avast SkinManager is still open. have to close this Windows Error msg twice to get the computer to shut down.
If I cannot get this to work, will have to find another virus program.
the pawnraider
Well the above image isn’t a skin but the no-skin simple user interface. Did you try creating a shortcut and or double clicking that file ?
Since it doesn’t use skinning, it shouldn’t suffer the same problem.
when I close computer down, get an error msg stating that Avast SkinManager is still open.
Open the Task Manager and see if there are any Running applications avast! Simple User Interface ?
Since you don’t get any error as such when you try to start the simple user interface, I’m not sure if this is relevant but trying the command below shouldn’t have any adverse effect.
First try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. You need to be on-line to do this.
if the avast! repair does not solve it:
You will have to register ACTSKIN4.OCX
Follow the instructions:
Select START → RUN…
Enter the following command:
If you have Windows XP:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\REGSVR32.EXE ACTSKIN4.OCX
Press OK (or Enter).
A message saying that the file was successfully registered should appear…
For some reason, ActiveSkin (the 3rd party library avast uses for skinning) does not seem to be working on your system. As a workaround, we may disable skinning in avast - that should solve the problem. Program Settings, Common, and uncheck any option with skins mentioned (see image, avast-no-skin).
If you are unable to access the above you can do this manually. To do that, open the file \data\avast4.ini, look up the [UserInterface] section, and add the following entry: StartWithSkin=0
tried to open ashSimp2.exe from the folder, would not open up.
tried shortcut, no dice.
uninstalled AVAST, waited several days, while working other problems. turns out one of the system diagnostic programs cannot find the L2 Cache on the Pentium M. another diagnostic program found the L2 cache but does not show any activity. so Dell is sending someone today to swap out the central processor and, hopefully, run some diagnostics, to find out why this is such a slow computer… Inspiron 710M with 100 GB HD, 1G Ram (2dimm), PentM… the 7 year old Pentium1 PC with 512 Ram is running the same programs much faster with fewer problems… I wonder why the skin manager is nonfunctional here.
after reading your post, I reacquired Avast Antivirus, (uninstalled the interim antiviral program) and the shortcut idea is working…
thanks.
still wondering why the skin manager is nonfunctional…
have run windows recovery CD, to no avail…
tried to open ashSimp2.exe from the folder, would not open up.
tried shortcut, no dice.
Did anything happen, did you get any errors etc. ?
I can’t see why the ashSimp2.exe didn’t work at first as it doesn’t use the third party skinning interface.
Sometimes the third party skinning interface doesn’t work, frequently this is because you have another skinning tool installed like windows blinds, etc. Do you have anything like that ?
Not having the skinning is a bit of an aesthetic pain, but at least you can use the non-skinned interface, which doesn’t look that bad. However, you don’t have to live with using the shortcut to get to the Simple User Interface (SUI), you can disable skins, Program Settings > Common > uncheck any options with skin in the description, see image.
This will allow you to go to the SUI from the right click menu, it will launch the non-skin version and most importantly it will run the memory scan first.
???