Cannot open Avast Antivirus!

Hi there,

I have been a user of avast! for about half a year now and rate it very highly. However it seems that now I am having a few problems with it that have got me a bit worried.

Firstly, the icons in the systray often do not appear (a problem I had in the past which just ‘went away’ and now is back). Although checking the task manager shows they are in fact running it is annoying as it means I cannot access their options etc.

Secondly, I cannot for the life of me get access to the avast! program itself (i.e. I cannot open the interface to run scans, change options etc). It just fails to load entirely. I have tried completely reinstalling avast but this did not help.

Some background info that might be useful: avast warned me it found some worm or other (sorry I cannot remember the name of the worm) in a .exe file as part of a package I had downloaded ages ago. I moved it to the chest and manually deleted the file itself and everything it came with. Not sure if this is the reason avast is playing up but thought I should let you know.

Furthermore I have scanned my system using the avast cleaner and the boot-time scan but it has found nothing. I thought that this therefore means there may be some problem with my registry etc, but would really appreciate any ideas and thoughts from the people on this forum before I get fed up and just go ahead and reinstall or repair Windows XP!!

Okay so thank you for bearing with me through the description, I really hope that some people can help me and get me back to being a happy avast user again!!

Thanks in advance,

Ewan :slight_smile:

  1. Uninstall avast
  2. run the avast uninstall util from the website
  3. reboot
  4. install avast

I wonder how many times, Eddy had to reply that in the forums… ::slight_smile:

Do you have an entry for ashdisp.exe into your startup entries (registry or startup folder)?

If you try running ashsimp2.exe from avast folder, will it run?

Do you use SpySweeper application?

No I don’t appear to have this

No it won’t!

No I do not

Thanks for your help, but now a few weeks after a clean reinstall of Windows yet again I cannot get the main program window to open. This is v frustrating as I know now it is not due to any virus etc!!

Ewan, will any solution posted here help?
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=17222.0;topicseenc

This is strange… for sure, avast! is not well installed in your computer. Some application could be preventing this:

  1. Startup monitors: TeaTimer, WinPatrol.
  2. Other antivirus (even uninstalled).
  3. Other security programs: ProcessGuard, PrevX.
  4. Incompatibility issues: MSN ToolBar, ZoneAlarm.
  5. Programs that can change avast! entries: SpySweeper, HijackThis, Registry cleaners.
  6. Skin problems: registration (C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\REGSVR32.EXE ACTSKIN4.OCX), translucent effects activated, troubles with ashsimp2.exe (from avast! folder) to run.