cannot update avast free 5.0.545

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello,
I’ve been using avast 5 for a while now. A few days ago I resized my windows 7 partition, and all of a sudden, Avast refuses to update. I get an error message that my OS does not meet the minimum requirement, I need at least windows 2000 sp4 or some such nonsense. At least it is working, but at this moment I’m afraid to try to reinstall, for fear it may refuse even to reinstall because there is something it does not recognize.
Please help, this is very scary.

2

When you make changes to the partition it changes the unique identity of the partition and avast I believe links to that ID. Repartitioning on a live partition can have some weird results.

My advice is to do a clean reinstall.

  • Download the latest version of avast, 5.0.545 http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn’t save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

  • Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear5.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 4.8 and 5.0).

    1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can’t do that start from the next step), reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 4.8 if previously installed and then for 5.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.
3

It went as I had feared. I uninstalled from safe mode, rebooted, and tried to install from a fresh download. No dice. It says my operating system does not meet the minimum requirement.
Now I don’t have anything.

4

I don’t know why it isn’t recognising the OS correctly.

Did you run the clean reinstall in the order mentioned as an uninstall from safe mode wasn’t mentioned ?

Uninstall from normal mode, reboot into safe mode and run the uninstall utility to ensure all remnants are gone, reboot and install from normal mode.

5

I am also having trouble updating Avast Free 5.0.545. Updates just stopped working - gives the standard “cannot connect to server” message. Nothing has changed on my system. I followed the forum advice of uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version – no dice. Still cannot update. I guess I’ll have to find another antivirus program if I can’t get updates.

Any assistance would be appreciated. I like Avast but it will not update.

6

Which is your firewall?
Any other security program that could interfere?
Which avast version are you using? 5.0.545?