Can't get 4.8 100% successfully

I have been downloading Avast Home Edition 4.8 continually since this same time yesterday morning and I am exhausted!

I am told the installation was successful, I am able to register, get a license key and succssesfully enter it.
I can also change my settings on the interface.

I get a message that I have upgraded my OS and the Avast will not run on it and I must reinstall.
Also I have never had the Blue Ball icon show up in the system tray even after entering the license key successfully.

This is not the case. I am running Windows XP SP3. I had McAfee but have fully unistalled that.
Between each new attempt to download I unistall 4.8 Home Edition and clear my cache.
I have also shut down my WebSweeper as that had been known to interfere with my Adobe downloads.

Any solutions would be most appreciated.

Did you change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS?
Did you really upgrade your OS?

I suggest you run McAfee dedicated uninstall tool to remove remains and make an avast installation from the scratch.

You don’t say what version of McAfee you had, so here are some useful links.
McAfee has an uninstall tool that you could run to ensure any possible remnants are removed.
http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/VSCleanupTool.exe Or http://majorgeeks.com/McAfee_Consumer_Product_Removal_Tool_d5420.html

2007 version - http://download.mcafee.com/products/licensed/cust_support_patches/MCPR.exe

Also see - How do I uninstall SecurityCenter? http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/faq3.asp?docid=71525

I didn’t change the file system. Should I?
I have not upgraded my OS either

I have used the McAfee unistall tool.

Edit; I’ll try one of the other links you have there.
Thanks Guys and I don’t recall and can’t rediscover the McAfee version anymore.

No. It’s just that if you have done, the registry key will be lost and you’ll have to add it again.
I suggest an installation from the scratch:

  1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
  2. Boot.
  3. Download the latest version of Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
  4. Boot.
  5. Install again the latest avast! version.
  6. Boot.
  7. Check and post the results.

I did all you advised Tech as well as doing all Windows updates before starting again.
Another thing I did was to shut down Web Sweeper as I remembered that that program gave me trouble with Adobe downloads.

Al went fine after that and so far I am finding Avast to be smooth running and very easy to use.

Thanks for all of your help, all of you.

Glad that everything is fine with you now bluesjuke.
In theory, Web Sweeper is a temporary file cleaner and should have not a problem with avast updates.

I find that it doesn’t ever interfere with programs or updates just downloads and only on certain ones.

Off topic but can anyone tell me on Windows XP where to find settings for TCP/IP?

They are contained within Control Panel > Network Connections

Select a connection, right click on it and then click on Properties > Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click on the “Properties” button.