I am using “Free Download Manager” for downloading in Firefox. I would like to auotmatically invoke Avast (Free version) whenever a download completes. Any advise on the command that I can use to achieve it?
I use “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashQuick.exe %1”
You should be able to get away without the %1 parameter unless that is a download manager requirement as avast doesn’t need one.
I use Free Download Manager and it needs (not avast) the parameter:
%file%
I tested using “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashQuick.exe” & “%file%” in the argument textbox and all went well. Thanks so much for the kind advice and info. 
You’re welcome. Feel free to come back any time you need help or just to change experiences 8)
The %file% parameter is a FDM’s need, but I suppose it would be useful to know other optional command-line parameters that could fit the users of FDM.
Moreover, FDM includes a list of default antivirus software, with the option to manually add any other program or to change the defaults for that list. Other popular antivirus softwares, including free ones, are already in the list, but not Avast Home Edition.
As a suggestion to the Avast Support Team, it would be useful to get in contact with freedownloadmanager.org and suggest to their devs to add Avast Home Edition to the list of antivirus software for the next build of FDM, and give them all the ashquick.exe command-line appropriate options. This could be useful for users, but also could contribute to Avast! Home Edition popularity, being FDM free and under GNU Public License.
I second this…
This setting will cause ashQuick.exe to crash every other download or so. I think FDM needs to update to work correctly with the latest avast.
Hmmm… it works for me…
I also tried Orbit Downloader and it crashes ashQuick.exe as well. ???
What’s the error message?
Can you try to repair your avast installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair).
If this does not help, can you uninstall / boot / install / boot again?
I did the repair and still no luck. See the attached file with the error report.
The attached file doesn’t contain any information about the error, it’s just a list of loaded modules.
What if you run ashQuick.exe manually (e.g. as ashQuick.exe c:\windows, or ashQuick.exe c:\windows\notepad.exe) ?
ashQuick.exe has never crashed when I run it manually. It also does not crash when using GetRight. It has only crashed when using Free Download Manager or Orbit Downloader.
Ok.
Sometimes, more than one download manager at the same time could ‘fight’ for the file to be downloaded and the subsequent actions.
Sometimes, more than one download manager at the same time could 'fight' for the file to be downloaded and the subsequent actions.I had only one download manager installed at a time and ashQuick.exe still crashes sometimes.
Maybe you could create a dump, download and run http://public.avast.com/~vlk/hangrep.exe. In the list of processes select ashQuick.exe and use the Save button. This generates a file which you can either send to his email address vlk (at) avast.com (if it’s smaller than e.g. 1 MB, ZIPed), or upload to ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming
The command-line version http://public.avast.com/~vlk/userdump.exe . The syntax is
userdump.exe ashQuick.exe c:\ashQuick.dmp
(producing dump file in the root of C:\ drive)
Please note that prior to taking it, you’ll have to temporarily disable avast self defense - otherwise, the program responsible for creation of the dump won’t be able to open the process.
I’m not sure you will be able to run a dump of a crashed application, although. I’m not a programmer and never read about ashQuick.exe crashing before.
Also, check the folder \data\log
Are there any files called unpXXXX there (where XXXX is a random number)?
If so, send them to vlk (at) avast.com
They may contain more information about the problem (maybe a link to this thread).
Hmmm… using Free Download Manger, when a virus is discovered, ashQuick.exe crashed 
Strange… never happened before…
I emailed the dump files to vlk. Hopefully there is something in them that will give a clue.