Greetings All,
Like most other PCs, there are several applications on mine which want to start at boot time.
In my case, apart from those related to XP itself, there are WinPatrol, Online Armor, Sandboxie and Avast!
Each of these also wants to immediately access the internet for their (usually undisclosed) purposes.
It seems to me that many of the difficulties reported in this (and other) forums stem from boot time congestion and potential conflict between competing applications, particularly when they involve actions “close to the core of the OS”. Each seems to believe that it is the only application on the PC !!
I note that Avast! Program Settings includes a “Delay loading of Avast! after other system services” in the troubleshooting section.
My questions are:-
- “Does Avast! try to contact its home site immediately ?”
and if so
2a) “How long is the delay referred to above?”
and
2b) “Can this behaviour be controlled (delayed) via Avast4.ini ?”
I plan to ask similar questions in the forums of the other startup applications
since none of them has the delay option so usefully provided in Avast!.
Looking forward to comments
Maurice
p.s. At the moment my system is working OK but I would like to have more control over these startup applications.
You have all the oontrol over any program that wants to call home! Simply choose to manually update yourself. I have every single program on manual and have no problems at all. Simply each morning I take about 5 minutes and run through all my programs that and manually update them all. No fuss, no problems. Plus the benefit is a leaner and meaner machine. The only program I have loading at startup is Avast, but choose the manual update.
Wayne 
MauriceW,
the answer is yes. Please see this post for the details that allows you to delay the avast automatic VPS update.
Sorry for delay in response - been putting similar questions to Online Armor and Sandboxie
Alan,
Thanks for reminding me how to delay start of VPS update for Avast via the AlwaysConnectWaitSeconds addition to Avast4.ini
Wayne,
Thanks for the comments. Personally, I also prefer to manage updates myself, but use automatic settings on my wife’s PC. I have just set WinPatrol not to start at boot time.
Maurice
My interest in delaying Avast! stems from conflicts between Online Armor, Sandboxie and Threatfire which I thought were due to congestion during the booting period.
Experiments today have lead me to believe that the order in which these applications are installed is vital.
I have them all working harmoniously now after installing in the order
- ThreatFire, 2) Sandboxie and 3) Online Armor.
All warning questions were “Approved & Remembered” in TF and OA.
Avast! was running all the time without causing problems.
I hope this helps others having similar conflicts.
Maurice