Does avast automatically start after hard shutdown?

I turn on my laptop today and i got black screen with cursor only and hdd light indicator on in my laptop. Because login screen not showing up, i shut down my laptop with press and hold power button. After that i turn on my laptop again and everything is normal and i check avast trays icon is there as usual, but i don’t click it. My question is if avast trays icon already show up, is this mean avast real time protection already run, even though you don’t click it?

I use avast free

Real Time scan should put itself on automatically

Does it mean avast Real time protection will always run everytime i turn on my laptop/windows start?

Yes.