I’ve used avast since version 5 without any incidents.
But this year, most noticeably the past couple months, whenever avast is updating itself behind the scenes, Windows will deadlock for maybe 20 seconds. Happens at least once a day, sometimes twice.
Same PC, same Windows XP, same configuration I’ve used since Avast 5.
It started happening after the last forced program upgrade after the start of the year.
I know it is Avast causing the deadlock because right after it finishes and returns control, Outpost firewall will immediately alert me that parts of Avast have changed.
2015-May-8: Now fixed from the last program upgrade
I don’t think reinstalling Avast will help as I am having other conflicts with avast & older versions of XP Pro but before the most recent update issue I’ve been having the same problem. System won’t load on boot until Avast finishes and ad’s pop up. The constant pop ups through out the day of unwanted or needed app’s hangs everything until the pop up pops up. Although Avast security is supporting/protecting use XP users, not all the newer updates are compatible with individual XP configurations. A problem with not just Avast, so I guess we just have to live with the temporary inconveniences if we want to continue using Avast with our beloved older OS. .
How much RAM do you have on this system ?
What is the CPU ?
It sounds like this could be after an update (which could be using a lot of system resources, depending on what you have) and Outpost would rightly tell you things have changed depending on your Outpost settings.
As you can see from my signature directly below this post, I use XP Pro SP3, the latest avast version and the latest version of Outpost Firewall Pro and don’t get this issue.
Can you attach a screen shot of the outpost changed avast process screen.