Help slipstreaming/installing Avast Home

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello,

I am in the process of configuring a restore disc for my parent’s laptop.
I would like to include the Avast Home free AV on it, but I’m running into a problem.
I’m not sure how or if I can use WSIM to create an unattend to have it automatically install the AV during Windows setup, so I’ve resorted to installing it via Vista’s Audit mode and then re-capturing the image.

The problem I have though, is that once the recapture process is completed and I then install Vista with the new image, Avast fails to load (or autoload.) The system tray icons do not appear, and if I load Avast via the desktop shortcut, it claims there is no license key and closes, even though I entered a key when it was initially installed in audit mode.

Is there any workaround for this?

Thanks.

2

Sometimes reloading partition images for me, make avast lost its key.
I don’t know why… I know it’s an antipiracy feature, but avast is the only program that asks for a key after restoring image partitions… :cry:

3

For me when restoring a disk image, I have to re-enter my registration key, but other than that it works as normal.

So it looks like the Vista Audit doesn’t capture a true bit by bit partition image.

4

But why does this happen? :cry:

5

I really don’t know why it happens on mine, but Drive Image 7.1 is quite old, being the last version by PowerQuest before being bought by Symantec…

6

It happens with Acronis Disk Image and it happens with Easeus…

7

It seems then, that it might not be a problem limited to Vista’s Sysprep process. I thought it might’ve been the culprit since Sysprep removes registry keys and such, and restores others to their default states to prepare the system for being imaged and installed elsewhere. Could it be that Avast stores its license key and/or demo state settings (because I installed it and imaged it within 3 hours, yet upon reinstallation, it claims I’m through the 60day demo period already) are stored in the windows users folder? This might explain why it works before imaging, but does not after it has been captured and reinstalled…

In any case, it doesn’t seem like there is a known workaround for this problem… I really don’t want to ship out a laptop without AV on it though.

8

I think the problem is on partition level (signature of the partition or disk drive), the “serial number” of the hardware.