I just installed avast 4.8 and when I right click on the “a” ball, one of the choices is “Start avast! Antivirus” which leads me to believe it is not running. If I choose “Start avast! Antivirus,” it runs the test of memory and startup. Then the Simple user interface appears. I’ve run a scan, but nothing tells me that I have real-time AV protection.
Move your cursor over the avast tray icon and wait till a tooltip appears telling you something like “… 6 providers” running. In that way, you’ll know that on-acess shields are active.
Hi myrrh,
Here is a way of testing if your real time protection is enabled:
http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com
When you click this link, it should produce an alert.
More info on the anti-virus test file can be found here, if you want to have a read 
http://eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
-Scott-
“Start avast! Antivirus” is a little misleading now that you mention it. I’ve never thought about it but I can see how it might be confusing.
Besides the ways already mentioned, the icon itself is another way. In Program Settings>Appearance, “Animate icon when scanning” should be checked and then the icon rotates when something is scanned.
Yes, maybe it should refer to the SUI, like:
‘Start Simple User Interface’
It may be like this in avast5, I don’t know, I’m not testing it.
Sorry, you don’t say if you’re running XP or Vista. Here are the obvious ones from my XP & Vista boxes (both have Pro running).
Open Task Manager (right click in bottom right corner near time)
In Vista:
On Processes tab you should see:
ashDisp.exe
On Services tab you should see:
avast! Antivirus
avast! Mail Scanner
avast! Web Scanner
In XP:
On processes tab you should see:
ashDisp.exe
ashWebSv.exe
ashMailSv.exe
ashServ.exe
ashUpdSv.exe
Hope this helps,
Simon