OK guys i desperately need your help,
I installed Avast anti-virus 4 and after the initial scan at the boot the icons appeared in the system tray for a few seconds and then they disappeared. so i began trying to open avast manually which didn’t help at all. i began to search through the forums looking for someone with a similar problem but i can not seem to find one. All i could find was people saying to open a file in the avast folder. I tried doing this but the file was nonexistent when i opened the folder. I immediately checked to see if it was a hidden file by showing hidden files in the view. It still did not show up so i began opening some of the other applications in the folder and all of them would open for a split second and then close themselves. as i began doing this i noticed all the files i was opening were deleting themselves. Where they went i have no idea because they’re not in the recycling bin.
here’s the details on my computer since i figure you’ll need to know.
I have no other anti-virus programs on my computer.
It’s windows 2000 service pack 4.
I’m running a little over 256 MB of ram.
I’m using Mozilla Firefox version 2.0.0.1
Check the option in the Appearance tab of settings.
or
Repair your avast installation through Control Panel.
or
Make a link to ashdisp.exe in your startup folder
or
Add the path to ashDisp.exe into a value named avast! in the Windows Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Are you by any chance using Spysweeper?
If so, use the restore/recover or whatever it may be called to restore the deleted registry entry and update your definitions file for spysweeper. It reports incorrectly (false positive) the avast ashDisp.exe which is the icon you see on your system tray.
Other programs that can block are the startup monitors: PrevX, ProcessGuard, WinPatrol, TeaTimer, Ad-watch, etc.
i don’t know what you mean by the option in settings but the ashdisp.exe file is gone, it was gone when i opened the folder. And how should i add that to the registry. I’ve tried re-installing it but it closes out of the installer just like all the other things i opened. I don’t have spysweeper as far as i know, if i do it hides itself very well. and none of the things you mentioned showed up in the services or startup.
Don’t worry about the list that Tech gave it isn’t an exhaustive list (the, etc. implies there are more, those listed are often the cause of the missing icon but not the only ones).
Try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. You need to be on-line to do this. That may restore the missing ashDisp.exe, I don’t know if it would restore the start-up command, if it restores the file reboot and watch out for any alert about ashDisp.exe by any other program.
What is your firewall, does it have any other functions like anti-spyware, etc. that might also interact with start-up entries ?
