Hi, and welcome to the avast forum.

am on dialup and frequently connect to the internet for just a few seconds to check for new mail. Often, when I disconnect, Avast has not finished checking for updates, which results in an error message. Some indication of the status of the checking/downloading process would be very handy here so I don't disconnect too early.

Sure. :slight_smile:
avast → Settings → Update (Basic) → Details → Show Icon in Task bar tray.

After such an error has occurred, it would be nice if one could start the update manually. However, the "Update now" links (or text buttons) in the Avast settings seem to do nothing on my system (Windows 2000 SP 4). Launching "iAVS Update" via a right-click on the Avast icon seems to download the whole virus database (1.8 MB last time I tried it) instead of just the new entries.

This might’ve been caused by the fact that the data were trashed because of the (abruptly) interrupted Internet connection. Anyway, if the command isn’t doing anything, it usually means the previous update attempt hasn’t finished yet. You may “kill” the ongoing update by killing the “avast.setup” process in the Task Manager (brutal, but works).

Also, Avast did not notify me of version 4.6 being available, though I set it to "ask when update is available" (don't know the exact wording, I use the German version) in the program update options.

You’re too impatient! :slight_smile:
See http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=8057.msg66267#msg66267 for details

And another thing: error messages (the ones appearing in the lower right corner of the screen) seem to stay there forever unless you click on them, which is annoying if they occur frequently. Update notifications, however, disappear very quickly. If you don't happen to be looking at the screen while they're there, you won't get the update. I tried changing this by altering the ErrorDlgTimeout and RespondTimeout settings in avast4.ini, but obviously these settings don't do what I thought they did, as nothing changed.

Sorry, this duration is currently not configurable…

Thanks
Vlk