License key is not entered

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have seen this problem discussed in the forum before, but I couldn’t find any resolution.

I have installed avast! version 4.7 Home Edition, Build Aug2007 (4.7.1029) on my Windows XP Home Edition system, using an account belonging to the Administrators group. The registration key was succesfully entered. Avast! is running normally.

When I log in to Windows under an account belonging to the Users group (and not Administrators), I cannot start the avast! scanner because immediately a window pops up with the message:
License key is not entered-OK.
But clicking OK gives the message
Only user from administrator group can insert registration key. Log in as administrator, please-OK
When I click OK, it says
You need a valid license number. Do you have a valid license number?-Yes-No
If you click Yes, it doesn’t allow you to enter the key, and clicking No ends the program.

Is there a workaround for this mess? Probably avast! is running on the second user in the background, but I’m not 100% sure.

2

avast does not play well with computers with more than one account with admin rights.
Also, Windows could have problem itself with this situation…

But, for sure, I have tested in a lot of computers, avast works perfectly in a computer with just one account as admin and other accounts as common users.

Which is exactly your user accounts situation?

3

I have these:
Administrator (hidden in Home Edition)
Owner (Computer Administrator)
Maury (Limited Account)
Guest (off)

The problem is occurring when logging in to the Maury account.

4

I do not think the Maury account would have any admin privileges and therefore that is why you are having a problem inserting the key.

5

Right! – Shouldn’t the blue icons show up in the notification area, though, to indicate avast! is running? They’re not. Only in the Owner account, they do show, everything is normal there.

I can do updates from the Maury account by using Run As and typing the Owner password.

6

Yes they should be there.

You should be able even to use Maury account to update VPS without problem. Only for programs updates you must use the admin accounts.

Your set of accounts is the same as mine.
I can only think on file/registry key access trouble.
I suggest an installation from the scratch:

  1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
  2. Boot.
  3. Use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
  4. Boot.
  5. Install again the last version.
  6. Boot.
  7. Check and post the results.

In which path are you installing avast?

7

The path is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4.

I also suspect there is a registry issue. The last time I re-installed, I wanted to clean out all the avast! settings in the registry first, and was not able to delete the keys, even from the adminstrator account, until I fiddled around with the permissions, it seemed a little strange; unknown owner, etc.

I will try your procedure this evening, and post back. I really appreciate the suggestions.

8

We’ll be here to help. For sure it’s easier to start this way before messing the registry.

9

Yeah, I got the same result after doing the steps exactly as Tech said.

Whenever I log in to the Maury account, I get
License key is not entered-OK.
same behavior as before–no icons.

I can only run the scanner from the Owner account (Administrators group).
??? I don’t know what else to check.

10

I suggest an installation from the scratch:

  1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
  2. Boot.
  3. Use Avast Uninstall for complete uninstallation.
  4. Boot.
  5. Install again the last version.
  6. Boot.
  7. Check and post the results.

Also, post the last 100-150 lines of avast log: C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\log\Setup.log

11

I didn’t want to reinstall a second time, but see attachment for the last 150 lines of setup log from the last installation: (C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\log\Setup.log).

12

I see your log as perfectly normal. No troubles at all…

Could you please check if the users for which it doesn’t work have at least READ access rights to the following registry key?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALWIL Software\Avast\4.0

13

No, only Owner and SYSTEM have any permissions at all on this key,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALWIL Software\Avast\4.0

14

So, you need to Add the user group and allow ‘read’ permissions… that IS the solution…
I can’t imagine why the permissions were not correctly set in your computer. I suppose you’re using the last avast setup version.

15

Not sure why either… maybe an issue of “inheritance” not properly configured.

Anyway, thanks, I will try your suggestion (in a few days as I am out of town) and post the result back here. Thank you for your guidance.

16

Someone will be here to help you…

You’re welcome. My pleasure to be useful sometimes…

17

Well, the solution suggested by Tech worked, I added the Users group to the Permissions for HKLM\SOFTWARE\Alwil Software, and gave them Read permission. That eliminated the error message when logging in to the Maury account, and restored the blue icons to the system notification area, as well as allowing the avast! scanner to start up normally.

???It seems strange that the Setup program did not configure it that way.

18

Gremlins ;D

19

Glad I found this thread - I just had the same problem and this fixed it. No way I would have found the problem without this thread!

So you guys might want to look into the bug ::slight_smile: still can’t argue with the price ;D

Cheers