When I boot up (WinXP + SP1) I do not get an icon in my system tray.
Avast seems to be running even without the icon but I can’t access the menus or make any changes.
I could use the third-party Avast External Controls program to make the icon show up. But I don’t want to have to run an extra program each time I boot up! I think all this option of the utility does may be to run AshDisp.exe but I don’t really know.
So I took a look in the registry and I saw that this key for Avast had no entry or pathname except for a ‘’.'.
Any danger you are using spy sweeper? There have been a number of posts relating to false positive lopdotcom being the systray icons.
I could use the third-party Avast External Controls program to make the icon show up. But I don't want to have to run an extra program each time I boot up!
You don’t have to, it is a one time deal, use it to modify settings, etc. and close it, the end.
Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove
Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair).
You must be connected to the internet while repairing.
If this does not help, can you uninstall / boot / install / boot again?
I still have the problem. After I read your posting this is what I did:
(1) I ran ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS but the Avast entry failed to work. XP said there was a problem and did I want to remove the Avast entry from Add/Remove. So couldn’t do a repair as you suggested. Nor could I do an uninstall.
(2) I used standalone removal tool aswclear2.exe which I downloaded from the website.
My aswclear2.exe said: Copyright (C) 2003 Alwil Software; Description: avast! Removal; v 1.0.0.1; 197 KB (201,808 bytes)
And these are the results of running aswclear2.exe:
Resident protection - Removed
Mail protection - Removed
Explorer extensions - Removed
Registry - Removed
Program files - Removed
avast!4 was successfully removed
Although it says “Registry - Removed” above I still found several registry keys with “Avast” in them. But I left them alone.
(3) I rebooted.
(4) Then I downloaded a new copy of Avast and installed it. No icon in system tray.
(5) I rebooted again.
But I have no system tray icon.
So I ran Avast External Control and selcted the Tweaker option where I made sure Show Tray Icon was selected (and a few other options). I permitted it to stop and then start Avast. This got my system tray icon back.
But when I rebooted I had no icon in the system tray.
Can you suggest what to do now?
When I booted I got Windows Explorer showing me the System32 folder. Microsoft says this is due to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run having an empty entry. See http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=170086.
I mentioned in my original post that I have an Avast entry there which is called avast! and its data value is “”. Is this normal?
No, it’s not.
Do what David said and you’ll see that you’ll have the path to ashDisp.exe into the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
(The value will be named avast!).
I don’t get it but that line in the registry is unchanged after I run the Avast External Control and got to Tweaker and check the Tray Icon settings and run it.
I run ADD/REMOVE and selected Avast! I got a window with the title RUNDLL and it said this:
Error loading.
The specified module could not be found.
Then I went round this loop again and this time I got an ‘Uninstaller Error’ message Window which said
An error occurred while trying to remove avast! Antivirus. It may have already been uninstalled.
Would you like to remove avast! Antivirus from the Add or Remove programs list?
I replied YES and then went and used awsclear.exe which gave me the following info:
Resident protection - Removed
Mail protection - Removed
Explorer extensions - Removed
Registry - Removed
Program files - Removed
avast!4 was successfully removed
However most of the contents of the Avast folder in Program Files seemed to be intact.
–
I reboot and reinstalled Avast. At the end of the reinstall my StartupMonitor utility (which watches to see what is being out into the systen for laoding at startup said this:
The program avast! has registered the executable "" to run at system startup.
Do you wish to allow this change?
I said YES and took a look at the registry where I saw that the following key
has Avast entry with a value of “”. This is familiar!
I rebooted. On starup there was no Avast icon in system tray and a blank System32 folder window appears at boot-time which was not appearing in the boots before I started this process.
GRRRR! What do I do next? AVG 7?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ has Avast entry with a value of “”
I used Avast Tweaker (in Avast Ext Control) to see the two icons. Then I rebooted.
I see nowhere that you manually deleted the suggested registry entries.
Having used three different tools to try and uninstall avast I’m not surprised you got the error.
Error loading.
The specified module could not be found.
Forget the two icons! the empty registry key HKLM.….…\Run Avast, effectively means avast isn’t being run, no avast being run, no icons, you can get the icons back, but the next time you boot, no run avast, no icons.
GRRRR! What do I do next? AVG 7?
That would be your loss and choice, however, there are many ex AVG7 users now using avast.
Please lets try what Vlk suggested in a previous thread, use Add Remove programs to uninstall avast, delete the registry keys manually, reboot, check and see if there are any avast folders remaining if so delete them, then install.
I made a mistake when I did not write at what point I deleted that registry key. I did delete it and I deleted a bit more but I omitted to put this important info in my post to this board!
To go back to what I did actually do … after I found that much of the contents of the Avast folder in program Files was intact, I deleted as many of the entries as possible although there was one DLL which was locked so I had to leave that.
I also went to the registry and deleted the following entries:
(1) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run - I deleted the Avast entry
(2) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ALWIL
(3) This put me in the mood to delete a bit more so I deleted all the keys I could find with “avast” or “alwil” in them. There were about eight or so of them. I hadn’t done this zealous deleting of registry keys before so I figured that it would not be the sole cause of my current problem.
So in fact I have done what you suggested in your most recent post but it still led to my reinstall not being right.
“Technical” asks me what folder I install Avast to. He is right to suspect that I change the default … the very first time I installed Avast it was to “C:\Program Files\Avast”. However I later installed to the very similar named but different folder “C:\Program Files\Avast!” (with the exclamation mark at the end). I did this deliberately to try and get a new clean install of Avast as I was having icon problems by then.
I have not installed to the default which I recall is “C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast”. And I prefer not to do so as I do not remember supplier’s names as well as I remember their software’s name.
Furthermore he is uneasy about StartupMonitor. However it just alerts me whenever a change in the startup locations is attempted. I usually let the change go ahead but I find it useful to know and remember that something has been altered.
I really don’t want to go back to AVG. I was on version 6 and stripped it out when I heard that support and updates for 6 was being stopped but the word was that version 7 was more bloated. I like what I have seen of Avast and would much prefer to use Avast. But of course, I need it to install correctly.
So what do I do now? I suspect that Avast will have yet other registry keys which I have not touched as I presume that it’s registration flags and countdown timer of days used is hidden somewhere in the registry.
Honestly, it’s difficult to imagine the next step.
Maybe uninstalling both with Control Panel and awsclear.exe (uninstaller) (download at avast website).
Booting all the times required.
Delete the files under the avast and avast! folders.
Installing again.
So in fact I have done what you suggested in your most recent post but it still led to my reinstall not being right.
Are there any error messages, can you give us any more information?
However, I would guess because you have installed avast in a non-standard folder, awsclear.exe and RejZor’s External Control Tool may have difficulty not finding the avast installation where expected, especially if avast has been partially uninstalled so the uninstall information is not available,so defaults may be used (incorrectly in this case).
This may well be the reason files were left behind as you mentioned, though I can’t say for certain.
I have not installed to the default which I recall is "C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast". And I prefer not to do so as I do not remember supplier's names as well as I remember their software's name.
This could be a contributory factor, there could possibly be multiple registry entries for avast.
I too am running out of ideas, but running a registry cleaner looking for registry keys that have bad/missing links may get rid of any invalid avast registry entries.
David, what you say may well be what is happening.
I guess I would need to reinstall to theose two non-standard directories and then use Avast’s Add/Remove entry or perhaps RejZor’s Avast External Control tool or even both on each of the two recreated folders. Then I would need to install Avast to it’s usual “Alwil” folder in order to try and standardise the new installation. But even then Avast may not work any better. All the reboots involved to do this cleanly make it seem too daunting for me to try.
I ran three different registry cleaners and was pretty aggressive in my selection of I threw out. Then i rebooted and then installed Avast before I touched anything else. After Avast installed I rebooted as requested by the setup program. As the system came back up, the firewall (Zone Alarm) said Avast setup wanted to pass so I said yes. Then I got a second identical message and I said yes again. Immediately after that I got a Win Explorer open at System32 which I know is due to the empty value in the Avast entry of the “Run” key (see passim).
No icon in the system tray. Avast does not intercept the system when I run the EICAR test file. The only Avast processes i can see running are ashMaiSv.exe, ashServ.exe and aswUpsSv.exe.
After this I run RejZor’s tool and only then do I see an Avast window which says “Welcome to avast! Home Edition” and which gives me 60 days. I must have scrubbed the day counter in my registry cleaning and yet in none of this was I asked for a registration number. Then the icons appear with an introductory balloon message.
Avast is now working and detects Eicar when I try to run it (although not if I run Eicar.com in the XP DOS window).
I reboot and it is all back to square one. No icons. System32 window. Same processes running as before.
By the way, is Avast trying to be a bit clever in how it passes through a firewall to update itself? My Zone Alarm has trapped Avast’s 16 attempts occurring every two seconds to update itself. And yet I have got all instances of Avast in Zone Alarm’s Program Control set to be permitted to pass.
In my Zone Alarm there are entries for “avast antivirus service”, “avast! antivirus update” “avast e-Mail Scanner Service” and "avast Web Scanner. I have no program of any sort whatsoever which I explitly block - all programs are either invited to ask me when they try to pass through or they have explicit permission from my settings. I have no andvanced firewall settings. If anything I tend to permit rather too much through the firewall than too little.
It looks to me that Avast was looping in trying to connecting to somewhere and that my firewall decided that it was under repeated probing or an attack and shut off access temporarily. I know my old Sygate firewall did this and probably Zone Alarm does too.
I am making a separate post of the Zone Alarm log as this board’s software does notpermit me to inlcude it here as the posting is too long.
I can think of only two last things before I remove Avast permanently:
(1) I will manually edit the registry to put in the correct value of the Avast entry in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Can you tell me what this should be?
(2) Maybe I can invoke RejZor’s “Show Tray Icon” routine (as the first checkbox in his Avast Tweaker option of his Avast External Control tool
I personally wouldn’t re-install to the non-standard folders as this may be causing some of the problem, just use the default folder as you have.
Lets try not to introduce other issues like eicar, zone alarm, or anything unrelated to this problem until we resolve this problem.
(1) I have checked what I have in my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and the data value is C:\PROGRA~1\ALWILS~1\Avast4\ashDisp.exe try that.
(2) As I have mentioned before, that will only work until you next boot and because the .….….…\Run is empty, no icon. Hopefully manually entering the value into the Run avast value data will resolve it.
I went and entered what you have written into the registry key value for Avast. Then I rebooted but unfortunately it does not help my system to launch Avast. There must be something somewhere else which is not right on my system and which the Avast Ext Ctrl tool and/or Avast’s unuinstall routine is not managing to clear out. Or alternatively the Avast setup routine does not fully re-install the whole Avast program and so I don’t get the icon.
I asked in the Zone Alarm forum about preventing ZA from sensing the repeated comms attempts as an attack and they suggested I enter the Avast programs into ZA and explicitly give the programs full access. I did that but still no joy. (I see the very recent beta of the new “point release” of Avast has something to do with improved working with Zone Alarm.)
It’s a pity that I can’t get Avast to work. I really like Avast as it is really doe seem to me to be the best free antivirus I have come across. However if Avast doesn’t launch itself to automatically protect my system when i boot up then that is not something I can take lightly. I have already spend very many hours on collecting data and trying various remedial actions on this one problem in order to get Avast back to normal. I feel I really can not afford to spend any more time to sort something out with Avast which I would not have expected to have gone wrong in the first place.
So I have to report that I have reluctantly gone to AVG 7. So far AVG 7 is well behaved. Yes, the function in AVG is clealry not as good as that which Avast provides but at least AVG seems (so far!) to protect my system from viruses without any intervention being needed from myself.
I guess that when Avast gets to version 5 (where hopefully Avast’s installation and uninstallation routines get somewhat rewritten) then I may try it again and hopefully use it as my main antivirus tool.
Until then, I saw in another thread that Technical was using Avast as a main antivirus and was also using AVG as an on-demand scanner. Obviously I can’t do it that way.
But can I install Avast to be only an on-demand scanner? If so then what option do I take during installation and how (bearing in mind that I can’t see the Avast icon in the system tray would I invoke Avast to do (1) an on-demand scan and (2) an update of itself.
Thanks to everyone, especially DavidR, and Technical for the help.
Smolls, see you ruound.
It’s a pity that you lose avast.
Anyway, next time, try not installing avast twice and disable programs that could interfere on installation: PrevX, Ad-watch, Teatimer, the firewall, etc.
Good luck 8)
