I’m thinking about switching from AVG. First a couple of questions please. Does Avast offer any type live support? Does Avast have any problems with XP using Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird for e-mail. Thanks
What do you mean by live support? The only support is this forum here AND avast support centre http://support.avast.com/index.php?languageid=1&group=eng
I’ve been using Avast Home over 3 years, on XP Home, with Thunderbird and Firefox, with no problems whatsoever.
This forum provides some of the best free program support on the web, I reckon. I don’t think there is any “live” support, so to speak, emails to the company etc would probably be it.
Often asking about any issues on the forum will resolve issues prior to needing to ask the company.
If you do switch to Avast, I’d suggest downloading the full setup file first, available Here, (direct download, English version, 47.5 Mb), save it to the desktop, download the AVG remover from this page, get the version appropriate to your OS, 32 or 64 bit, going offline (disconnect the computer from the web), uninstalling AVG via the control panel, reboot, run the AVG remover, reboot if prompted, then install Avast from the full setup file.
One of the reasons why I use avast! is this forum due to my experiences with AVG’s horrible forum.
Keep watch on the avast! blog for breaking news:
http://blog.avast.com
Choose the right decision if u must!^^
and avast! rhymes with the word right^^
-AnimeLover^^
Welcome to avast forums 
There are a lot of ex-AVG users here (including me)
Welcome to the forums, ts4putt.
You will also find that the official avast! team also contributes to the help on this forum when they have the time. But, most of the time, you will be able to get all the help you need from the regular users of this forum who have very much experience with the program and experience with solving malware problems.
Please come back often and learn more.
Hi ts4putt,
As CharleyO says we react swiftly. There is a lot of general security information here, specifically on malcode/malware cleansing and prevention of course. Also qualified malware eliminators here. Search the forums here and see for yourself what we all here have to offer you. Welcome to this community and I certainly hope you gonna like it here,
polonus (malware fighter)
P.S.
I am a test pilot for the Fx Minefield nightly developers build and a member of the NoScript forum (nick there is “luntrus”) very much interested in in-browser security (script, request blocking, blocking tracking etc. etc.)
Tarq57 I reckon you sold me. I am now a proud user of Avast and all is working. Does it cause any problems merging the VRDB icon with the main Avast icon. Looks a little busy. One more question when I hover over the Avast icon it says “Avast on line scanning 7 providers total 6 running.” Where do I find which are running and which isn’t or is this important? Thanks again for all the responses.
Make sure the avast plugin is not disabled into MS Outlook:
Outlook 2007 > Tools > Trust center > Add-inns > Manage Disabled items.
Outlook 2003 > Help > About > Disabled items.
Outlook 2002 > Help > About Microsoft Outlook > Disabled items.
Outlook 2000 > Tools menu > Options > Other > Advanced Options > Add-In Manager.
The message “The provider is waiting on the subsystem to start” will be shown there until you open MS Outlook.
The plugin will be enabled automatically after that.
This is the 7th provider.
No problems if you do that, I agree it does clutter it up a bit.
I should also point out that in the upcoming release of avast! 5 the VRDB will not be included because it is somewhat obsolete. So you can like many here (including myself) disable it if you wish, although, that is up to you. There is no harm in leaving it on, though
One more question when I hover over the Avast icon it says "Avast on line scanning 7 providers total 6 running." Where do I find which are running and which isn't or is this important? Thanks again for all the responses.
Now I must get this right, I always mix these up 
This message is quite common and if you left click the avast! tray icon and click ‘more details’ then you will see all of the providers. The one that is not running will be the ‘Outlook/Exchange’ provider which is designed for use with Microsoft Outlook. If you don’t have it installed, I wouldn’t worry, and it will start up when you start Outlook in the case that you have it installed.
-Scott-
Hehe…Tech posted also…oh well, it is all relevant anyway
One more question and I will go away happy for awhile. If I go to menu-settings-trouble shooting and turn off root kit scan at start up ( I assume this is what I have to Esc from at start up) will it still scan for root kits when running a regular scan? Thanks
Yes, it will (on the full computer scanning).
It is also possible that it is a boot scan that is running at startup.
The boot scan is one of the Avast features that not many others have, a way of scanning for and removing malware before the OS loads. (Lots of malware can lock their files from removal, or hide more effectively once the OS has loaded.) So this feature is useful where you have something that is difficult to remove.
The rootkit scan is something that occurs, silently, a few minutes after OS start, and there shouldn’t be anything there to “esc” out of.
Tarq57 I reckon you sold me. I am now a proud user of Avast and all is working.Cool. I think you'll not regret it! And look at the number of users who replied, fairly quickly, to your questions. I don't know if you'd get that sort of response on many other forums.
Avast is 100 % better than AVG.
Jump to Avast with your eyes closed. No Problem!
lol you are like advertising
Let him try to see if he/she likes avast by him/her:self first