Running Avast Internet Security version 7.0.1474 under Windows Vista Home Premium SP2.
If Avast is currently polling the server for an automatic update to the virus definitions, there is nothing visible in the interface (that I can determine) which makes it clear to the user that this is the current status. Ordinarily that would not be a problem. However.
If I choose to activate a manual update, while the program is already running (and yet to complete) an automatic update, then the interface gets permanently stuck on “Step 1/2”. The automatic update still proceeds in the background (popup eventually appears showing that updates have been installed) but the interface remains stuck on Step 1/2, and the summary section shows the version numbers as greyed out with no green tick.
As a related issue, it may be beneficial to have a “cancel update” button for use when it is in the middle of an update process, but in reality the only benefit of this button would be to unfreeze the above effect, and removing that bug so that it does not freeze would be a preferable solution.