Hi! and thank you for trying to help.
It is the free home user version of Avast 5.
[Quote] What version of Avast do you currently have on your machine? Was this an upgrade from 4.8 or a clean install?
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Sorry but thereby hangs a tale or two! :-\ … And an amount of water has now passed under the bridge but I will try to relate it as best as I recall.
When I first tried to upgrade from 4.8 to 5 the upgrade as such went OK but 5 would not update the definitions, either automatically or even manually, or even downloaded direct from the Avast site. I Can’t fully remember the wording but the error messages indicated a connection problem which I didn’t have.
During this period I am pretty sure that I uninstalled and tried a completely new install and I think I tried this more than once.
I remember downloading the Avast removal tool and using it at some point but can not remember if I used the Avast removal tool or carried out a full (3 x stage) ‘Revo-uninstaller’ un-install prior to the final install of 5 which has worked fine this last 12 months. I most likely would have done the latter in safe mode just to make sure I got everything that was gettable.
Anyway none of that did any good because it turned out to be just my firewall (which had worked OK with 4.8 but 5 didn’t like it) I ditched the firewall and got a replacement and everything on the Avast 5 front has been absolutely fine ever since.
[Quote]The license key box has disappeared because you are now registered (it should tell you this on the main GUI page). You will get a 14-day reminder pop-up notice from Avast when it is time to renew again, but let’s try to fix this problem before then, otherwise, you can just do it at that time if you have the Free version.
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It is as you say showing as ‘registered’ but then it was before I entered the licence key because it was registered of course having still just over a month and two weeks left before expiry.
I realise that the licence key box has retreated because I have entered the key but of course this is my catch 22. The licence is still showing ‘a due to expire date’ but I can’t enter the key again because I have already entered it.
Just pondering your last statement, re ‘I will get another reminder 14 days before expiry’ with your experience/knowledge is it conceivable that I may have entered the key too soon and the renewal date will change at 14 days or at some point between now and then.
Anyway if no other solution is available I will of course try a full re-install as you suggest, but I would prefer to get this install right than run the risk leaving something behind and giving myself a greater headache.
What I plan to do after this post is run the repair module then at least when the next reminder comes along I know that there is nothing wrong with the current install.
Unless you have some additional advise after reading this post, I will wait for the 14 day reminder and take it from there.
Thanks for your help it is appreciated.
Jack