I’ve recently installed v4.8 Home which works fine unless I turn off the pc. When I do this, the resident protection is disabled the next time I turn the pc on. If I simply restart the pc it works fine.
I’m unable to repair the installation through control panel as the option is unavailable. Every time it happens, I have to uninstall and then download and re-install avast home edition.
Is anyone else having similar problems? Please help, this is so frustrating!
What firewall are you using? Make sure that avast! is allowed/trusted/etc.
I’m using the standard windows (xp - sp3) firewall. I’ve just checked and Avast was not in the list of exceptions. I’ve just added it, soon see if that fixes the problem.
thanks for your quick reply! 
Shouldn’t be your firewall then, since you are not managing applications with it. What AV did you use before? Did you ever have Norton installed?
When I first used the pc, it had had at some point in the past had avg free installed although it had since been disabled. The pc was riddled with viruses which I managed to get rid of with avast. However, I’ve since had some major problems with the pc which has meant I’ve had to rebuild it. Now there’s hardly anything on it. It’s now really quick, the only problem being with avast as described earlier…
So avast! actually loads at boot, with the on-access-protection stopped, or some other configuration? Do you get the icon with a red symbol on it, or nothing? And you did a clean reinstall of windows (xp?) without some sample security software included? When you go to administrative tools/services do you see something like the attachment?
Yeah, avast loads no problem but the on access protection is disabled. The icon in the system tray has a red circle and I’m unable to repair it. I have to completely uninstall and reinstall to fix the problem.
It was a completely clean rebuild with no virus software included.
What about the services? BTW, are you using XP or Vista or ? Attachment is from Vista. When you right click the icon, are “On Access Protection Control” and “Start On Access Protection” grayed out or ?
Give this a try to ensure that all remnants are gone - AVG Remover, download tool from here, http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.
Problems sorted - the Alerter service was disabled. After enabling the service then restarting the pc, avast is now working as it should be.
Thanks to everyone for your help
Thanks for the update, though I have to express surprise as that isn’t on the dependency list of avast, weird. Even more so as the Alerter service is disabled on my system XP Pro and no adverse effects.
Same here! There must be something else involved.
Maybe mcleod changed something else too?
Maybe the Alerter affects something special for mcleod’s system, which in turn affects Avast?