Probably not…
When I had this trouble in the past, only uninstalling, booting, installing again, booting… solved the problem :-[
Before doing that, can you check how your avast! services are set?

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

I suppose you have to have four avast! services:

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe (avast! antivirus service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashUpdSv.exe (avast! Update Service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe (avast! Web Scanner service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe (avast! e-Mail Scanner service)

The two first of them should be Automatic loaded and the two last Manually loaded.