On one of my laptops (win xp pro, all updates) at startup Avast (IS latest version) fails to load fully (no icon in the sustem tray, though the process is shown as started in MSconfig), and is preventing other startup apps (Ghost, Dropbox, HP Print monitor etc) from starting as well. Outlook opens but I cannot open mails for reading. On shutdown the system hangs showing just the wallpaper.
If I uninstall AIS everything else works fine.
I have also deployed aswclear.exe mutiple times in safe mode. Whenever I reinstall it wors fine until a reboot when I get the same problems.
My other laptop, with pretty much the same setup, is fine.
I have done that - again. Still getting the same problems. With AIS installed nothing works. Even opening the Run… window takes minutes. Services appear to be running but show no UI in the toolbar, IE does not open etc. etc. etc.
I have removed AIS again (safe mode using aswclear.exe, btw the button in this is labelled “uninstall” not “remove”) and everything else is running properly again.
Please tell me I’m not going to have to rebuild the system.
I’ve got the same problem, but none of the above fixes work. I even tried to disable Avast on boot and was going to manually start it after that, didn’t work either (strangely). Maybe I didn’t disable it the right way. Anyway, I got tired of it and uninstalled it. Will use some other AV for a while. It’s a real shame since I’ve really liked Avast for many years now.