hi gobstopper,

A few .jpg’s attached below to compare with your system. Is taskmanager showing avastsvc.exe as present and running as a process? Click ‘show all processes’ to view.

In the Search programs and files box Start>search programs and files>type services.msc>press enter. Compare what you see to the pics below and if different say where it is different. avast! runs here w/o any problems.