tray-icon-absent

hi, trying to help someone with Vista 64-bit - 5.0.507 successfully installed but after each restart, avast icon does not show in the system tray (needless to say “show tray icon” box is checked), even though task manager indicates that avast services are running - any idea?

You say the avast services are running, does that include avastUI.exe, as that is what displays the icon ?

What happens when you run avastUI.exe from the avast5 folder ?

What other security based software do you have that might block new startup entries, e.g. Spybot S&D (TeaTimer), AdAware (AdWatch), SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor (StartUpGuard or OnGuard), PrevX, WinPatrol, ProcessGuard, etc. ?

  • Try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. This has in the past resolved this out of sync issue between reported and actual VPS version.
    Or Make a link to ashdisp.exe in your startup folder. I wouldn’t try this as a first option (but a final one) as you won’t be able to find the true cause of the problem.

In my XP Pro SP3 task manager it is shown as running as a Process, services aren’t displayed in the XP Task Manager.
It isn’t run as a service on my system.

In opening the avastUI window, does it also display the avast Orange tray icon ?

I never heard of adwatch pro before, do you mean AdAware Pro with adwatch?

If so it monitors or blocks new startup entries check and ensure it isn’t blocking it.
There should be an entry in the msconfig, startup tab for the avastUI.exe, see image, is that entry there ?

I’m somewhat confused as ashDisp.exe is the icon for avast 4.8 not 5.0, so there is something weird going on. Possibly a screwed installation of 5.0.

So I would suggest a clean reinstall (including removal of 4.8 remnants like ashDisp.exe):
Download the latest version of avast, 5.0.507 and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn’t save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

  • Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear5.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 4.8 and 5.0).
    1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can’t do that start from the next step), reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 4.8 if previously installed and then for 5.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.

Note: I don’t know how UAC will rear its ugly head (my not using Vista) in safe mode, but you may need to run avast5.exe as an administrator.

Well… nah. It’s the darned “adblocker” that’s causing all of this. It prevents removal of old autorun stuff on uninstall and adding new autorun stuff on install. He’d be just fine with editing the entry for ashDisp.exe and replacing it with c:\program files\alwil software\avast5\avastui.exe /nogui (might need to adjust this path to fit your system)

i finally managed to fix the problem with aswclear - i now have avastui in the startup (but i had to manually remove ashdisp) - thank you very much david for your help!

No problem, glad I could help.

A belated welcome to the forums.