vista and avast - sidebar @ windows media player & other problems

windows vista home premium, avast 4.7.942 (pro then also tried and happened on home)
[[[update now running 4.7.986 still problem]]]
vps 000736-2
amd dual core, 2gb ram
broadband internet
web based email
vista basic software (firewall, defender), also adaware

the problem -

had avast pro i guess during the trial, work perfectly! great software! guess the trial came near its end, no biggie just buy it, so i go and use the license key click ok, it does its thing great! windows side bar working perfectly, aol instant messenger working perfectly as well, windows media player working also. no new software, files, or updates were installed outside avast.

turn my computer off for the night go to bed

turn on computer next day:
-windows side bar starts, but the gadgets dont load, gui seems to have failed
-try and launch a video wmp does play it (open task manager view processes try n launch again, wmp launches for about 1second then closes, try and launch it with out loading a video (just clicking shortcut) same thing)
-aim doesnt launch either, same situation as described above for windows media player.

i try restarting, reinstalling aim & wmp still problem

i run system restore to go back 2 days

computer runs normal again, except avast is still about to expire

long story, short, tried license key 2 more times same problems, updated avast tried few more times still problem, uninstalled switched to home instead of pro still problem.

i really like your software!! but this seems to be too much of a problem/headache for me! i hope there is an easy fix, or even a way that i could just use the home version at least and upgrade later

i upgraded to v986, none of the on access scanners were working but wmp & the sidebar worked fine!!, i updated avast, it asked me to restart i did and when the computer came back on… back to the sidebar & wmp problems

also now my internet is cutting in and out only on this machine… boot time scan showed no viruses, adaware showed nothing as well, system restore back computer works fine avast works great but as described has the expiration issue… should i just let it expire and switch to something else besides avast for AV??

screen shot of sidebar problem:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s167/gramgreg/sidebarerror.jpg

any more specifics that i may not have listed?

thank you ahead of time for your time and efforts!

Hi Jason, and welcome to the avast forums.

Could you please try the reg fix described here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=27835.msg227957#msg227957 ?

Thanks
Vlk

thanks, will try and post an update =)

update:

avast works, didnt see any error messages, wmp launches ok now! however sidebar and aim are still buggy, tried reinstalling - nothing =( going to try and do a system restore point to now, then reset back a few days, try the reg file and then see if that doesnt fix everything

thanks everyone for your help so far! much appreciated!