Why can't I activate Avast free???

[Rekrul]

I have been using Avast free for years. Every year, I get the same BS that I need to re-activate my subscription, and every year I have some kind of a problem with it. The message just popped up and I selected the free option. After a while, an ad appeared offering me a discount on the paid version, and not having any way to close it;

https://i.ibb.co/n1m1rtY/capture-001-07012024-015659.png

Even clicking the frigging GET IT NOW doesn’t do anything. In fact, I couldn’t even shut down my system. I had to forcibly power it off. When it rebooted, I opened the Avast interface and it still said it would expire in six days. I went to subscriptions and clicked on the part that said “Avast Free Antivirus” and an activation code appeared;

https://i.ibb.co/2v25sdT/capture-001-07012024-014046.png

I clicked on the “Insert activation code” button and typed in the code EXACTLY as shown. Then I clicked the “Activate” button. It gave me a swirling indicator and then I get the message “Cannot insert license”;

https://i.ibb.co/ccV1Ttf/capture-002-07012024-014128.png

Remembering past problems, I made sure to completely de-activate my firewall before any of this.

Also, each time I open the Avast interface, there’s a message telling me my subscription is expiring and there’s a green “Extend” button. Clicking that just brings up the screen with the options for paid or free versions, and selecting the free version just results in the same unclosable ad being stuck on the screen.

One time I did get an ad offering me a free trial of something, and I clicked the “No thanks” text. It went away, but Avast still isn’t activated.

So what am I doing wrong?

[NON]

Hello Rekrul, it seems you’re using Avast Free v18 on XP/Vista machine right?

There is a topic for v18 and some members posted similar situation there.

End of support for Windows XP/Vista
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.0

As far as I know, there is no stable way to re-register v18 Avast on XP/Vista environment.
The only way to dismiss these “expiring” messages are clean reinstall of Avast, as written there below.

@NON post:292

(snip)

After testing here I cannot find a stable way to re-register nor remove red X for expired Avast 18.
Clean reinstall seems to be a only stable option, while Avast cannot get new license it works (i.e. no red X) without license except for short period of time after boot.

BTW, you can close these “no X” window by taskmgr; just choose “Avast Free Antivirus” from Task-manager and click “End task”.

[rocksteady]

@NON post:2

There is a topic for v18 and some members posted similar situation there.

End of support for Windows XP/Vista
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.0

As per my last post there: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.msg1705524#msg1705524
I still get a red “x” on taskbar icon, but avast still gets def updates and seems to be running, despite the expired licence.
We are told licence of free versions should not expire, but that does no seem the case with Avast Free Antivirus v18.

I suggest you post any further questions or observations in the Windows XP/Vista section here: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.0

[Rekrul]

@NON post:2

Hello Rekrul, it seems you’re using Avast Free v18 on XP/Vista machine right?

Yes. I know it’s unsupported, but for now it’s what I have. I don’t want to nuke a (mostly) working system and install a later Windows from scratch (not that I have a copy of a later Windows version) without something to fall back on. I don’t really have the money to buy a new system, and to be honest, at this point, I don’t like any of my options. I hate that Win10/11 has forced updates and spyware. I’d be (mostly) fine with forced security updates, but they also force you to accept “feature” updates that add or remove things. I’m NOT OK with that. I was eying Win7, as I mostly just surf the net and run emulators, but even some emulator authors are dropping support for Win7/8.

I’ve considered Linux, but I know virtually nothing about it, other than a few CLI commands I’ve used that were ported to Windows. And I have a bunch of Windows Batch scripts I’ve written to automate some stuff that I do. I wouldn’t know how to port them to Linux without learning a whole new scripting language.

@NON post:2

There is a topic for v18 and some members posted similar situation there.

Thanks. I think I may have even posted in that topic a few years ago.

@NON post:2

As far as I know, there is no stable way to re-register v18 Avast on XP/Vista environment.
The only way to dismiss these “expiring” messages are clean reinstall of Avast, as written there below.

It would be nice if Avast would publish a non-expiring license for V18.

@NON post:292

After testing here I cannot find a stable way to re-register nor remove red X for expired Avast 18.
Clean reinstall seems to be a only stable option, while Avast cannot get new license it works (i.e. no red X) without license except for short period of time after boot.

Maybe I’ll wait until it expires and then see if it still downloads defs. If so, I don’t care about it having a red X as long as it doesn’t keep bugging me to renew the license.

@NON post:2

BTW, you can close these “no X” window by taskmgr; just choose “Avast Free Antivirus” from Task-manager and click “End task”.

I tried that and it didn’t work. In fact I’ve found that it is impossible to kill ANY running Avast instance with Task Manager, or the freeware Process Explorer (which probably just the exact same thing as Task Manager internally.

BTW, I was mistaken about not being able to shut down. I made a shut down script that deletes some temp files, backs up another file and then issues the shutdown command. That’s what I tried to use and it didn’t work. The next time, I used the Windows GUI shutdown option and that worked.

@rocksteady post:3

I still get a red “x” on taskbar icon, but avast still gets def updates and seems to be running, despite the expired licence.

I’ll see what mine does I actually have 18.8.xxx installed, as it was the last version for XP.

@rocksteady post:3

We are told licence of free versions should not expire, but that does no seem the case with Avast Free Antivirus v18.

I’ve only ever used Avast Free and I’ve always had to re-register it every single year. What a company says and what happens in reality are often two different things.

Funny story: Google claims that if you have no Google software installed on your system, the Google Updater will uninstall itself. A few years ago, while re-installing Avast to fix a problem, upon rebooting, I failed to notice that the Avast installer had re-checked the option to install Chrome. Of course they put the “option” down in the corner of the window. I should have been paying more attention, but I didn’t think it would come up again, since I’d already told it NOT to install Chrome. Anyway, it installed the Google Updater, then tried to download Chrome, but was blocked by my firewall. Problem averted, I figured.

Then about a month later, I was looking in Task Manager and saw Google Updater running. And of course there was no uninstall option (“It’s automatic!”), and no tool to clean it off your system. I wasn’t about to install Chrome just to uninstall it and see if the Updater went away. So I stopped the service, killed the task and deleted the files. Then I went in and deleted the 300+ entries it barfed into the registry. After removing everything Google, I was left with two entries that Windows wouldn’t let me delete. I think they eventually disappeared on their own.

So it installed Google Updater without my permission, hid itself, stayed running on my system, and didn’t provide a way to remove it. That’s pretty much the definition of malware. I decided then and there that I would NEVER install any software associated with Google.

@rocksteady post:3

I suggest you post any further questions or observations in the Windows XP/Vista section here: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=220639.0

Thanks. I’ll post if mine still works after it expires.

To be honest, I liked Avast when I first installed it many years ago, but with every update, I liked it less and less. I’m only still using it because I don’t know of any other (good) options for XP. I hate that they use a non-standard window for the GUI. I can’t count the number of times I’ve opened the GUI, then accidentally closed the browser behind it because I keep getting tricked into thinking that close box is for Avast I use a relatively small screen size, and the Avast GUI almost perfectly fits within the borders of a web browser. I also hate that scanning small files doesn’t usually produce a report unless it finds a problem. That and the GUI seems kind of unresponsive at times. Sometimes I click something and it has to think about it for a second or two.

[Dinobot2]

@Rekrul post:4

Yes. I know it’s unsupported, but for now it’s what I have. I don’t want to nuke a (mostly) working system and install a later Windows from scratch (not that I have a copy of a later Windows version) without something to fall back on. I don’t really have the money to buy a new system, and to be honest, at this point, I don’t like any of my options. I hate that Win10/11 has forced updates and spyware. I’d be (mostly) fine with forced security updates, but they also force you to accept “feature” updates that add or remove things.

With regards to Windows 10, Version 22H2 is the latest feature update they’re releasing for Windows 10, so if you upgrade to that one there will be no more big features. As far as only forced security updates, I believe there is an option from the latest update that the security updates are the ones that will be updated while you can turn the non-security updates off, or at least turn off ‘priority.’