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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: cleoni on February 13, 2010, 10:49:16 AM

Title: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: cleoni on February 13, 2010, 10:49:16 AM
Hello, I am a longtime home user of Avast 4, and I have recently updated to Avast 5, exactly to version

5.0418 - it is the free version - running on Vista 32bit.

The antivirus looks cool and I am sure it works brilliantly as the previous versions.

I would like it to stop from popping up with a window all the time MSWindows starts up.

Is there any setting for this? It is really annoying.

Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: Vlk on February 13, 2010, 11:38:29 AM
Which window do you mean? :)
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: superhacker on February 13, 2010, 04:17:05 PM
may be the dial up windows,i got 2 of them when the first time you open the GUI,but it is ok to me
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: cleoni on February 13, 2010, 07:31:54 PM
See attached.

This window pops up every single time I restart the computer.

I tried all the obvious options, but still it pops up.

(please note, I just registered to the free version so It's not because the license is about to expire)
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: DavidR on February 13, 2010, 08:47:11 PM
Well there is nothing abnormal in the UI picture (it is secured), mine doesn't open on restart as this is a user startup entry and should have /nogui after it in the windows configuration settings (Windows key + R together, type msconfig), see image, is yours the same ?
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: superhacker on February 13, 2010, 08:57:00 PM
HI cleoni:
copy the next lines into notepad then safe them as *.reg file name it for example gui.reg,then run it,then press ok,the lines"look you need to disable avast self defense for seconds until you add the registry values,dont forget to re-enable it":


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"avast5"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\ALWILS~1\\Avast5\\avastUI.exe /nogui"

Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: cleoni on February 13, 2010, 09:03:00 PM
Yes I've got /nogui in the startup command... but the gui started all the time.

Let's see if the problem is just on my pc or if someone else has got the same problem...
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: superhacker on February 13, 2010, 09:10:35 PM
can you do as i tell you and reboot then repost here? ::)
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: Vlk on February 13, 2010, 10:19:16 PM
Isn't the entry duplicated? I.e. aren't there two entries that would launch AvastUi.exe?

Thanks
Vlk
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: rabies on March 23, 2010, 07:59:59 PM
I am using Avast 5.0.462 and the exact thing is also happening to my WinXP machine. The GUI just keeps popping up every time WinXP boots. This has been happening for the past 2 months since I upgraded from Avast 4.8 to 5.0, and it seems there's still no solution to this issue. Can anyone offer a solution?

Well there is nothing abnormal in the UI picture (it is secured), mine doesn't open on restart as this is a user startup entry and should have /nogui after it in the windows configuration settings (Windows key + R together, type msconfig), see image, is yours the same ?

On my machine, there are TWO avastUI /nogui entries in the startup tab of the widows configuration settings. The difference between the two is that one is located at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and the other is at HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run . Can this be the cause?

Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: DavidR on March 23, 2010, 08:31:53 PM
Interestingly I have no entries for avastUI.exe in that location, "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" see image.

Mine is under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, this one is for all users, so the one under "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" would appear to be surplus to requirements.

So if there are two (albeit in different areas) I would guess that is what Vlk is suggesting there should only be one.
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: rabies on March 24, 2010, 11:28:43 AM
Interestingly I have no entries for avastUI.exe in that location, "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" see image.

Mine is under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, this one is for all users, so the one under "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" would appear to be surplus to requirements.

So if there are two (albeit in different areas) I would guess that is what Vlk is suggesting there should only be one.

That's a screenshot of your Windows registry, right? I searched my registry and I can only find ONE entry of the AvastUI.exe /nogui and it is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run as well. There's no AvastUI entry in my HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. I wonder why there would be 2 reference to the AvastUI.exe in the Startup tab of my System Configuration Setting. Is this a bug during Avast installation?

Searching this forum, I found this thread where the poster also had the same issue on his Vista machine:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56642.0

I hope Avast developers or any knowledgeable Avast users out there can help us get rid of this bug.

Thanks for any help.
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: DavidR on March 24, 2010, 02:48:21 PM
Yes that is a screenshot of my registry for the key that I mentioned ("HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" see image.) and there are no duplicates in my msconfig, Startup tab either.

So I don't know why one would be setup, I wonder if it might somehow be related to trying to install avast on a limited user account.

In any case, if you run msconfig you can uncheck the duplicate (not delete it) for the "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" entry for avastUI.exe, apply the change, click OK to exit msconfig and reboot.

That should mean that only one occurrence of the avastUI.exe will be run.
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: rabies on March 25, 2010, 02:41:57 PM
Yes that is a screenshot of my registry for the key that I mentioned ("HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" see image.) and there are no duplicates in my msconfig, Startup tab either.

So I don't know why one would be setup, I wonder if it might somehow be related to trying to install avast on a limited user account.

In any case, if you run msconfig you can uncheck the duplicate (not delete it) for the "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" entry for avastUI.exe, apply the change, click OK to exit msconfig and reboot.

That should mean that only one occurrence of the avastUI.exe will be run.

Thanks for the advice, David. It seems to work.

I ran msconfig, unchecked the duplicate AvastUI entry located at HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run in the Startup tab, and rebooted. The Avast GUI no longer popped up on boot, but Windows showed a message that it's running on a Diagnostic startup and tells me to return to Normal startup. So I undid the changes, and rebooted. No surprise, Avast GUI popped up again.

Can you guide me on how to properly remove the duplicate AvastUI entry from the Startup?

Really appreciate your help!
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: igor on March 25, 2010, 02:48:06 PM
I think what you did was right... you shouldn't have let that MSConfig message influence you ;)
I believe (not completely sure) that this message appears only on the first reboot after you did the change by MSConfig.
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: DavidR on March 25, 2010, 03:50:26 PM
Yes, I would certainly go back in to msconfig and uncheck that item again and reboot (twice if what Igor suggests is correct about the misleading msconfig message) and see if that resolves the problem and gets rid of the "message that it's running on a Diagnostic startup and tells me to return to Normal startup."

Whilst you can leave that option unchecked forever if you want, provided there are no recurrence of the duplicate avast UI popping up you could delete that entry in msconfig (but no rush).
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: nigelb on March 26, 2010, 11:00:22 AM
I had the same problem on my XP system.  The Avast window started popping up a few days ago.  I checked MSconfig and found two identical entries for Avast in the startup tab.  I followed the instructions in this link: http://cococokie.wordpress.com/2007/06/16/how-to-remove-startup-entries-from-msconfig/

The only difference for those instructions for me is I had to reboot after checking the disable box. When the mscongig gui appeared after boot, I closed the window, ignoring the warning and went straight to regedit and found the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg\worldclock  This key contained an enty pointing to AvastUI.exe.  There was already an entry for AvastUI.exe on my system under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run which exlains why I had duplicates in the MSconfig startup tab.

I backed up the registry and deleted that key.  Then I rebooted to test and the problem appears to be solved - no Avast popup window.  

Merely disabling the msconfig entries works, but when you reboot msconfig will launch on boot, informing you that you are running in "selective startup mode"  Subsequent boots did not fix this for me.  You could opt for the don't show this warning again, but I would be very leery of doing that.



Hope this helps!

Nigel
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: rabies on March 26, 2010, 06:46:08 PM
I dug deeper to find out whats causing this bug. For XP users who may have the same problem, try going to your System Information, then navigate to Software Environment, then Startup Programs. Look for any other program other than avast5 which calls on the avastgui.exe /nogui command. In my case, it was a Cyberlink software that came free with one of my peripherals and which I barely use. I uninstalled the Cyberlink software, and that fixed the problem. Of course, if the software having conflict with Avast is one that you often use and really need, you may have to decide which software you want to keep. I don't know why this happened in the first place, but I hope this helps other users.

Thanks to everyone on this forum for all your help!
Title: Re: Avast 5 - stopping the window to appear at startup?
Post by: nigelb on March 27, 2010, 03:08:53 AM
Aha, thanks for that.  I now know what caused my duplicate entry.  I had installed a program called "World Clock" and then un-installed it later through the control panel.  Apparently it left a registry entry under the key "worldclock" which pointed to the Avast startup "AvastUI.exe

So the key, if you follow the instructions in my earlier post is to look under the MSconfig key for any entries in startupfolder/startupreg, or services and inspect the contents in the date field, looking for any Avast reference.