Well, I didn't see anyone having trouble updating to the newest version (4.7.1043) so I updated a while ago. It downloaded and installed as all the other programs updates have done. Told me I needed to reboot - so I did.
Then I noticed that it took a long time for the icons to show up on the systray. avast spinning stopped for awhile and when I hovered over the avast icon, it only said 2 services were running (I normally have 4 services running). When I checked the 'about' on avast, nothing would come up. AND, there was one important service that did not load, "Symantec LiveState Recovery" (this is my image backup service for backing up my HDD). I tried checking mail, and OE worked fine, but I didn't get the normal pop-up from ZoneAlarm telling me a new service was trying to access the internet (which would have been avast 'Internet mail' module). This should have happened since avast is now a new program... always has in the past after program update.
I saw somewhere on the forum that there were a few people who said that the 'about' on avast didn't show as being the new version (1043) until they rebooted a second time. So I decided to try that. My windows (WinXP Media Ctr) wouldn't shut down -- said avast was not responding. I waited for awhile and finally had to tell it to 'shut down now'. Then another module of avast wouldn't respond either (forget which module, sorry). Had to 'shut down now' on that one too.
Then at next reboot, everything loaded normally... including 'LiveState Recovery' thank goodness. avast now showed 4 services running. Then when I launched OE, I got the expected pop-up from ZoneAlarm that a new program (avast) wanted access. Same with IE, ZoneAlarm pop-up said avast (webshield) wants access.
So everything is fine after the second reboot. The only thing I can think of is... normally I clean out temporary internet files before I do an update or download and install a new program. I forgot to do that this time.
Just a possible heads up to others. <shrug>