This post will only be relevant if other members report a similar problem.
On my system (XP Home+SP2) Avast (4.5.561; 0505-2) is loaded during start up and up to a very short time ago (2-3 days) I always got an error message. This was because of the very obvious reason that at the time of startup I was not connected to the internet. This happened at a time of my choosing.
Now I get no error message! But Avast is still in my startup.
At the same time (so it seems to me) when I first logon on to the internet I get an error message:
Visual C++ Runtime Library
Runtime Error!
Program: C:\.....\iexplore.exe
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact etc etc
Despite the error message, I am now connected to the internet but with no IE
I can now run IE again with no problems for the rest of the day!
It is possible that the two situations (Avast & IE) are totally unrelated
Or I may have a minor problem that is affecting Avast as well as IR
( I have no viruses, spyware etc)
But there certainly is the possibility that Avast is causing some sort of problem. As you know I find that AshServe.exe occasionally gives rise to Out of Memory type errors at shutdown.
I really would be grateful for any advice, comments etc that you could provide
John