Well like I mentioned earlier, I solved my problem but in hindsight I think what has happened is Avast8 has changed so much there are two problems:
1. it changes it's loading order/hooks and conflicts with other services present in XP
2. it install UI is getting far too bloated for XP
By uninstalling all traces of Avast and starting over with an ancient version, it corrected the service hooks and install UI problems - the upgrade method from old versions to newer Avast is different than starting from scratch and uses a semi-slient install method that works better on XP. It also seems to correct the loading order, at least for me.
I also disabled all "social" and community options in Avast, they are getting far too carried away with the constant extras but at least most of it can be disabled now.
I think they just need to give a native UI option that looks like the old Avast5 system for older hardware. I am not sure how people with screen readers even use the newer ones, it's all a proprietary skin overlay.
I know this seems implausible but somewhere during this process it screwed up all my fonts and windows UI settings, I think it has to do with having to go to safe mode which I almost never do. Spent all day tweaking it back.
It's a free product so trying not to get upset with Avast but if they break everything again for 9 I am going to just have to walk away. Between all the reboots and UI tweaking I lost four hours today messing with this.
I do like the software updater, nice way to gently nag people and keep systems more secure.
The remote access ability however is a bit scary, even if it's disabled in the free version. I mean gee, remote access api inside an anti-virus, what could possible go wrong?
