Were you connected at that time?
Are you using ODBC or XML method of storage?
I was connected, yes. Unless my cable goes out, I am usually always connected
I have two HDDs, both of which are formatted in NTFS file system. I don't use any ODBC or XML methods.
More details here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1647
I haven't had time to play with the .ini file yet. I will post any result once I have some time. I'm certainly willing to try, though not sure that the skinning is really the culprit.
Your avast! installation is corrupted for sure.
Do you have any other antivirus in your system?
While I do agree that something is definitely wrong, I'm actually not so sure that my installation is corrupted. As I mentioned, if I boot into safe mode and then try to load avast! antivirus, it loads up just fine. This makes me think that there is something else running when I boot up normally (some other process) or some particular windows setting I am using that is prevening avast! antivirus from loading. I used to use NAV 2003, which I uninstalled prior to installing avast. When I noticed my problem with avast, I ran Rnav2003.exe to ensure that NAV had been completely uninstalled. So at this point, there should not be any other antivirus (or traces thereof) on my system.
Did you 'downgrade' it to free version?
Here's the exact order of what I did:
1. Uninstalled NAV 2003 using add/remove programs in the control panel
2. Installed avast! pro edition. Chose to perform virus scan on next boot, which found one bad file (not sure if it was a virus or just a suspicious file. It was associated with "popcaploader", something yahoo games uses for some of it's web-baed java games. Anyway, I chose to remove the file.
3. Noticed that although all sys tray features seemed to be working, avast! program would not load.
4. Tried to uninstall avast using aswclear util. Util froze up and would not complete uninstallation. This happened multiple times. Booted into safe mode, ran aswclear again, and then it worked. avast was uninstalled.
5. Ran Rnav2003.exe to remove any traces of NAV 2003.
6. Re-installed avast. However, this time, I chose the free home version instead of pro. So yes, I have in a sense downgraded. However, my problem existed on my earlier installation of the pro version, so I don't think it's because of the downgrade.
7. Still have the home version installed. Avast program still will not load, unless I boot into safe mode.
As a little side-note, I think it may be related, the fact that I had to go into safe mode to uninstall avast, and that I have to go into safe mode in order to successfully load the avast program.
Are you sure you're clean?
Is there any strange process running?
Since I performed a boot-up scan and found only one file, which was removed, I think I'm clean. I don't notice anything unusual in the task manager.
Thanks again for all the help. I'm sure avast is great and I know a lot of people seem to like it. Hopefully I can figure out what's going on with my situation!