Scan start button offscreen

[peter1]

Hi

When I right click the Avast icon in my Systems tray then left click Start Avast Antivirus the next Simple user interface page is too big and all the command buttons like Start and Cancel are off screen at the bottom. Even if I drag my Taskbar off screen and drag the page as far up as I can as well I still cant see them. This means I can't start a scan.

My o/s is Win 98 se My monitor is 13"  My screen area is 800 X 600 pixels and I'm using Avast 4.6 home edition.

Does anyone know how to reduce the size of the the Simple user interface page so that I can get the command buttons on screen and be able to click them?

Thanks in anticipation

Peter

[Lisandro]

Does anyone know how to reduce the size of the the Simple user interface page so that I can get the command buttons on screen and be able to click them?

You can run ashSimp2.exe to get the non-skinned interface.
Or you can download another skin that is smaller (Petite Blue, for instance) and double click the downloaded file.
Welcome 

[szc]

None of those skins is larger than 678x468 pixels (avast! Brushed skin), so I don't see how that can be a problem unless you are using 640x480 pixels resolution (which btw, nobody uses anymore, or very few)

Which is the skin you are using, what is it's name ?

If you can post a screenshot that would be very helpful... If you don't know how to attach a picture to your post, read this:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=8982.0

[szc]

If you are reffering to this (Simple User Interface) and I believe you are, then I really don't know what to answer. We should wait for an answer from Alwil guys since it's not a skin, it's skinless user interface. Anyway, even that one is 540x560 pixels and it should fit perfectly on your desktop if you are using 800x600 pixels resolution. If your monitor is 14" (you said 13") then I doubt you are using 800x600, more likely its set to 640x480 pixels.



Cheers !

[peter1]

Craftec

My monitor is

LG StudioWorks 55i [Monitor] (13.8"vis)

My screen area is 800 x 600 pixels,if I set it to 640 x 480 everything becomes huge.

Do you see your big screen shot above the word scan, bottom left, is just about on my screen and everything below it is offscreen.

Somebody said change the skin to a smaller skin. As far as I know I never used/installed a skin but even so Avast help says click the menu on the simple user interface If only I could find menu it would help a lot :-) Looking at you screen I still can't see Menu.

Thanks for your help I'm sure I will get it sorted someway but I'm open to all the help I can get

Peter

[szc]

Follow me now...

Click on SETTINGS up there, and then again click on SETTINGS. Now click on ENABLE SKINS for Simple User Interface and Enable skins for Explorer extension. Click OK, and then close the avast! window (click on X top right corner)... Do not forget to close avast! it's very important since skin support will not be enabled until you restart your avast!

Now, start avast! again by right-clicking avast! icon in system tray and click on START avast! antivirus...

Now you are able to use skins... All you have to do now is to visit avast! official skins download section, and install one of those skins. If you are using IE, just click on the desired skin and it will autoinstall itself automatically. If you are using Firefox, procedure is little bit different I believe...

This is the location where you can download skins from... there are some nice small skins I made for people like you, using those lower resolutions...

See here:

http://www.avast.com/eng/skins.html

First one is the smallest one I've ever made and it's called BLACK VIBE. It will fit perfectly on your screen and you will be able to see everything perfectly...

Cheers !

[szc]

And this is a screenshot of BLACK VIBE in it's original size:



I am sure it will fit on your screen without any problems... 

Regards !

[DavidR]

To me that does look small, but then again I'm using 1280x1024 so for someone using 800x600 it would look just over twice the size I see it at.

You can pick up a 15" TFT monitor relatively cheaply now with a native resolution of probably 1024x768 which would give you much more screen real estate. Or a 17" TFT with a native resolution of 1280x1024, which would look enormous by comparison.

These options of increasing the resolution does make things like text and icons smaller (unless you tweak your windows settings), so if you need 800x600 for vision reasons then this is obviously more difficult (not impossible) to set-up so you can see it easily.

[szc]

Peter1 - have you managed to solve your problem finally ? I'm sure you will be able to solve it if you just followed my advice...

My screen resolution is set to 1280x1024 pixles and still, all those skins are the same size. They will just appear larger or smaller on different screen resolutions, but still they all will be exactly the same size as we made them. Skin sizes are fixed and can't be changed by users... so, for example 600x300 pixels will always be exactly the same... and it should fit into 800x600 pixels screen resolution... if we just use the logic, we will see that it's exactly like that...

example:



However, for all those who still use 800x600 pixels screen resolution, avast! Simple User Interface could be real problem... why ? Because it's vertical size exceeds 600 pixels, and in resolution 800x600, second value is exactly the vertical size... so everything larger than 600 will be invisible, and hidden by screen edges. The biggest problem is, users are not able to resize that window, which is in my opinion not quite good thing. When we speak about skins, it's normal... because skinning engine doesn't allow us to do any resizing on the fly, but normal Window like Simple User Interface should offer resizing option IMHO...

Cheers !

[peter1]

Peter1 - have you managed to solve your problem finally ? I'm sure you will be able to solve it if you just followed my advice...

Craftec

I've downloaded and saved the skin you reccommended but I've been busy elsewhere. My browser is Opera and I'll install the skin tommorrow. I actually managed to run the scan because for the 1st time in ages I turned Avast off using Taskmaster and then started it up physically from my Start, Programs list and a little less than half screen size dialog box downloaded with a few options on it and start scan was one of them. That the way it used to be not the blo*dy full screen user interface page we get now.

Any hints about using Opera to install the skin?  Now that the downloaded skin is saved I'm wondering why I need a browser to install it.

Peter

[szc]

You don't need a browser to install it, but if you used IE, skin would autoinstall itself automatically... this way, you have to search for the compressed skin file with extension .aswcs and double-click it... then after that, everything will go automatically. Skin will install itself and it will be applied immediatelly to your avast! program.

If you know where your browser (Opera) saved that file, just double-click it and that's it...

Cheers !

[peter1]

Craftec

Everything's up and running. Even though I saved the skin download the dialog box mentioned above is apparently Avast with the downloaded skin installed, don't ask. I "officially" installed it this am but there you go at least everything works.

Thanks again Craftec and the others for all your help.

Peter

[szc]

I'm glad it works for you now... yes, if you use IE to download skins, as soon as you click on one skin it will be immediatelly downloaded to a temporary location on your hard drive, and installed automatically, no user action required at all. After few seconds you would see your avast! "wearing" new skin and appearing on your screen.

With other browsers it's different. You have to download them to your hard driver first, remember the location where you downloaded it, and then double-click the skin installation file (.aswcs) to install it manually.

Either way is simple and convinient... first one is best of all because it's 100% automatic, and second one is nothing that could be classified as different from any other skinable application's skin installation. Download the skin and install it... when it comes to avast! it's even easier. You don't have to search for the default avast! skins directory on your HD and put that skin over there. You just find downloaded skin file and double-click it... boom, and it's already installed and placed into default avast! skin folder. 

Cheers !

[peter1]

I'm glad it works for you now... yes, if you use IE to download skins, as soon as you click on one skin it will be immediatelly downloaded to a temporary location on your hard drive, and installed automatically, no user action required at all. After few seconds you would see your avast! "wearing" new skin and appearing on your screen.

Like I said I use Opera and when I downloaded the skin, Opera has it's own download manager and that gives the options of open or save. I saved it to my download folder. I save every thing I have to install there in case the installing gets banjo-ed and that saves my having to download from the net again. So like IE does Opera saved it and installed it as well.

Who cares anyway as long as it works.

Peter

[szc]

No problem Peter... also, you can check some other skins in download section, there are some other small-sized skins, so you can chose the one you prefer... for example, there are Bionic avast!, Black Liquid, Corporate, Flat'n'Simple, G5, Laah-Ra, Nippon, O-sti-X and Silhouette skins... all those I mentioned can fit on your screen without any problems... also, there is nice MacLover OSX skin made by RejZoR. I believe that one should fit on your screen as well...

Take care !
Sasha