The resident protection should start automatically (depends on which one), assuming that you have enabled what you want or rather havent terminated any that run automatically.
So it should come one when the system starts, you might not see the avast icon, which is the user interface but not the protection for a little while, then you see it spinning. There is a lot going on at boot (restrict non-essential programs), other essential processes starting.
The ashMaiSv.exe and ashWebSv.exe are windows services that start Manually, e.g. they need to be enabled in avast however these will start a little later than essential programs/processes.
So can you expand what your problem further, what is it that you want to start or what is it that hasn't started ?
What is your OS ?
