Thinking of installing avast!

[calicobox]

Hi

I would like to install avast!

I currently have McAfee Anti Virus. (I know to uninstall McAfee prior to installing avast!)I don't think McAfee likes my Kerio firewall.

When McAfee does an update, it turns off my firewall.  Even with my firewall on, McAfee keeps telling me I don't have a firewall installed and keeps turning on windows firewall. I really want to try another product and avast! was highly recommended.

Do you think I will have any issues downloading and installing avast! ?

Is it compatible with the following:

Windows xp home

Firefox browser

Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall

Outlook Express 6

Thanks

[Lisandro]

No trouble between avast, Kerio, Windows xp home, Firefox, Outlook Express...
If you uninstall McAfee before, well, you have great possibility to be happy with your new antivirus.
Welcome to avast 

[calicobox]

Hi 

I'm back.

Thanks for the welcome!

I uninstalled McAfee with no problem. 

Installed avast!

So far so good.

I don't have to do anything else?  Settings?  Just run it as it's installed?

[Spiritsongs]

   Hi Calico :

     To avoid any possible "conflicts" with Avast, it usually
     MORE than just "uninstalling" the prior antivirus,
     particularly if its either Norton or McAfee. Should use your
     computer's "Search > All files and folders", using the
     search "term" "McAfee" and "delete" all appropiate items.
     And to be extra cautious, it would be advisable to run a
     registry cleaner to find any items there.
     There has been "talk" on this forum that McAfee is not
     that easy to completely remove from a computer !?
     There is even a "thread" on the "PC De-Crapifier" to get
     rid of programs like McAfee .
     If you have not already done so, you should RIGHT-click
    on the Avast icon in the System Tray, clicking "VRDB" to
    "generate" it AND clicking "Program Settings" and go
     through them, setting them to your preference.

[calicobox]

Ok I will try that.

I have notice something though.

I was going through the options when I right click the icon.

When I clicked avast log viewer, the windows went transparent.

They finally came back normal but now I have a Start Avast! Antivirus
blue rectangle on my desktop that stays on top of everything.
It's in the same exact area of my desktop as if I clicked on the icon and in the list.  I hope that made sense.

It did this earlier too.  When I reboot it goes away.

[calicobox]

OMGosh! There are a ton of McAfee files that came up.

Many are shared files.  I am not sure about deleting them. 

[calicobox]

OK, I don't like to panic.  But I goggled some info, clicked on an image and my screen turned blue with white text.

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

Driver_IRQL-NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer.  If this screen appears again follow these steps:

Then there was info on what to do which I didn't write down.

It did say it had something to do with newly installed software or hardware, which the only thing I installed is avast.

Now I can follow instructions, but I am not a techie type person. 

Is this bad?

[calicobox]

I read in another post to untick the skins.  I did that and will see if it takes care of the problem.   

I have notice something though.

I was going through the options when I right click the icon.

When I clicked avast log viewer, the windows went transparent.

They finally came back normal but now I have a Start Avast! Antivirus
blue rectangle on my desktop that stays on top of everything.
It's in the same exact area of my desktop as if I clicked on the icon and in the list.  I hope that made sense.

It did this earlier too.  When I reboot it goes away.

[RejZoR]

Oh the great blue screens of death after removal of McAfee or Norton products... Sometimes i ask myself whether they do it on purpose so people think the worst of newly installed products taht aren't McAfee or Norton...

[hlloyge]

They finally came back normal but now I have a Start Avast! Antivirus
blue rectangle on my desktop that stays on top of everything.
It's in the same exact area of my desktop as if I clicked on the icon and in the list.  I hope that made sense.
It did this earlier too.  When I reboot it goes away.

Do you have ATI Video Card with ATI Control Centre installed? If so, uninstall only Control Center.

Ivan.

[djdsk8]

I would just like to mention that I have seen this - one of my client machines also has the problem with the lingering boxes.  It's an IBM laptop with Win XP sp2 (all updates as of 8/9/06) and Office 2003, almost nothing else loaded besides AVAST and a few "rate quoting software programs"(I also have these on every other client machine I have with no problems).  Also the chipset and on-board video are Intel I believe (extream graphics 2)

It did previously have Norton installed which I uninstalled pretty thourally

Restarting temporarily gets rid of the boxes.  Never seen this before, seems like no one else in the forums has figured it out yet - if you have please post back

*also I had that exact same blue screen with [Driver_IRQL-NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL] about a week ago on my own machine, I just let it back up the memory and restart and everything has been fine ever since -- these kind of errors are ususally do to a hardware problem but I haven't changed any of my hardware in months and that was the first time I saw it - Do you think it could be do to a Microsoft update??

Thanks 

[testy]

I posted another thread about this but this is exactly what is happening to my computer and it started last week.  The image cannot be removed until you reboot . Also, if you right click the blue ball the screen that pops up is oddly opaque. I wanted to send a screen shot but couldn't remember how to do it. Calico thanks for posting that picture. It's strange trying to surf the net with these words plastered all over your screen.  I haven't used another virus scanner but Avast for years.  (I'm temporarily using AVG till this problem is resolved because it's so annoying).  I definitely think this is an Avast problem, not a hardware problem.

[buttoni]

To avoid conflicts & be sure you have gotten your McAfee fully off your system (including the registry) follow my instructions below.  Remember to disable & uninstall the Security Center LAST!

Log onto Windows using an account with admin privileges. 
First remove the McAfee product via Windows Add/Remove Progams in Control Panel (or in Start, Programs, Mcafee, Mcafee uninstaller, Specific product on pull Down) But you're not done at this point.  That doesn't get everything for that product uninstalled. 

Next go to this McAfee Support site for product specific removal tools/instructions:

http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=71943 

It helps to print out the screens & use as checklist before you begin.   
I've used these tools successfully removing "remainders" of VirusScan, Privacy Service and SpamKiller with no problems on still-running McAfee Firewall. 

The tools remove the "leftovers" in the Windows Registry, as well.  If the files are not there because you already removed them, it will so indicate "file not found" as the tools work.  I thought I had everything off my machine and lo & behold the tools found even more things I needed to get off.  I also did the Search SpiritSongs suggested and found a few more things.  After the above steps, I have had no problems with the installation, operation or updating of my Avast!

If problems should occur, you can join the McAfee user forum (free) or come here to seek further assistance that your particular system configuration may require.

http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/index.php