Lost Avast icon in Taskbar

[Wainui]

Hi,
For some strange reason I have lost the Avast Icon in my Taskbar. And I no longer get the little Blue screen popping up in the Taskbar telling me that the "Virus Data base has been Updated"
I also noticed that in MSCONFIG Avast is not listed in the Startup menu.
I tried the Repair option from the Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs but that did not make any difference.
I'm running windows XP Home.

[DFXBB]

Start "ashDisp.exe" in the folder where you install avast!

You can put a shortcut to this program in "startup" folder,
or add a startup program in the registry:

Run "regedit" and add a new string value to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
as the picture shown below.

[oldman]

I also noticed that in MSCONFIG Avast is not listed in the Startup menu.
I'm running windows XP Home.

I'm not using xp, but avast does show up in msconfig on win 98se. What does task manger show?

[Wainui]

DXFBB,
That tip on "ashDisp.exe" worked fine and the Icon is restored in the Taskbar. Thank you. 
However, I checked the Registry and I dont have a Run Key in my Registry. I have RunOnce and RunOnceEX


Oldman,
There is no entry in MSCONFIG relating to Avast. It did have ashDisp but it seems to habve disappeared.   

[alanrf]

Are you running an antispyware product on your system?

[oldman]

Like I said, I'm using 98se and I'm not sure if avat will show up in xp.

The ashDisp.exe is the exe for the icon. Did you recently run a reg cleaner or antispyware program? There are a few programs that will remove ashDisp.exe. Search this forum for ashdisp.exe, you will find a work around or two and which programs cause it's removal.

[Wainui]

Alanrf & Oldman,

Thanks for your replies.
I do have Spycatcher whcih I ran about a week ago.
Hmmm...... can't win, can we ?
Would Spycatcher  have also removed the Run key in the Registry ?

[Lisandro]

Would Spycatcher  have also removed the Run key in the Registry ?

Most probably...
You can add the path to ashDisp.exe into a value named avast! in the Windows Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
If that does not help, please, uninstall, boot, install again, boot.

[DavidR]

You should check SpyCatcher and see firstly if it has a function to monitor start-up programs and if so, it really should ask you what to do rather than just delete the item, secondly it should also have a /quarantine/back-up function so it can restore incorrectly deleted items.

[Wainui]

OK, this is what I have got and done :

My Registry is playing funny games on me. The Run key is there sometimes then  when I restart and check it again it has disappeared. I did add the "Avast" string  in the Run key but now the whole thing has gone again. Hmm....

I have stopped Spycatcher from scanning on Startup   

[DavidR]

Since you stopped spycatcher scanning startup entries I would like to hope if you created the avast entry in the Run key (if you can find it) it should remain on boot, does it ?

If not I would try disabling spycatcher completely on startup and see if that has any effect.
Or you could try making a link to <path...>ashdisp.exe in your startup folder, C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

[Wainui]

No matter what I tried doing to Spycatcher, it would always come back on Startup and muck things about. So, I uninstalled Spycatcher completly.
Then I uninstalled Avast, restarted the computer and downloaded and reinstalled the latest version of Avast.
Everything is cool now. The Icon in the Taskbar is restored  and the Run key in Regedit has also been restored. 

Spycatccher is history on this computer.   

Thanks for all your help   

[oldman]

Glad you got it. Don't know much about spycatcher, but thanks for posting the resolution for your problem. It may help others.

[DavidR]

I too before this topic hadn't heard of Spycatcher and the first thing I did was check out spywarewarrior.com to see if it wasn't on the rogue program list (not). Buy any security program that doesn't allow you to control it has to be history, especially when there a number of other anti-spyware products out there that do allow you to exercise control.

I'm glad you stuck with it and your problem is now resolved.

A belated welcome to the forums.