After a year, my Home Avast asks for a key, why?

[dcollins]

I downloaded and registered a copy of Home Avast over a year ago and it's been working fine.

Thanks.

All of a sudden, without knowingly doing anything, Avast is not automatically started at boot up and when I manually start it, it asks for my license key.

Has there been a recent update that requires users to re-enter their keys?  Has some malware managed to infect my computer and is spoofing Avast for some nefarious purpose?

Anybody have any idea what gives?

[Happy-Dude]

Heya dcollins.

Avast! AV's registeration is like that, the key is good for one year and gives updates (you still can use the product, but the updates won't be recieved). You need to go to ALWIL's site and reregister, don't worry, if you remember, reregisteration's free.

[Bluesman]

Yes, as Happy-Dude said...the key is valid for one year.

From the site:

http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php

avast! 4 Home Edition works for 60 days after the installation in demo mode. You will obtain your FREE license key by E-mail after the registration. The license key is valid for 1 year. After one year you will need to just re-register.

[DavidR]

It is actually valid for 14 months, you should normally have had a warning before it expired. However, all that should have done was stop you updating the VPS and you would have received auto update errors, so it shouldn't have come as a big surprise.

The program should still have started and functioned as normal with the exception you couldn't update the VPS without re-registering.

So there would appear to be something else wrong if the program doesn't start-up unless you do it manually. Re-register and enter the new key Insert Registration Key - Video and let us know if that resolves the start-up problem ?

[dcollins]

I have attempted to reregister and AVAST is refusing to accept the new key I've been sent (I cut'n'pasted, and checked very carefully to be sure the key I received in email was the one offered to AVAST's key validator).

I actually tried to reregister twice ... but both attempts resulted in the same new key...which was declared invalid ... and AVAST will not run.

I've sent email to support@avast.com and am anxiosly awaiting a response.  I've come to rely on AVAST.

In all fairness, I'm using an old win98 system and I am using the free version so I can understand if Alwil doesn't want to pursue the problem...but I hope they do.

[igor]

What is the version (exact build) of avast! you have currently installed (it's shown in the About box - if you can get into any...)
Do you have the system date set correctly on your computer?

[dcollins]

Without a key, Avast exits before presenting any option that allows me to see the build designator.  I tried examining the .exe file for a version string using diskedit ... couldn't even find the string "4.7" (which is the version of Avast I have) much less a build number.

If the build number occurs in the .exe file as a string and you can give some contect text to look for (like "build" ... which doesn't work), I might be able to tell you the answer.

The system date is set correctly (if I double click on the time in the lower right status bar, it gives me today's date ... I presume that's system time.)

By the way - going back thru my email, I discovered that I initially downloaded Avast in July 2006 ... so theoretically, I haven't had it 14 months yet....more strangeness.  If you have the power to investigate my download history this might provide useful information.

At this point, I'm kind of inclined to uninstall it and start all over again.  But if you've got some other things to investigate or try before I do, I'd like to figure this out.

[DavidR]

There certainly seems to be something else wrong as I have said even if the registration had expired (and from what you say it shouldn't have), the program should continue to work. The only exception being you wouldn't be able to get VPS updates.

Is the avast ' a ' icon in the system tray ?
If so right click it and select about avast that gives build information and expiry dates, etc. see image.

First try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select 'avast! Anti-Virus,' click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. You need to be on-line to do this.

If that doesn't work try, uninstall, reboot, install, reboot.

You could re-register again and use a different email address, that should give a different registration key and see if that one works.

It would probably be best to download the latest version of avast and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.

I suggest you remove your email address unless you particularly like spam, email addresses in publicly available web pages are likely to be harvested by a bot.

[dcollins]

Is the avast ' a ' icon in the system tray ?

No.  Avast doesn't load at startup, so there's no system tray icon

First try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select 'avast! Anti-Virus,' click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow. You need to be on-line to do this.

If that doesn't work try, uninstall, reboot, install, reboot.

Couldn't use repair since avast doesn't appear in installed list.  (apparently this is not unusual) ... so I did the u-r-i-r routine and it seems to be working.  Thanks for your help

I suggest you remove your email address unless you particularly like spam, email addresses in publicly available web pages are likely to be harvested by a bot.

Thanks for the heads up.  I've removed it.

[DavidR]

Couldn't use repair since avast doesn't appear in installed list.  (apparently this is not unusual)

This most certainly IS unusual and is usually as a result of a corrupt installation, I have never seen an occurrence of this after a period of 8 months (in your case) in the forums, unless it has always been like that, no avast icon in the system tray and no add remove entry.

... so I did the u-r-i-r routine and it seems to be working.  Thanks for your help

Your welcome.

Glad that the problem is resolved.