No system tray icon - Avast Home

[Allochthonous]

All of a sudden this morning when I restarted my PC, the Avast icon no longer shows in the system tray.  It looks like things are running when i look in Task Manager, and Security Center reports that it is working.

I have tried restarting 3 times, and the icon is still AWOL.

What's up?  Should I reinstall? 


EDIT:  I am noticing some "temporary" solutions involving creating a shortcut to the interface or placing the shortcut in the startup folder, but what is the PERMANENT solution? What is causing this?  Is it an Avast issue that will correct itself with an update?  I tried Repair in Add/Remove. Did not immediately fix it, unless I need to restart - I have not does that since the repair.

I realize that as long as the services are running, I am protected, but I really like being able to see visually that its running.

These are the processes that I see running:

ashMaiSv.eve
ashServ.exe
ashWebSv.exe
aswUpdSv.exe


PK

[Lisandro]

1. Check the option in the Appearance tab of settings.
or
2. Repair your avast installation through Control Panel.
or
3. Make a link to ashdisp.exe in your startup folder
or
4. Add the path to ashDisp.exe into a value named avast! in the Windows Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
See picture here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=26155.msg213891#msg213891

If that does not help, please, uninstall, boot, install again, boot.

What other security based software do you have that might block new startup entries, e.g. Spybot S&D (TeaTimer), AdAware (AdWatch), SpySweeper, Spyware Doctor (StartUpGuard), PrevX, WinPatrol, ProcessGuard, etc.?

[Allochthonous]

1. Did that.

2.  Did that.

3. This is the "temporary" solution that I read about already and was questioning.

4. The registry scares me.

5.  That's what I was thinking about trying.

So again, what causes this to happen?  Is it a flaw on my PC or in Avast itself?

I am not running any other real time protection software.  I have done a HouseCall scan lately, and an AVG RootKit scan, but with the first, I took no action, and the second found nothing.


pk

[Lisandro]

4. The registry scares me.

So, uninstall, boot, install again, boot.

Is it a flaw on my PC or in Avast itself?

Could be another program installed in your computer...
Are you using XP or Vista?

[Allochthonous]

XP Home - SP2

I can't think of any apps that I have installed or run that would be related.

Does it look like all of the crucial processes are running?

I will try the reinstall method.

pk

[Allochthonous]

The reinstall fixed it.

I'd still like to know what made it go away.

pk

[DavidR]

So would we but you were a little quick of the mark in reinstalling before we could investigate.

Had you used the shortcut work around then we could have continued to try and identify the cause. Your list of running process was complete except for ashDisp.exe, the avast icon and interface to the avast settings/elements, etc.

[Allochthonous]

Sorry..i am a bit impatient sometimes.

PK