Avast Home 4.7 on Win Xp Home wants to re start Pc after every virus update

[Huaquito]

Hi,
Just upgraded my Toshiba Tecra 8100 laptop to windows XP home edition from win98 SE.  It was a clean install not an upgrade.
All went well and my old laptop is up and running great, except for Avast Home ver 4.7. 
Avast was downloaded from the avast website and then it was installed OK.
Re started the PC and avast needed a registration number.  I used the same old registration number
I had with the win98 avast.
It all seemed to be OK, except that every time that avast updates the virus data base it wants to
re start the PC.
I suspected that maybe it had something to do with the fact that I used the old avast win98 registration key.
I uninstalled avast, got a new registration key, re installed avast and gave it the new registration
key.  No luck.
It still wants to re start the PC after every virus update.
Please, help !
Huaquito in Hawaii

[DavidR]

Operating system restart needed by avast message -
First check the contents of the C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\setup.log file, which should show you why it thinks the reboot is needed.

This may be solved, in some systems, by deleting the file C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\reboot.txt

If that doesn't resolve it check this:
You can also check this registry entry (right after computer restart):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager, if it contains "PendingFileRenameOpertaions".

Check its contents and if there's only "reboot.txt" from avast4\setup folder, delete PendingFileRenameOperations, don't delete any other key.

Back-up (export) the registry key before you edit/delete, just in case.

[Huaquito]

Hi,
Thank you DavidR for your help.  Unhappily none of your suggestions fixed the problem, however,
something you said made me realize that perhaps the problem was due to the fact that I had
installed Avast on an external USB HDD.
I de installed Avast from the external HDD cleaned all the left over garbage from that install and then
re installed Avast on the C drive and in the Program files folder, in other words I let Avast install
itself "typically".
Re booted and, guess what?  The problem is gone.
Perhaps there should be some indication from the Avast people that Avast MUST be installed on the
on the C-Drive inside the Program files folder?

Thanks, again DavidR

Huaquito

[DavidR]

No problem, welcome to the forums.

I don't think there is a requirement to install avast on C:\ I have it on my second D:\ partition, that of course is still on an internal HDD though.

Whilst you are able to install it on the external HDD the registry entries will be in the C:\ drive and there are also a number of files that are installed in the C:\Windows\system32 and C:\Windows\system32\Drivers folders, regardless of where avast is installed. Obviously it looks like there is some sort of issue with installing on external drives that I'm not aware of, good catch though.