I am having this same problem and I also use Windows XP with SP2 installed. I have tried uninstalling, repairing, reinstalling and cleaning the contents of the avast folder but nothing seems to work. When I try to delete the reboot.txt file from the setup folder, it won't allow me to do it. Any help would be appreciated.
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The instructions you are trying to follow were from almost a year ago and things have changed in avast since then. When you try to delete an avast file, you will bump into the avast self-defence module and you need to disable that to delete the reboot.txt file. Program Settings (right click on the avast 'a' icon), Troubleshooting, and disable the Self-Defence module. Then you should be able to
When you say your having the same problem, which one do you mean as there are two slightly different issues, one relating to the problem being resolved by the disabling of the Outlook plug-in, so which is your same problem related to ?
Personally I don't believe a custom install (with only the standard shield) will make any difference (that is avoiding a symptom and not treating the problem), so any reinstall should be a normal install. Unless you are going to do a clean reinstall (using the avast uninstall utility) to ensure all registry entries are cleared.
Download the latest version of avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility,
find it here and save it to your HDD.
1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, reboot. If step 1 failed it may be necessary to run this from safe mode, once complete reboot into normal mode.
3. install the latest version, reboot.
@ bizzybody
The fact that you only use web mail doesn't make the Internet Mail provider redundant, set to High sensitivity it could be your first indication of an undetected/hidden spambot on your system as it comes to the part with its own SMTP function.