nightshade, the self-defense module (as with most NEW avast features) is for Windows 2000+ only. This is why it cannot be disabled (well, in fact, it cannot be enabled

)
rdmaloyjr, why would that be a flaw in the self-defense system? To get from 1178 to 1185 you don't even have to run aswBeta.exe. Simply invoking the program update would actually do the trick. That's because you're now using the beta stream; the beta stream is always valid for all beta refreshes, and once the product is released officially, it is merged to the release stream.
Hope this helps,
Vlk