Just my humble opinion, please do not be insulted, no insult is intended.
I may be out of line here, but win98
anything has not been supported by its' own creators, (i.e. Microsoft), for about a hundred years now.
Most software has updated beyond that OS, the fact that Avast works with it at all
I find amazing.
If the tech gurus' here manage to analyze the logs and come up with a fix
then my hat is off to them
However, if a fix is not forthcoming, a possible suggestion would be to load older software
that may be more appropriate for the Win98 OS family. There are websites that contain older software.
If your systems are work systems...update your OS.
If your systems are personal home systems....update your OS
If it is your kids, or you blog with it, or it is a paperweight, whatever...update your OS.
Yes I know it is a pain, I know that you are going to have to get new software, I know that some things
are not going to work the same...sorry to tell you this, but....update your OS.
If your system is not powerfull enough to update, build a new one...have a tech friend build you one....or go shopping.
The point is that pretty much everyone had to spend money or time or both to come up into the 21st century.
The more time that rolls on, the less that will be available for older OS versions. Heck, WINXP is almost too old now.
I think it is considered the bottom of the heap now. I run XP and am going to have to upgrade soon, but I will skip Vista and wait for the next one.
I guess the point is, update your OS. If Microsoft won't even support the product, why should anyone else?
Again, just my opinion.
Find a good list of older software at:
http://www.oldversion.com/