It stays that way permanantly.
I suggest an installation from the scratch:
1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Download the latest version of
Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Install again the latest
avast! version.
6. Boot.
7. Check and post the results.
I did check my settings in services, and it's set to start automatically.
How are set your avast! services?
Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
I suppose you have to have four avast! services:
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe (avast! antivirus service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe (avast! Update Service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe (avast! Web Scanner service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe (avast! e-Mail Scanner service)
The two first of them should be Automatic loaded and the two last Manually loaded.