When I turned the computer on this morning the icon was missing again so tried all the tricks to get it back but no luck. Did 2 restarts & still nothing. I have Vista & according to the Security Centre it says Avast is up to date & Virus scanning is on & under Spyware & other Malware it says Windows Defender & Avast Antivirus are both turned on.
When you say you have done all the tricks, then I suggest that you disable the S&D resident protection as the Tea-Timer could be killing the ashDisp.exe as that has a startup blocking function (which really annoys the h*ll out of me because it doesn't tell the user it is blocking). Either that or see what is in the S&D quarantine or tea-timer settings.
Sorry I'm about as much use as a chocolate teapot as I abandoned S&D years ago in preference of SuperAntiSpyware (which you have) and also MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM), both of which I believe have better detection than S&D, but no resident function in the free versions. Though I believe windows defender has resident protection so that should cover than and you should also check if it too could be blocking the loading of the ashDisp.exe.
Task manager is still saying only ashDisp.exe there. I am currently using the computer at the local library as not game to use mine till this is resolved. Will see if my neighbour who has broadband can download Avast again for me. Think other programs are running ok. Of the security based software u asked Camlynn about I have Spybot S & D & SuperAntiSpyware
If the task manager is saying ashDisp.exe is there but not shown, check that it isn't hidden, in winXP there is an arrow < on the task bar (not sure if that is the same in Vista), clicking that shows hidden tray icons.
Download this tool Process Explorer (see below) and that should show accurately what processes that are running, so you should be able to see exactly what avast processes that are running. If that shows all the previously mentioned avast processes are running, then this only confirms that there is something wrong with the Vista Task Manager, unfortunately I can't help with that I don't use Vista.
System Internals
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx, has a number of tools, ProcessXP is in the Process Utilities section.
