So the WSC although running doesn't report on the firewall if you turn that off, again all that confirms is the WSC is the issue and nothing in avast.
So as you say now that you are aware of that you can monitor, their icons.
My firewall when I hover the mouse over its icon, it gives some basic information, which I can only assume wouldn't be if it weren't running. Although this isn't as easy to determine as avast, it may help you monitor your firewall.
This is an example of what would be in the setup log on successful completion.
After running UpgradeRepository you can verify the results by looking at the Setup log. If inconsistencies are detected and if the operating system was able to rebuild the Repository you should see information in Setup.log similar to this:
(Wed Oct 12 13:46:36 2005): ===========================================================================
(Wed Oct 12 13:46:36 2005): Beginning WBEM Service Pack Installation
(Wed Oct 12 13:46:36 2005): Current build of wbemupgd.dll is 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
(Wed Oct 12 13:46:36 2005): Current build of wbemcore.dll is 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
(Wed Oct 12 13:46:52 2005): Inconsistent repository detected; it will be recreated
…
…
(Wed Oct 12 13:47:33 2005): Wbemupgd.dll Service Security upgrade succeeded (XP SP update).
(Wed Oct 12 13:47:33 2005): WBEM Service Pack Installation completed.
(Wed Oct 12 13:47:33 2005): ===========================================================================
Note. There will probably be other entries in the log as well, but you should specifically look for the ones shown above.