Both the problems have been resolved. Thank you everyone. I overall thank Avast! 5 because over the last 2 days I've had it, it helped completely save my computer from pretty much being destroyed (and i need my computer EVERY DAY... so yeah.) But now that everything's running somewhat smoothly again, it has a few very perplexing problems:
1. A long time ago i used Kaspersky anti virus but have since gotten rid of it (uninstalled it, removed all keys from the registry involving it, erased any files on my computer that had anything to do with it) and yet Avast! 5 is warning me that i need to remove it and it's incompatible with Avast! 5 and might interfere with it's processes.
2. This may or may not be related to the Kaspersky problem, but the File System Shield (which is apparently the most important shield) refuses to run. The error message is that the "Shield is unreachable."
Does anyone have any advice or anything? I upgraded the program and all that and it still doesn't work.
By the way, I run XP SP2.
EDIT: I forgot to mention; I run the free version of Avast! 5, and I DO have it registered.
2nd Edit: Another thing, this is the first time I've ever used Avast. I've never had any previous version on my pc. I just downloaded it as a last resort to save my pc. I'd love to keep it too... I just want to figure out these problems.