Well this is weird...and slightly embarrassing---
Theyyy'rrrre Baaaa-aaack!(Image deleted)
As quickly and mysteriously as the problem occurred, it's resolved itself.
@DavidR:
Are these radio buttons (or check boxes) missing (not visible) from any other areas of the avast! Settings ?No, only the two I mentioned.
Have you changed any settings in the Basic, Appearance section, e.g. the Use special graphics effects (....) ?
No, I only "tweak" the updates settings, depending on the type of browsing/computing I am doing. I did, however only recently update to V 5.0.462 from 5.0.316, perhaps 2-3 weeks ago, and things were fine until today.
Try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select 'avast! Anti-Virus,' click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.Great minds think alike! lol-- That was what I was going to attempt as my next step had the problem persisted or had I not gotten a resolution by posting to this forum, which, by the way is another reason why I like this product. So many knowledgeable and helpful persons--like yourself--are ready and able to help.
Though I don't believe this is directly related but it might be worth ensuring all remnants of avg are gone:
- AVG8.x (or higher) Remover, download tool from here, http://www.avg.com/download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one. I agree, I don't believe it's relevant to this issue--having uninstalled AVG in Aug '09 and installing Avast4, then updating to subsequent versions, etc since then without issues. But since you (and "olddog") asked, I will address this question should any subsequent users have the same issue I described and stumble upon this post, they could safely rule this out as a cause. I uninstalled AVG through the uninstaller that came with the program--installed Avast, had "issues"-- eventually came across a "fix" on one of the forums which told to uninstall using the specialized tool for BOTH products. To do this I actually had to re-install AVG, then uninstall with the tool--then reinstalled Avast4 at the time. I also used other scanners and tools to manually search for "leftovers" from AVG and other AV's I previously had installed--(tools used: "Everything"-- RegSearch by SteelWerx--Autoruns and a few others. I actually came across some remnants of a trial version of Eset I used about three years ago.
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@olddog:
Well that's certainly weird. I've tried all sorts of screen resolution, sizing, bit depth and effects settings and I can't get that to occur on any of my XP machines.
And the "resolution" is just as weird. The possible issue with AVG was not a cause as I explained above. The possible solution of doing a clean re-install is moot at this point, but I will point out that I did not install 5 over top of 4.8--I uninstalled V4.8 using the specialized tool, did a clean install of 5.
, updated to 5.316, and now (2?? wks ago?) updated to 5.462.
I will attempt to address the other points of your helpful and informative reply ASAP, however I have a family "situation" to attend to and don't know if that will be any time soon.
Thank you both, DavidR & olddog (GREAT user-name, BTW) for your valuable and informative replies.
Avast Evangelists ROCK!!!