Goodbye Avast hello the next new freebie AV

[lee5768]

harsh title maybe but Avast no longer works correctly with XP SP3
2 systems in 3 days I have clean installed XP installed avast and head off to the
MS update centre and updated then rebooted only to find Avast is stuck saying its unprotected
for about 5 mins on each boot up after the updates like its some sort of extra long delayed start


obvisoly i have no choice but to install windows updates so and with so many updats i havent a clue whats caused it
but 2 system in a few days both with the same problem

its a nightmare reminds me of when AVG became the unwanted AV of choice TBH

[RejZoR]

Actually there is nothing wrong with avast!. I've had the same problem where i thought avast! is the reason where in fact it was some Windows XP SP3 update (still not sure which one, but i suspected one of the .NET updates). You can even find my thread here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=63138.0
I was also installing a clean Windows XP SP3 system. When i first installed avast! on it pretty soon after installation, it was working fine. Then i used Windows Update and after certain updates were installed it took ages for avast! and entire network interface to start on system boot. However once i rebooted system several times and run Windows Update several times and installed ALL available critical and optional updates, the system got fixed by itself. It took just a second or 2 for avast! to start.

So botom line, install all available updates from Windows Update and the problem should go away by itself. At least it did in my case.

[SafeSurf]

+1.  Took 3 boots for me and all was working fine.  I agree with the .NET update from MS.

[Tarq57]

A while ago I ended up formating and re-installing XP, due to ongoing problems with another software. (HP printer, which overwrote the NET framework with its' own earlier version, borking the current one. Anyway...)
I already had some updates, like SP3 saved to disk, and it was a long slow processes updating stuff afterward, with many reboots. After not too long, Avast worked good as gold, but was never much of a problem, anyway. I don't recall disabling it at all for any of the updates, except that I installed SP3 before installing Avast.

[YoKenny]

So botom line, install all available updates from Windows Update and the problem should go away by itself. At least it did in my case.

+1

The best thing I did for my systems was to install avast! after making sure Windows was fully up to date.

[ky331]

I recently installed .NET 4, and found that significantly slowed-down my boot-up.   I uninstalled .NET 4, and things were back to normal for me.  [I have retained .NET 3.5 and lower]

In addition, there are reports (elsewhere) that Microsoft Updates itself is slowing down boot-up on XP systems... and that, (temporarily) reverting from Microsoft Updates to [merely] Windows Updates is a "work-around".   [Of course, by doing so, you no longer receive updates for OFFICE, Silverlight, and other newer Microsoft products.   but you can easily switch back to Microsoft Updates when "patch Tuesday" arrives; and after getting them all, back to Windows Updates again.]

[RejZoR]

In my case the boot time wasn't any longer than usual. It's just that when i arrived to desktop, network interface and avast! took long to load.

[iRonzel]

So, the problem is Windows XP. Because I never had experience any type of errors/problems with avast! in Windows Vista or 7 in a 32bit OS. I think Microsoft do this to force users of old OS to buy a new computer. Also I have installed the latest .NET updates and I have no problems.   

[cadremis]

Since Avast version 5 started, I've been able to install it in Fully Patched Microsoft XP 32 bits OS computers.... I've been counting the numbers of computers and I have installed it in 572 without problems.

Muy friends and family are still happy with it.

[Dch48]

Avast! works just fine with XP SP3 and you do not have to have all optional Microsoft updates installed. Avast! worked perfectly for me without any version of .NET installed and it's still fine now that I have 1.1, 2.0, and 3.5 installed because a new game required them. The optional updates I haven't installed are:

.NET 4-- nothing has required it so far
Power Shell 2.0 and WinRM 2.0---see no need
Base Smart Card Cryptographic Service Provider -- again, see no need
Update for WMDRM-enabled Media Players-- don't use any portable media devices so again, no need
Windows Search 4.0 for Windows XP--- don't see any need for it
Windows Media Player 11-- causes conflicts with my preferred burning software and MP 10 works just fine.
Microsoft Silverlight-- haven't needed it yet
Windows Live Essentials-- don't need any of it

I haven't experienced a single problem using Avast! on XP SP3