@
IndianRiverMan,
Adam Riley was mentioned by
Asyn. He is the contact person from Avast, related to iYogi.
Now, about your firewall. Do you still have the license file that was sent to you by email when you purchased AIS?
If not, can you copy / backup it from the current installation?
Once you have a safe copy of the license file, download ANEW the setup.exe for AIS, and the removal utility for Avast
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utilityReboot into Windows Safe Mode and run the removal utility. In the removal utility windows, please select the correct folder where you have your current Avast installation, and the latest version of Avast.
If you have previous versions of Avast installed before (like when updating from Avast Free 5.x to 6.x), then reboot again into Windows Safe Mode and run again the removal utility, repeating this procedure for each version and edition of Avast you EVER had.
The removal utility may leave some remnants too. You can make a search for any files and/or folders with the words "avast" or "alwil" and delete them. Leave only the new setup.exe for AIS.
Of course
the removal procedure will delete also your previous configurations of Avast.
Now in Windows Normal Mode, right click on the setup.exe for AIS, and "run as administrator". Once the installation finishes, REBOOT immediately. Do not configure nor update anything else before the reboot.
Once the system reboots, check if the firewall and File System Shield are working.
After several days of testing, configuring, scans and so on, rebooting several times (so to see if it is still behaving correctly), you can add the saved copy of your license file.
Please report back.