Urgent! Unsecured. Help!

[epleasant]

My Avast has recently stopped running. When I click the "Fix now" or "Start program" button, it does nothing. I've tried to uninstall the program, but every time I disable the self-defense module.. it just restarts itself. I need it to either work or be uninstalled.

[CraigB]

Try a repair via remove programs - add remove features, double click avast and scroll down to repair and accept, reboot when completed.

[epleasant]

Nothing ever pops up when I try to do that.

[CraigB]

Nothing ever pops up when I try to do that.

So there is no popup at all when you click avast then uninstall ? if so then download the removal tool http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear.exe and run in safe mode ( run for each version of avast you have used with reboots inbetween ) then reboot back into normal mode when done and reinstall avast.
Note that you should download a fresh copy of avast first and save before uninstalling your current version.

[DavidR]

Then the problem extends further and a clean reinstall will be required:
- Download the latest version of avast, 6.0.1367 see below for download locations as you don't say what version you are using and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.

- Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 5.x and 6.0.x).

• 1. Now uninstall avast! (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
• 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 5.x if previously installed and then for 6.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.

Free AV: - http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free.exe
Pro AV:  - http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_pro.exe
AIS:     - http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_ais.exe

[gdiloren]

David,
     Why is this happening now?  :'( So many people... All of a sudden...! I had Immunet and PrevX 3 on my configuration with Avast Pro. They lived together about 6-8 months then this. Is it related? Doesn't seem to as so many users are only protected by Avast. If this is so, it is totally UNACCEPTABLE to loose PROTECTION this way without asking. I had to reinstall 3 times before solving the problem. And I'm not sure what's going on?

[DavidR]

I haven't the slightest idea (as an avast user), there was an issue with one of the VPS updates, but that didn't effect all users, certainly not me. It was about 6 days ago and that should have resolved its self by now or made itself apparent at the time of that update.

[YoKenny]

And I'm not sure what's going on?

Its because you have way too much junk on your system like Sandboxie3.62,HITMAN PRO,Windows Firewall Control + Win7 FW,  HJThis2.04, WOT-SA-AVGLinkScanner

In fact HJThis2.04 does not work on Win 7 SP1 64 bits!

[yuerkxkbcwpfwb]

i maintain approx 7 machines with avast free and 1 had this problem. fixed today by uninstall/reinstall (wish we could export/save settings <-could be a paid feature?)

[Gargamel360]

(wish we could export/save settings <-could be a paid feature?)

No, that is blanket across all versions.  Good news is it is being added to all versions next major update (beta soon).

[yuerkxkbcwpfwb]

No, that is blanket across all versions.  Good news is it is being added to all versions next major update (beta soon).

thx Gargamel360, that's great news! my post wasn't clear. i'm aware it isn't currently available. was suggesting that it could be a feature that would make some users (me) consider a subscription. but as usual, avast gives it's free users one more reason to use avast! avast is head and shoulders above all free av products and equal or better than any paid av IMO.

[Jean D]

Just for the record, on my old XP machine, after trying the «repair» function, after not being able to find back the aswclear utility once in safe mode (my bad certainly), after many unsuccesfull attemps to deactivate the self defense module, after asking myself «what do I have to loose?», I rather tried the «change» function (the top one if not labeled exactly like with my French version) instead of the «repair» one, in «add/remove programs».

It downloaded a bunch of files and then, the «restart» button and link worked as expected.

I don't come here often, so, dear regulars, take note of this additional trick and add that to the list of things to try before using the aswclear utility and the assle of multiples reboots, going back and forth between safe and normal modes.