There was no change even after setting it to 2h. Today I re-set it to default 1d and hey presto it is showing ok, secure. But though it was on yesterday at the time I did this it was actually off. From my work PC I tried setting the Work PC to 1m, 2h, and back to 1d. No go, it is still showing as off.
Can anybody throw light on this behaviour? Else I will simply not bother with 'my avast' till the glitches are sorted out.