Avast! 5 PROGRAM build 594 now available

Dale wrote, "the little monitors in the tray show the the dreaded red X, although I was able to get connected".

If the red X appears, and stays that way... that's not good.

but if the red X appears for "a short while" --- say a few seconds, then changes into the yellow exclamation point for "a moderate while" --- perhaps "many" seconds, and finally the orange ball starts spinning, then this is considered normal for avast.

Nope, probably didn't  explain it simply enough. Avast 5 is orange. What looks like a little globe that sits in front of those little network monitors that sit just to the left of the time in the tray is blue.

"the little blue globe"

BLUE??? don't you mean ORANGE???

Blue was for avast 4.8 ;

Orange is for avast 5.0

In this case it stayed red and the yellow shield never came up. If I remember correctly, the Avast globe never came up either. I think what happened, is that I pressed the wrong button on the Online Armor alert (to allow the changed program) and the update was never actually installed at that point. I don't know if this somehow broke the connection. At any rate, the second restart fixed the problem and the little blue globe is where it should in front of the monitors.  Thought I would just bring this up in case anyone else has a similar problem.

Hi, thought I would try and help...I was happy to find Avast listed under Dell's links for antivirus's, and definitely recommend you stick with it.  However, I have run into some problems when trying to a) uninstall a 'broken' (incorrectly installed) Avast before, and also b) when I installed it correctly the first time, but had accidentally left some part of another antivirus program on a computer which conflicted with Avast, either its program file or updater.

Avast, the company, is also aware that users run into these problems, so they offer a nifty little free utility you can download from them at this link.

It's called their Cleanup or Uninstall Utility, and it removes any and all remnants of previous Avast installs for you, so you can successfully reinstall them again cleanly and perfectly!

Make sure you understand, 'if it's not broke, don't fix it', so if yours is working, but slower than usual, maybe it's okay, and you should leave it be!

However, if you can wait more than five minutes especially, and any part of your Avast 'tray' icon (the area you described in your last post, quoted below) is obscured by a '!', an 'x', or even if it's blue in color (it really should be orange if it's the new one, and yup, the new one's free too, and yup, it's also more user-friendly, too), you should use this tool, then download Avast Home Free Edition once more (this is the link to the new one), and you'll be on your way!

Nope, probably didn't  explain it simply enough. Avast 5 is orange. What looks like a little globe that sits in front of those little network monitors that sit just to the left of the time in the tray is blue.

Oh--you should rest easy that the new one will also re-register using the same email address you used for your current one!

Happy Computing!

The 'PC Doctor'

Mike Denney

Bowling Green, KY

I shoulda kept quiet :emotion-16:

What a condescending jerk you are Mike. What my short post amounted to was eqivalent to slapping myself upside the head for mentioning something that was not really a problem, only brought it up to see if anyone else had similar symptoms. It was a mistake I won't repeat. It had nothing to do with you. If you had taken the trouble to read my original post and responses you should have noticed that once I restarted the second time everything was normal. This was a program update and I apparently messed up the restart process somehow. The blue "globe" I mentioned in the tray sits in front of the little monitors has to do with the Internet connection and had nothing to do with the Avast 5 icon which is indeed orange. I have no idea why you left the first post to begin with, and I didn't like the generic tone of it.

I have been around these forums for years and don't have time for your rude and sarcastic remarks, so please don't respond to anything I post from here on either on the board or PM. Thankfully most people over the years have been very helpful and easygoing but you have turned out to be that rare anomaly. Work on your board manners and please leave me alone.

1) Mike wrote:  "I was happy to find Avast listed under Dell's links for antivirus's..."

I'm not sure what link you're referring to.   Several members here, including BugBatter, Joe53, and myself, have offered our personal suggestions/recommendations... and i believe there's a consensus among us that avast is among the top handful of FREE candidates... but unless you're referring to a link I'm not aware of, I don't believe that Dell itself offers a list that includes avast.   (if you do have one, please be sure to let us know.)

bugbatter's list:  http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3522/t/19244953.aspx

joe's list:   http://naut.homestead.com/files/Free/free1.html

my list:   http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/virus-spyware/f/3522/p/19334094/19703248.aspx#19703248

2) the avast cleanup utility you linked to, aswClear5.exe , is the cleanup utility for avast5.   Unless they've changed things, it doesn't clean up avast 4.  (they used to offer a separate avast 4 cleanup utility, but it doesn't seem to be available from avast's site any more --- although you can still do a web-search to find copies of it at other sites)

Wish I knew how to do that little thumbs-up thingy!!!! Oooops.....................

                                                                            :emotion-21:    :emotion-22:

Jeff