Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
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That's a toughie, because it's really related to Avast and how Avast was set up.
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What's probably happened is that when Avast was installed, you installed it while logged in to your account. Avast may have asked if you wanted it to be available for all accounts, or just the current one. It probably defaulted to just the current one, so if you didn't know what to answer, or were just zipping through the setup, that might have been selected. Or it may not have asked at all. Or it could be a bug in Avast.
When programs are set up, they have the option of making themselves available to all users on the machine, or just the user that's installing the software. There are several aspects of the install that can be affected by this decision, including the location of files, the location of information in the registry, initial settings, and even permissions.
Since everything works in one user account, but has such a clear and definite problem in another, this "smells" like that kind of problem.
I'm tempted to say try installing it again using your husbands account, but I don't know that that will resolve the problem, or perhaps just move it. When you to try to reinstall, do pay particular attention to whether or not it asks to install for all users or only the current user. Select all users, of course.
And if that doesn't work, I'd check with Avast's technical support and see if they have suggestions for this issue.
Article C2364 - June 7, 2005
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I just went thru the same problem with my computer.
Here is what I found and did to solve it on my end:
1.Have your husband logon to his windows account
2. Go to C:\Documents and Setting\His-username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
3. Make sure you set the hidden files and folder as unhidden (Tools/Folder Options/Views Tab..Show hidden files)
4. Look for a hidden file called "extend.dat"
Delete that file and restart outlook. It should fix the problem./.it did for me anyways.
My issue was that I re-installed windows and I backed up all my PST files from the Outlook folder..and I pasted them on the new installation..including the extend.dat file created by outlook and avast.
The error was showing as F:\Program Files\Avast...etc......well the letter "F:" belonged to my older installation.....the correct path is supposed to be C:\Program Files\Avast..etc
Hope this helps
Posted by: Rafael at January 26, 2008 1:52 PMWell... removing the extent.dat file helps but is not a proper solution. I have to delete this file every day... There must be a better solution.
Posted by: MaC at September 4, 2008 11:57 PMAfter deleting the extend.dat go to the "add and remove programs", choose the avast to repair it.
Posted by: magnus at September 30, 2008 1:11 AMThe Avast add-in can be disabled in menu Tools/options/other/advanced options.
I must thank Magnus for the feedback! I was having an impossible time trying to get this same error message to go away. It was when I was opening Outlook... "program files\alwil software\avast4\ashoutxt.dll" and something about an add-in. I took your advice and went to Outlook and clicked: Tools/options/other/advanced options and removed the add-on. It was definitely an Avast bug and I don't like it when programs leave traces on my computer after I remove all the .dlls (even used Revo Unistaller). The ironic thing about this is that I was considering asking Leo myself! I was taken to this link after Googling. Thanks Leo for all the help that you provide!
Posted by: The Shuffler at November 4, 2008 9:22 PMI've heard of User's Profiles getting corrupted and that creating a new profile and deleting the old can clean many little problems up, but I've never tried, and wonder if this really can be true.
Posted by: SoloSymphony at December 12, 2009 1:21 AMAnyone heard of / know of this technique?
I've often wondered, when facing a program acting up, if simply starting a new user profile could breath new life into the system (beats formatting and re-installing a system).