Avg Tray Icon Problem

and lastly sometimes my AVG icon on the system tray hides away does this mean it is still active or inactive?? or it is okay to be doing so, thanks.

I replaced AVG Free by Avast! on my mom's computer because AVG seems would crash quite often, with no error message. It definitely wasn't under the ``show hidden icons'' button in the system tray. Sometimes it would disappear when the computer was running, and sometimes it would just not start at start-up. Sometimes daily scans were missed because of this problem, I think. Mom did learn to double-click the desktop icon to restart AVG, which seems then would be fully functional (one of the nice things about it, you didn't have to restart the computer). I am quite concerned that there might be malware causing this problem, although I can find no sign in Hijack This, and the need for a memory upgrade could partially explain the computer's slowness.

The downside of Avast! free edition is that there seems to be no way to set it to do daily updates and full scans automatically (or is it doing updates but not scans--I forget at the moment). The on-access protection starts automatically, but the scans have only run when I went there. Fortunately it isn't finding anything, because when Avast! finds something it suspects is malware, it requires operator interaction to continue the scan, and the scan usually doesn't finish before I leave.

Edit: Split topic into it's own thread per request, to more easily address the issue. ~ Animal

and lastly sometimes my AVG icon on the system tray hides away does this mean it is still active or inactive?? or it is okay to be doing so, thanks.

I replaced AVG Free by Avast! on my mom's computer because AVG seems would crash quite often, with no error message. It definitely wasn't under the ``show hidden icons'' button in the system tray. Sometimes it would disappear when the computer was running, and sometimes it would just not start at start-up. Sometimes daily scans were missed because of this problem, I think. Mom did learn to double-click the desktop icon to restart AVG, which seems then would be fully functional (one of the nice things about it, you didn't have to restart the computer). I am quite concerned that there might be malware causing this problem, although I can find no sign in Hijack This, and the need for a memory upgrade could partially explain the computer's slowness.

The downside of Avast! free edition is that there seems to be no way to set it to do daily updates and full scans automatically (or is it doing updates but not scans--I forget at the moment). The on-access protection starts automatically, but the scans have only run when I went there. Fortunately it isn't finding anything, because when Avast! finds something it suspects is malware, it requires operator interaction to continue the scan, and the scan usually doesn't finish before I leave.

exactly this is what i was trying to get at! when something is hidden in the system tray usually means that application is inactive and not working or so, i thought avg provided real-time protection?? im thinking of changing my whole security package i have installed as everything is useless can anybody help me in this cause i do not want to keep double clicking the avg icon to restart avg its just ridiculous it should be on continuously wihtout having the user to do anything.

thank you

and lastly sometimes my AVG icon on the system tray hides away does this mean it is still active or inactive?? or it is okay to be doing so, thanks.

I replaced AVG Free by Avast! on my mom's computer because AVG seems would crash quite often, with no error message. It definitely wasn't under the ``show hidden icons'' button in the system tray. Sometimes it would disappear when the computer was running, and sometimes it would just not start at start-up. Sometimes daily scans were missed because of this problem, I think. Mom did learn to double-click the desktop icon to restart AVG, which seems then would be fully functional (one of the nice things about it, you didn't have to restart the computer). I am quite concerned that there might be malware causing this problem, although I can find no sign in Hijack This, and the need for a memory upgrade could partially explain the computer's slowness.

The downside of Avast! free edition is that there seems to be no way to set it to do daily updates and full scans automatically (or is it doing updates but not scans--I forget at the moment). The on-access protection starts automatically, but the scans have only run when I went there. Fortunately it isn't finding anything, because when Avast! finds something it suspects is malware, it requires operator interaction to continue the scan, and the scan usually doesn't finish before I leave.

exactly this is what i was trying to get at! when something is hidden in the system tray usually means that application is inactive and not working or so, i thought avg provided real-time protection?? im thinking of changing my whole security package i have installed as everything is useless can anybody help me in this cause i do not want to keep double clicking the avg icon to restart avg its just ridiculous it should be on continuously wihtout having the user to do anything.

thank you

This happens to me. Not with my anti virus but with some other programs (spyware guard and BO clean)
I can't work out why..

exactly this is what i was trying to get at! when something is hidden in the system tray usually means that application is inactive and not working or so, i thought avg provided real-time protection?? im thinking of changing my whole security package i have installed as everything is useless can anybody help me in this cause i do not want to keep double clicking the avg icon to restart avg its just ridiculous it should be on continuously wihtout having the user to do anything.

You're not giving a clear description of your problem. Is the system tray icon merely 'hiding' or is it disappearing completely?

If it returns to view when you click 'show hidden icons' (as I explained in my previous post) then it's active, whether you see it or not. If it doesn't, then clearly there's a different issue.

This appears to be a different topic/problem and needs to be split for reference incase for example some member has the same problem, they won't find it here

I will ask if it can get split

David

My apologies to david28 for expanding the topic. Anyone with the permission and knowledge to split off a topic on AVG tray icon problem should feel free to do so.

I would say the problem started last fall and hasn't affected the other computers where I have AVG 7.5 free running. I switched Mom's av over to Avast in February. Usually when a program crashes unexpectedly, Windows (XP) puts up an error message or the system freezes. When Zone Alarm crashes, I always get a message, and I have to restart the computer more or less immediately. Sometimes I have to restart a second time to get Zone Alarm to load properly. In this case, I would just look down at the tray and the avg control center icon that was there has disappeared, and is not hidden. Sometimes it would also fail to start at start-up. Double-clicking on the desktop icon or restarting the computer would restore it.

I got help more than a year ago on the Hijack This log, and the log seems to be clean since then. However, the machine started slowing down again not long after the fix. It needs more RAM, but I worry that some malware could be able to hide, contribute to the slowness, and crash avg. She has some friends who send lots of funny attachments in email, and she used to open them if she trusted the sender. I was out of the country for two years, and the computer was running AOL security products then, based on McAfee. She still runs AOL because she doesn't want to change email address.

So the question remains, is the crash caused by an internal bug in AVG 7.5 or some incompatibility problem, or is it something more sinister? A related question comes up when Zone Alarm free version is updated to a new build. Then the computer is connected to the internet for up to fifteen minutes without an active firewall. Is there malware which can seize the time and call home in that window?

exactly this is what i was trying to get at! when something is hidden in the system tray usually means that application is inactive and not working or so, i thought avg provided real-time protection?? im thinking of changing my whole security package i have installed as everything is useless can anybody help me in this cause i do not want to keep double clicking the avg icon to restart avg its just ridiculous it should be on continuously wihtout having the user to do anything.

You're not giving a clear description of your problem. Is the system tray icon merely 'hiding' or is it disappearing completely?

If it returns to view when you click 'show hidden icons' (as I explained in my previous post) then it's active, whether you see it or not. If it doesn't, then clearly there's a different issue.

it is "hiding" not disapperaing but when i click on the arrow on the system tray to show the hidden icons it appears but if it hides doesnt that mean it is inactive meaning the application is not running or something, i read it somewhere but sorry if im mistaken. Im just trying to make sure that it is a "real-time protection" as it says???

it is "hiding" not disapperaing but when i click on the arrow on the system tray to show the hidden icons it appears but if it hides doesnt that mean it is inactive meaning the application is not running or something, i read it somewhere but sorry if im mistaken. Im just trying to make sure that it is a "real-time protection" as it says???

can anyone reasure me about this??? thank you

it is "hiding" not disapperaing but when i click on the arrow on the system tray to show the hidden icons it appears but if it hides doesnt that mean it is inactive meaning the application is not running or something, i read it somewhere but sorry if im mistaken. Im just trying to make sure that it is a "real-time protection" as it says???

If the icon is present, but merely hiding, then there's no doubt: it is 'active'. Whether it's hidden or not is determined by XP, not by the software to which the icon relates, and as I explained earlier, you can control whether icons hide or not by right-clicking on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. (In fact there is some kind of minor issue with XP - sometimes icons suddenly seem to become 'hidden' for no apparent reason, but they aren't inactive - just hidden.)

If the icon is hidden but you can get it back just by clicking on 'show hidden icons', then you basically don't have a problem. If on the other hand, it completely disappears and can't be made to reappear through 'show hidden icons', then you'd want to investigate further.

it is "hiding" not disapperaing but when i click on the arrow on the system tray to show the hidden icons it appears but if it hides doesnt that mean it is inactive meaning the application is not running or something, i read it somewhere but sorry if im mistaken. Im just trying to make sure that it is a "real-time protection" as it says???

If the icon is present, but merely hiding, then there's no doubt: it is 'active'. Whether it's hidden or not is determined by XP, not by the software to which the icon relates, and as I explained earlier, you can control whether icons hide or not by right-clicking on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. (In fact there is some kind of minor issue with XP - sometimes icons suddenly seem to become 'hidden' for no apparent reason, but they aren't inactive - just hidden.)

If the icon is hidden but you can get it back just by clicking on 'show hidden icons', then you basically don't have a problem. I on the other hand, it completely disappears and can't be made to reappear through 'show hidden icons', then you'd want to investigate further.

okay thanks for this, you have clarified for me, clear crystal thanks