How To Start Avira Antivirus Service When It Doesn't Respond To Clicks Or Attempts To Open

By Richard Peck

Avira Antivirus has gained popularity as a no-nonsense, reliable, antivirus system from Germany. Unlike competitors including the likes of Kaspersky and Norton, Avira is often touted as being free of "bloatware" - meaning that it does what it's meant to without taking up too many system resources in the process.

We've found that Avira is a very good alternative to many of the more popular antivirus applications - delivering an effective solution without inhibiting your system's underlying performance. However, it does suffer from one core issue - which is that if you load it onto your system, it may actually appear to not load.

The way that Avira works is with a "loader" system. This works similarly to Windows' control panel and essentially means that you're able to manage your Antivirus / Internet Security / etc without having to load up each application individually. This loader is what most people experience as not actually showing after they install Avira.

The typical symptoms of the problem are that you will install Avira and then attempt to load it up by clicking on its icon (either from the desktop or the "quick launch" bar). Whilst your "click" registers (your system looks like it will actually be doing something), nothing happens.

The problem is that the Avira "service" isn't loaded correctly. This is typically caused through a permission issue with Windows, but can have a number of other causes which are too numerous to note down.

The solution is to close Avira's service and then reload it. This should cause the system to load up on your screen, allowing you to either install/uninstall the various components you require, or to get the system running as effectively as possible:

Press Windows + R keys on your keyboard

Type "services.msc" and press OK

This will load the "services" window - scroll down to "Avira Service Host"

Right-click and select "Start"

Close the window

Double-click on the "Avira" icon again

This time, it should load

The most important thing to realize with this is that it's designed to run as smoothly as possible on as many systems as possible. If it doesn't load after performing the above, you will need to restart your PC and then try following the steps again.

There is often issues with services being called prior to an application loading, which have to be resolved by ensuring the system can read the application correctly.

There are a number of good videos on YouTube explaining how to fix the error.

You may also wish to look at premium level support from the likes of an error repair system or a technical support group.