[Powder]

Avast Antivirus, no other antimalware

there is your problem...

as mentioned many times and in the installation guide itself,

http://wiki.mmominion.com/doku.php?id=installation

1. Windows 7 has the Defender Antivirus by default installed, this does not work with Minion. Install Microsoft Security Essentials from 3 lines above!
   
2. If you have any other Antivirus/Firewall installed, UNINSTALL IT and install the correct one mentioned just 3 lines above. Restart your computer once afterwards
   
3. “But I disabled my 3rd party Antivirus” - Disabled is not disabled. They have several background services still running which can cause problems running our minion products.
   
4. If you stll insist on using your 3rd Party Antivirus, you may try to whitelist your Minion Product or something similiar, maybe it works for a while, but it can stop working at any future point due to updates.
   

I strongly recommend installing windows security essentials if you are running windows 7, it gives zero issues with our stuff.