Avira: update error

You may have received the following error after you downloaded the 2012 Avira antivirus software, just like I did, and tried to upgrade it or update the virus definitions for the first time:

"Error starting the product update. Scheduler has not been started."

In my case, the fix was easy. I went to the directory with the antivirus executables

C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir Desktop

and right-clicked the program

update.exe

and chose "run as administrator". It started to work and the program was updated within a minute. Next time, the update already works via the menus just like you expect. The problem is due to some administrator right glitches: we probably tried to start these processes without the required privileges.