[That subject title is saying a mouthful because my XP op system is rock solid. It never hangs. I can’t remember the last time it hung, but at least several years ago. So this is a very unusual event for me…]
I checked for free avast updates and it said one was available, so I clicked the button. It appeared to download and install OK, updating itself from the prior 8.0.1483 version, then said it needed to restart my computer to complete the process. I clicked OK to give it permission, but it hung the computer in a perpetual status of “shutting down” that would not complete. The mouse was still active and the desktop looked OK. So I could try to open apps such as Notepad, but they said they couldn’t be opened because the computer was in process of shutting down. But it never shut down. I had use the on/off power button to recover control.
On the first reboot, I tried to get into Safe mode but it hung and would not enter Safe mode. On the second reboot, I let it continue to Windows regular mode, and after a delay, it finally responded and entered windows. Things weren’t exactly normal however because my desktop theme had been changed spontaneously. The colors were different. After manually changing my desktop theme back to the desired one from a backup copy, everything has apparently returned to normal (fingers crossed).
I had visions of a totally crashed computer, and it will still take awhile to make sure everything is working OK. I’ll be very reluctant to update my free avast again in future unless this bug is found and fixed. It’s not worth the heart palpitations!
Why?
Ordinarily when rebooting my computer it shuts down in less than a minute. I waited several minutes but maybe that wasn’t long enough. Maybe something about this update script was especially slow.
Or maybe it had to do with the Emergency Update process, which popped up several times asking for server rights (which I refused, of course). As you can see in my signature, I don’t want that operation, and wish there were some way to opt out of it being installed.
I’ve just had a very similar problem with my XP system. I checked for free avast updates and it said one was available, so I clicked the button. It appeared to download and install OK, then said it needed to restart my computer to complete the process. I clicked OK to give it permission. WinPatrol reported that a one-off program would run on restart which I definitely accepted. When the computer restarted and I logged in, the screen just displayed the background, no taskbar, no icons. Nothing appeared to be happening. There was no hard disc activity. I waited nearly 10 minutes and then decided to do a forced manual shutdown ie. I had use the on/off power button.
When I too nervously rebooted the system everything worked normally.
I too had visions of a totally crashed computer and I’ll be very reluctant to update my free avast again in future.
I’ve had similar experiences (with Security Software Installs) over the years and have found that sometimes it can take 2 or 3 “Reboots” for the (low level) DRIVERS to be “set” (installed) properly.
Most of the time, unless there is something else going on, the hanging disappears.
Might help.
This issue happens sometimes with XP on boot. I’ve had it happen when nothing changed since the system was run last.
Workaround for getting icons and taskbar to appear below:
Start Task Manager by Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons pressed simultaneously. Task Manager will appear. (Important: Do not repeat this a second time as your system may well reboot on second press operation.) Wait for Task Manager to appear. It may take a bit to appear.
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete twice is a preferred option to force-quit, over using the power button, as when buttons are pressed together two times to restart your system. If that does not work, then use power button to force-quit.
Click File>drop-down menu>select New Task (Run)>enter explorer.exe in Create New Task which will appear. Click OK.
Windows Explorer should now start, and the taskbar and desktop icons should now appear.
Absence of taskbar and/or desktop icons almost always means explorer.exe did not start or is hanging. Really do not know why this happens, but this should get you going if this happens again. Reboot normally a second time after successfully getting to the desktop to set everything right.
