I tried to reply in a thread about this issue but was asked to ‘consider starting another thread’, so here you go…
I’ve been using Avast for years, at least five years. I updated the program to ver 6 yesterday and I was happy to finally see a user-friendly interface showing me more protection than I thought I had. However, today Windows Firewall can’t be started because of another associated service running.
My question is, is Avast providing a firewall with this new version that’s blocking Windows firewall? I don’t see anything using the word ‘firewall’ in the interface. It worked fine for years until I upgraded the program. Now I can’t get into the firewall to allow Avast because the firewall won’t start.
So, do I need Windows firewall now or not? If I don’t, then how can I stop my computer from notifying me that my computer is at risk every time I start it up. I’ve seen some advice saying to reset winsock but I have a feeling that could screw other things up. What changed with the program update that caused this and what can I do about it?
What is your OS? Do you have another firewall, or have you just been using windows? What other security software are you using? Avast! 6 Free does not provide a firewall; that is only available in the (paid) AIS version. You should turn on the Windows firewall or whatever you were using previously. What is the “other associated service” running-what message do you get? Windows firewall does not need any special rules to allow avast!
I just checked back to add my OS, so thanks for the very fast reply!
I have Vista SP2 and haven’t used anything except for Windows Firewall. Avast is the only security software that’s always running besides the firewall. It’s on one of two home computers that are hardwired to a router (with no software program). I also scan with Malwarebytes.
I click the red x icon in the system tray to go to windows security center where it says windows firewall is not running. I click turn on now and get
Security center can’t turn on windows firewall
Turn on windows firewall manually
I click that and get to windows firewall and get the following message. (I made a mistake in my first post, it should be that the associated service is NOT running.)
‘Windows firewall settings cannot be displayed because the associated service is not running. Do you want to start the windows firewall service?’ Then I get a popup saying ‘windows cannot start the windows firewall service’ and that’s all. Same if I click ‘allow a program through windows firewall’.
The only different behaviour that’s happened is the avast program update.
Edit: I found these in the management console, order from most recent-
error- The Windows Firewall service terminated with service-specific error 5 (0x5).
info- The Windows Firewall service entered the stopped state.
info-The WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service service entered the stopped state.
warning- Windows Defender Real-Time Protection agent has detected changes
I’m going to do a system restore. I expect that I’ll have to try upgrading Avast again after.
Update - system restore fixed it. Avast took a while to get going and allow connecting to the net but both it and windows firewall seem to be working fine now. As I was doing the system restore I saw that I had uninstalled Arcsoft total media software just after updating avast. Now I’ll have to uninstall it again and see what happens, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem with Avast. Problem solved, but thanks again for your quick reply.
Another update - the firewall problem isn’t solved. It was working until I uninstalled arcsoft total theatre for the second time after system restore. The computer shut down after uninstall completed, which it isn’t supposed to do. Today after bootup the exact same issues with the firewall are happening. Feeling vulnerable, I installed Zonealarm free firewall which seems to be working ok but I didn’t want to have to add more software. But it’s clear that Avast didn’t cause the problem. Now I want to find out why uninstalling that program caused these problems and how I can restore windows firewall and get rid of zonealarm.