avast! 6 Installation + MalwareBytes 1.50

Update: As I mentioned I would do in a post below, I removed MalwareBytes Pro, removed AVIS6, and rebooted.

After doing that I proceeded to re-install AVIS6, and sure enough everything worked perfectly. No lockup during install, and no internet lockout after install (even with both Firewalls enabled).

So it seems even if you have MalwareBytes installed - even with the protection module disabled that it still interferes with the setup process.
You have to in fact uninstall MalwareBytes before attempting to install AVIS6 (or avast! 6 Free in the case of my home PC) otherwise it can cause some fairly obscure issues and the system locking up.

After AVIS (or AV Free) have been installed, you can then re-install MalwareBytes without any problems - due to this, I edited the title to reflect the issue.

For my original issues see below.


Hi All,

Having purchased avast! Internet Security 6 earlier today for a Business PC I just thought it may be worthwhile giving a bit of post-install feedback.

I was unsure if it would be best posted here, or submitted via Tech Support - so if the latter I would appreciate if someone could let me know. :slight_smile:

Anyhow, on to the feedback:

Firstly, Avast does not seem to like being installed after MalwareBytes Pro has been, even if the resident shield functionality of it is disabled. It resulted in the system locking up at the end of the install process - it seemed to eventually resolve itself, as I left it be, went to have dinner, came back and the install had completed.

Note: I also experienced this behaviour with avast! AV6 Free + MalwareBytes Pro on my home PC during install. So after installation on my home PC I removed it, removed MalwareBytes and re-installed avast and sure enough there was no freeze during setup - so this issue seems to effect both AV6 Free, and AIS6.

Secondly, previously the work PC had been relying on Windows 7’s built-in firewall, and our router’s hardware firewall. During setup AIS6 (obviously) installed a new firewall - however it did not disable the Windows 7 firewall first this actually created two issues.

Before I get on to them, can I suggest that during the AIS setup it checks if the Windows 7 firewall is enabled and if so either gives you the option to disable it - or at least alerts you that you need to do so manually?

Anyway, the two issues caused by the above were:

  1. The conflicting firewalls resulted in a complete internet lockdown (no sites could be accessed, virus definitions could not be updated, etc.).
  2. Even after disabling the Windows 7 firewall manually, the internet lockdown was not resolved. I had to stop the avast firewall completely using the stop button, then re-start it, at which point it recognised a new internet zone and I was able to setup the firewall correctly.

Finally, I have a question - is it possible to completely exclude a file with a specific extension from scanning? We use a specific file extension for some non-executable files (that are rather large) and it would be preferable to exclude them from scans.

System specifications are as follows: Windows 7 64bit, Core i7 930, 6GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 460 1GB.
Protection: avast! Internet Security 6 + MalwareBytes Pro 1.50.1.1100

AIS could run side by side with Windows firewall. Technically, they don’t conflict.
But, indeed, you can disable it (specially if you do not use ipv6).

I can run both at the same time and no lockdowns…
I bet on the MBAM pro otherwise…

You can use the on demand scanning exclusion list and/or the on access exclusion list (File Shield).
You can use wildcards *.xxx

Interesting, so you think the MBAM Pro issue that caused the system lockup also caused the internet issue?
That would be odd, to say the least especially considering the website blocking component of it is completely disabled (via the registry) however it is possible I suppose.

If I remove avast, will I be able to re-install it on the same PC without a problem, or will that cause an issue? (as I have a single PC AVIS license).

If I am able to re-install, I am tempted to remove MBAM, remove AVAST, re-install, re-enable the Windows 7 firewall and see if the internet lockout happens again without MBAM installed.

Thanks for the answer! As it said “Type paths” I assumed you could not whitelist extensions there.

For sure it was not Windows Firewall…

Sometimes, disable is not enough and it could be conflicting with Web Shield.

No problems on uninstalling/installing again.

Good test :wink:

Yes, you can :slight_smile:

You were indeed correct Tech, it seems it was MalwareBytes causing all the issues.

I removed AVIS and MalwareBytes, then reinstalled AVIS.
Sure enough, everything (including having both firewalls enabled) worked and there was no system lock up.

After installing AVIS I could then re-install MalwareBytes without any problems.

So obviously disabling MalwareBytes is simply not enough, it actually has to removed from your computer before installing AVIS.
I’ll report this to MalwareBytes, as they do not mention any compatibility issues with avast.

Do you think it would be worthwhile submitting a support ticked to avast tech support as well to let them know?

Please review Malwarebytes help for AVG as this also applies to avast! Internet Security:
http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=10138&st=0&p=167851&#entry167851

In particular Exclude Files and Folders

If that is the case, then they need to at the very least update the Common Issues, Questions, and their Solutions thread to specify that, as it was the first place I looked.
They also need to update the AVG instuctions, as the Windows 7 instructions for AVG Free 2011 do not work at all, but that’s a whole different barrel of worms :slight_smile:

Either way, before I do that I am going to contact their support (as I am a paying customer, and therefore have access to it) to see what they have to say about it.

It was not possible to add MBAM to the exclusion list at that point anyway, as avast was not even installed (though MBAM was, as I was replacing the antivirus).
Also, as long as avast is already installed and then MBAM is installed there seem to be no issues at all (or at least there never have been on my home PC).

Very strange :-\

I have always installed releases, release candidate’s, beta’s etc. from both Avast! and MBAM together and never had a problem. I don’t exclude files either.

Greets, Red.

The Installation might be the only issue with these programs but other than that they work fine together! I have been using them for a few weeks now and havent experienced any problems at all, havent excluded any files even.

Although when you access a website that is known to be malicious in the MBAM database, it will show a popup saying avastsvc.exe was blocked, I was not sure about this and contacted both Avast! and MBAM admins and it was made clear that this is because Avast! network shield is constantly intercepting the sites we access and thats why it mentions avastsvc… It doesnt mean that they have conflicts. :slight_smile: Just mentioned this incase someone will experience this and think that they have compatibility issues…

I just checked to see if I had the same result in a clean Windows 7 SP1 Virtual Machine, and sure enough this problem seems to be 100% reproducible.
It hangs for around 5-10 minutes at the “Finishing setup…” screen (right before the post-install scan) and then eventually the scan starts.

I noticed your signature specifies you are using Vista, I wonder if this tends to suggests it is either:
a) A Windows 7 specific issue or b) A Windows 7 SP1 specific issue. It may also only apply to the 64bit version of Windows 7.

I don’t know, I can only tell you that I have done several Avast! installs from scratch in the past with MBAM realtime protection running. That said, if I install MBAM on other peoples pc’s they already have Avast! installed.

Greets, Red.

I run win 7 64 bit with SP1 and have never had a issue with avast or MBAM Pro, i always do clean install’s of avast when a new version comes out with MBAM running in the background and never a problem and iv been running without the exclusions for some time now.
The exclusion’s are quite well documented in the MBAM forum and easyly found, plus you can alway’s ask on there forum about it and where to find them if you have trouble and the exclusion’s were only updated a couple of months ago.

Interesting. I’ve found the problem to be 100% reproducible with the current versions by doing the following:

On completely fresh install of Windows 7 64bit /w SP1 (also tried in a Virtual Machine):

  1. Install/setup MalwareBytes Pro 1.50.1.1100 and enable the realtime protection, reboot.
  2. Disable the real time protection.
  3. Run any avast 6 setup (the free version will do).

At the “Finishing Setup…” stage the system will lock up for 5-10 minutes, after that it will start partially responding again and the post-install scan may/may not be processed successfully (It did once - on my physical machine, all other times required a hard reboot - in the virtual machine).

I have had the system freeze at the final install stage of avast before but i just do a forced shut down and when i restart again it’s all good and avast then tells me that it’s been updated, i never disable MBAM realtime as you shouldn’t have to.

That’s the thing though - you should not be getting that freeze and MalwareBytes Pro is what causes the system lockup - even if the resident shield is supposedly disabled.
As you’re installing avast! 6 Free, the repercussions of a reset are fairly harmless, as all you miss out on is the post install scan.

However, as I mentioned in my original post above, this caused multiple problems when installing AVIS for me, as it caused a complete internet lockdown and the firewall setup not to be configured correctly (which is obviously something rather more inconvenient).

What if I was not a techie and my internet has been completely locked out? How would I go about fixing it? How would I know that the avast firewall setup had not been triggered correctly and to toggle it off/on again? :wink:

My point is, MalwareBytes need to look into the problem and fix it.

Yes take it to malwarebytes and see what they say, untill you brought up this problem i had never taken much notice of it or knew what caused it so you have done well in your troubleshooting :slight_smile: you can report there findings back here.