ethan, thanks for the effort.
I’m not using CTM at the moment.
Also, this is a problem between avast and Windows System Restore.
I want, if possible, that someone of the programmers give me a help on why avast is blocking the system restore randomically (specially after a virus definitions update).

+10000

Thanks for the effort…
A suggestion from anyone will help many of us here.

Thanks
Ash

Another user with problems with System Restore
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=61928.msg642953#msg642953

Not a word from avast team.
Shame.

Tech,
Have you tried the following:
http://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-7-deletes-all-system-restore-points-upon-reboot/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AskVG+(AskVG)

Tech, I always had the system restore problem while running avast. I has happened ot 3 different computers using windows 7, Vista and XP. The last few times I tried to restore my system it didn’t even want to boot properly. It always loaded until the moment i need to enter my password and then there was only black screen. I couldn’t get to the point where my desktop gets loaded. The only way to boot was to do it in safe mode. The moment i uninstalled avast and restarted everything got running just fine and windows booter normally and informed me that it has successfuly restored the system. I’m still using avast , but i know that if i ever need to restore my system again i should uninstall avast first…It’s a shame.

I never need that. It’s for a high fragmented pagefile.sys. Not my case.

Thanks for sharing. At least it would not be my voice only…

+1

AGAIN… AVAST INSTALLATION GOT TOTALLY CORRUPT AFTER A CORRECT SYSTEM RESTORE.
NOW, OR SYSTEM RESTORE WORKS AND I NEED TO UNINSTALL AVAST AND INSTALL AGAIN, LOSING ALL MY SETTINGS, OR I CAN’T USE SYSTEM RESTORE.
TOO MUCH NEW APPLICATIONS AND FEATURES AND THE OLD AND GOOD ANTIVIRUS PROBLEMS AREN’T BEING SOLVED.

YEAH. DOUBLE POSTING >:(
I HATE THIS LOSE OF TIME… WORSE: IT START BECAUSE I WAS TRYING TO TEST AVAST FOR ANDROID >:( :frowning:

Tech, I have been able to suscessfully restore WIN 7 x64 SP1 multiple times with Avast 6 installed.

What I have found out is one or more reboots are required before you see the message on your desktop that WIN 7 has been sucessfully retored. Usually the reboot after system restore is a wipeout. Either the desktop will lockup or the dreaded black screen appears. A hard shutdown via the power switch and reboot usually works but not always. Sometimes one or two more hard shutdowns and reboots are required.

Afterwards I did not observe any Avast anomalies or coruption.

Obviously, Avast is impacting the system restore so this does need to be fixed. I also believe that delaying Avast’s startup till the latest possible moment or disabling startup entirely would also help when doing a system restore.

Thanks.
I’ll try this if avast messed everything again.
Anyway, I’ve tried boot twice and it help NOTHING.
Man, I’m very angry with this problem does not get solved in anyway.

Tech, I have been able to suscessfully restore WIN 7 x64 SP1 multiple times with Avast 6 installed.
I've also not had any problems with system restore on Win7 on a 32 bit system.

I wonder if this will do the trick prior to performing a WIN 7 system restore?

In the Avast GUI Troubleshooting section:

  • uncheck Enable rootkit scanning at system startup.
  • uncheck Enable Avast! self-defense module.
  • checkmark Load Avast services only after loading other system services.

I am learning toward Enable Avast! self-defense module as the culprit.

Self defense was off. System restore worked. Avast repair is a joke.

For what it is worth, Avast not alone with system restore issues. Symantec’s NIS has issues. So much so, its forum recommends a total NIS reinstall after a system restore. From what I can gather, issues are the same - NIS modules are out of sync with retored OS components.

The culprit from what I can tell is all the modern AVs are using .dll injection to enforce OS component integrity.

Worse for avast…
A known problem not corrected.
Not even acknowledged.
Not even they seem to have interest on it…

So with Self-Defense off before a system restore, system restore will always work? Or only sometimes.

Always? No, I can’t say that.
But, when it works, avast get messed.

I guess I am somewhat puzzled as to why you don’t test using a VM? VMWare’s VM takes about 10 mins. to set up.

Or, take an image backup before testing? I use Paragon’s software and always image from a bootable CD with WIN PE on it. Image of my 40 GB partition takes 5 min. max. I never had an image restore fail when imaging off of a Paragon boot CD with WIN PE on it.

BTW - WIN 7 includes an image backup/restore utility. I haven’t used it so can’t vouch for it.

BTW - WIN 7 includes an image backup/restore utility. I haven't used it so can't vouch for it.
@DonZ63 The Win7 image backup is very reliable but isn't the same as the System Restore function. Making an image backup also takes a great deal more time and certainly isn't something you'll do before trying a new program. :)

Any good imaging software will allow for full and incremental image backups. Also the incremental imaging can run in Windows in the background. Paragon calls that “hot processing” I believe. Incremental image backups only contain system changes since the last full backup. A typical senerio is do a full image backup weekly and incremental ones daily.

Bottom line, you can do imaging incrementally and not even know it’s running. The drawback is the image restore is a bit more complicated since you have to restore the last full image backup and then each of the incremental ones. Most good imaging software will automate most of this.

I am just old fashioned and don’t trust imaging out of Windows.

As far as if it is an appropriate solution for a single program installation is relative. A malware infection is a single program install in reality.

In a single PC test environment, a virtual machine is the preferred platform I would say.

Actually, more and more people are creating a VM just to run their browser from. Get infected, no problem. Re-create the VM or reload from a backup. There are resource considerations with a VM. WMWare is light on resources, Microsoft’s VM is a pig.