Avast and Windows XP System Restore Tool

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,
I have a problem. I have recently discovered that Avast will update itself to newest program version if System Restore Tool is used.
Let me present example scenario to draw the issue.

Day 0 - no avast is installed on a computer.
Day 1 - system restore point is created.
Day 2 - system restore point 2 is created.
Day 3 - avast 6.0 is installed and system restore point 3 is created
Day 4 - system restore point 4 is created.
Day 5 - system restore point 5 is created.
and so on…
Day X - System Restore Tool is used to restore to previous point in time (no matter which one is picked it’s always same)
Day X part 2 - after System was used computer is turned off and turned on again, and then Avast automatically updates itself to newest version even to pro version although the installed version was Free one.
Program update was set to manual of course.

How to stop this behavior? How to stop Avast from self updating itself when Windows XP System Restore Tool?
I would ask by the ticket support but they always only copy & paste tutorial how to delete and reinstall avast no matter what question is.

:frowning:

2

Ok. after lurking around other threads I think I found the possible solution.
Disabling self defense module might be the answear.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=119008.30
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=121404.0
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=121440.0
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=121436.0

I guess I should search first next time before asking.

3

hi Born To Be Wild,

Self-defense module protects avast! drivers from being modified by another agent or program. System Restore is one such. To protect itself, avast! self-dense monitors the current environment in real-time, and whenever a possible attack is detected, it will either notify the user that this is happening, or ask for a password, and will then ask the user whether the self-defense disabling action should be allowed?

This will occur whether avast! is password protected or not.

The problem with System Restore is that this action/option never occurs for the user, as System Restore initiates before reboot, and completes the restore on restart, and avast! will wake up to a new (older) environment than before, and will thus be disabled as a result. Not an expected outcome, but understandable under the circumstances.

Disabling self-defense ahead of time will prevent any/all issues with System Restore and avoid the need to repair/do a clean uninstall/install of avast! Just be sure to re-enable self-defense when restore is successfully completed.

4

This is apparently not true - I did a restore tonight to 12 hours earlier, in Windows XP. First of all, I disabled the self defense module.
When the the system came back in it’s restored state, self defense was active - as it would have been 12 hours ago.
And Avast was not in its free version as it should have been…

5

Hi,

This may well be a bug that manifests itself on only some systems, not all. Otherwise, this forum would be inundated with similar issues and complaints.

To ensure that some as yet unknown variable is not in play here, suggest looking at this site to completely remove any prior a/v programs you may have ever installed at one time or another: http://singularlabs.com/uninstallers/security-software/ If you’ve never had another a/v installed (even as pre-bundled when system was new) other than avast!, this may not apply to you. Note this site has other tools listed on other pages within it, so you may find something within that can really get your system sorted and in clean running order.

These tools listed within singularlabs are to be used only after uninstalling an a/v program, not to be used before uninstalling. They are clean-up tools only.

Left over drivers from previous a/v programs can impact the proper operation of avast! Uninstall tools listed here will get rid of these left over drivers. Once removed, they will not interfere with proper avast! operation.

You may not agree with the quoted statement about re-enabling self-defense module on restart, as that is not what you saw and experienced; but that behavior is likely an anomaly, and not the norm for a system restore of an XP system. Under normal operating system environment variables, one would have to re-enable self-defense after reboot; the fact that your free version changed to the Pro version by itself would mean that this version change caused the self-defense module to be turned on automatically. The fact that avast! has taken to including the code for all versions of avast! a/v within the free version does not help here. Microsoft has been doing the same exact thing with Anytime Upgrade for some time now, so all one has to do is purchase a new license and the upgrade process works seamlessly (most of the time).

Another tactic to clean up your system, if you do not know of this or use it, is to run sfc /scannow. This tool is included in XP, Vista, 7, and 8, but XP requires the use of the original install cd disc to run.

Run>cmd>sfc /scannow as admin and wait for the scan to complete. You will need that cd to run sfc /scannow. When the scan is complete, reboot your system to lock all repaired system files into place.

Sometimes a system restore will produce unexpected results.

Why did you choose to restore your system in the first place?

6

First point - you may be right about the bug affecting some systems, but your reasoning that otherwise the forum would be full is
suspect. I would guess the much more likely reason is that not too many users use system restore.

Why did I choose to use system restore ? Because of non-Avast related issues.

This problem is reasonably easy to reproduce. But look - we haven’t heard a single word from an official Avast representative.
I suspect they know what the problem is, but for reasons known only to themselves they will not divulge it.
It’s either due to a something in the registry, or the contents of a file. Notice it only ever switches from free > paid,
never the other way around.

7

I’ve gone and notified an avast! team member of your issue. Whether or not he, or someone else, joins this thread is entirely up to them.

Since you have seen System Restore throw anomalous results on reboot at least one time, maybe it is time to consider another tool to restore your system back to working order? Specifically, the use of any disk imaging program, run as incremental updates once a day, would work, and would not throw avast! into a disabled state/new version on reboot. Plus you would know your system was clean after restoring a known clean image.

Something to consider. :slight_smile:

[EDIT:] Fixed typo.

8

Windows System Restore and avast! have their old issues…
I suggest you disable the avast! self-defense module each time you need to user System Restore.
And, to get avast! installation back, please, consider an installation from scratch.

9

Yes, older versions of avast! had a bug causing it to behave like that (turning to avast! Pro when System Restore is used; the change of the program edition then triggers the program update when the program tries to download modules missing in avast! Free); we know that - but since we don’t have a time machine, there’s nothing we can do to change the behavior of the old versions.

10

igor,
what do you mean “Old versions”? Even the latest version with self-defence off still suffers from this problem, I’ve experienced it myself.
I would like one of the Avast developers to come on here and explain why it’s doing it, and what they’re doing to to resolve the problem.