Avast behaving like a virus

Viruses and worms
1

Last Saturday I upgraded the Avast program, and when I rebooted I had lost all Internet access - no mail, no news, no web.

Eventually I did a system restore, and had Internet access again. I upgraded Avast again, rebooted, and once again no access. I rebooted and tried to do a System Restore, but it appaeared to be disabled now. While there I ran a scan, asking for infecteds file to be sent to the chest, so the machine should have been clean. But I restored the entire C: drive from a 2-week-old backup, since System Restore didn’t work.

I went forward a step at a time. Internet working, so made another full backup, and set a system restore point.

Reran Windows updates, rebooted, internet working, so made another system restore point.

Updated Avast virus definitions, Internet working, set another restore point.

I upgraded the Avast antivirus program from version 6.01203 to 6.01209.

It said I must reboot, so I did.

Internet access was blocked, and it had wiped out all my system restore points. Avast now IS a virus, or at least it behaves exactly like a virus.

I had to restore the entire C: drive again from backups.

There seems to be a serious problem with the Avast program > 6.01203

Blocking Internet access is bad enough, but apparently wiping out System Restore points is virus-like behaviour.

I am running Windows XP Professional, 32-bit version.

2

System restore can have unexpected and adverse effects, one does seem to mess up any existing avast installation.

Crucially you don’t mention what your firewall is ?

On program updates, the components change and firewalls can block the avastSvc.exe, which controls the web shield, without that no internet connection, unless you disable the web shield. The firewall needs to allow avastSvc.exe internet access, if your firewall is the XP firewall, it shouldn’t get in the way as it has ZERO outbound checking/protection.

Avast doesn’t wipe out system restore points, it scans and alerts to infection if present, but it doesn’t delete restore points, it doesn’t have that functionality.

I would suggest that you do a clean install of avast:

  • Download the latest version of avast, 6.0.1289 http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free.exe and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn’t save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

  • Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 5.x and 6.0.x).

    1. Now uninstall avast! (using add remove programs, if you can’t do that start from the next step), reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 5.x if previously installed and then for 6.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.