Unfortunately since this issue has existed for quite a long time and there is no one helping to resolve it, I am moving on to another competitive Anti-Virus product. : Having this issue on three XP computers is just too much hassle to deal with killing and restarting Explorer. It’s not worth the problem. >:( I have used Avast for many years and really believed in the product and its features and I wish everyone in this forum and the developers success in the future. I have moved on to the competitors AntiVirus product and no longer suffer from the problem.
Hey, I registered just to provide a possible solution -
I had the exact symptoms described by cmesenbring and armkbdotcom
Luckily(!), this was on a nearly fresh install (of win xp pro), with only a few apps installed. Since I had never had a problem with avast for years, I figured the conflict might lie with sth else installed, and not avast.
And bingo!I was right. It turned out to be [b]Eraser v. 5.87/b.
I had earlier been using the v.5.86 without any problems, however on a new install I decided to go for the latest version.
I uninstalled 5.87 and the right-click hang was gone.I then installed eraser 5.86 and still no sign of the problem so far -this discovery is only a day old, so fingers still crossed.
I hope that helps out someone.
Okay -just an observation, the Erase v5.87 came out on June, 09 while the earliest post on this thread is from Feb,09. So there must be sth else responsible and not just Eraser.
Alternatively if you have high svchost cpu count (usual NETWORK SERVICE) you may have an automatic updates issue seems that Microsoft has only partially fixed.
I resolved this issue (so far) on a friend’s computer that had been infected and wouldn’t come right.
I used the fix outlined under Another Temporary Solution – toward the bottom of the page.
Are you having any problems updating manually?
You could perhaps go to Windows Security Center and click ‘Check for the latest updates from Windows Update’ to see if the request to Windows Download center goes through. Or whether it hangs.
If it hangs you may be infected - likely, but not necessarily so.
Anyway, you need to bring up to date the information bout your computer that is entered in the hyperlink above. Also likely that your problem may be resolved, but not without more details about the issue.
Mate, thank you very much for providing this information! I can confirm your observation!
I encountered the same problem and uninstalling Eraser 5.87 solved it. I’m now using an older version of Eraser and everything runs fine again.
The problem discussed here however doesn’t seem to be specific to the combination of Avast/Eraser, since there are other users affected who don’t have Eraser installed. My guess is, that it has something to do with the use of shell extension. If you are affected, you should probably check if there is an application that uses shell extensions and deactivate or uninstall it prior to an attempt of installing Windows from scratch or dumping Avast.
Found this solution:
Basically need to customize the right-click context menu:
Click: Start - Run - Type in “regedt32” - HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - shellex -avast
Right click on the (Default) icon and select “Modify”
You should see the Value data, something like “{472083B0-C522-11CF-8763-00608CC02F24}”
Deactivate the avast right click function by adding a minus sign (-) before the value data e.g. -{472083B0-C522-11CF-8763-00608CC02F24}
Having this issue on three XP computers is just too much hassle to deal with killing and restarting Explorer. It’s not worth the problem. >:( I have used Avast for many years and really believed in the product and its features and I wish everyone in this forum and the developers success in the future. I have moved on to the competitors AntiVirus product and no longer suffer from the problem.