A few days ago I downloaded an infected file which I think Avast missed. It came inside 7zip.exe which I’ve since deleted. Since that initial infection I’ve completely scanned the pc from a seperate windows xp installation on another drive and cleaned any bogus files. I’ve also run Malware bytes until nothing was found. Modem off, I booted back into my vista installation and uninstalled and reinstalled avast but no matter what I try - installing from safe mode with admin rights etc. Whenever I start the machine again there is the avast service running but no UI. I’ve ticked the box to load avast services after other services, still doesn’t work. If I start Avast manually after bootup it seems to work fine. It just won’t start automatically. Any ideas what else I could try? On a side note when the virus hit it took out all my system restore points - just in case that’s relevant.
Hi,
I ran the removal program from safe mode and then rebooted. Next I ran the installation again and then rebooted. Avast still didn’t start properly but I noticed that it was listed in the “Windows has blocked some of your startup programmes” icon in the lower right of the task bar. When I right clicked and chose run blocked program, avast was in there and when clicked ran normally.
So why has windows now decided to block avast? When I had it installed and working properly before the virus incident I didn’t install at as admin and it was never blocked. I did the exact same this time - didn’t install it as admin - and now it’s blocked! I long for windows xp it never used to screw around like vista.
Anyway any more ideas would be gratefully received as I don’t fancy having to keep clicking on the blocked programs icon to run avast.
If you are talking about Windows Defender (or some other equivalent software), asking about changes to Windows, this should be a one-time question. If you tell Windows Defender to accept the program to change Windows settings (dll or registry or whatever) as a permanent and valid change, then it shouldn’t bother you again. At least, this is how it is supposed to work.
If in doubt, install Avast by selecting the setup.exe, right click on it, run as Administrator, and install it again.
In any case, after the changes or reinstall (and accepting the changes in Windows Defender if it shows up), reboot again and test. Then please report back.
Windows UAC doesn’t show you “Windows has blocked some of your startup programmes” as above described. Either the user gives permission to UAC to install Avast correctly, or not. The described problems might start if either no permission was given, or the user can’t give administrator permissions at all (even if he wants to).
I don’t know if it was Windows Defender, or some “similar” tool. As mentioned, reinstalling with “run as administrator” and accepting UAC and any warnings from Windows Defender (or similar/equivalent) tool should take care of the problem.
After that, a reboot is needed.
BEFORE all this, any other AV should be completely removed using the respective specific removal utilities (not just with “Add/Remove Programs”) and under Windows Safe Mode.
In any case, (and I already said it several times now), the user should install it running it as admin, which should solve the problem, or run the specific Avast removal tool under Safe Mode and then reinstall as admin.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930367
In the Cause section, Microsoft calls it part of UAC.
It’s mostly semantics, since it boils down to something going wrong in the install, since it obviously shouldn’t do that.
In the case I fixed, it had been installed in admin, and in the end there was actually a problem with Windows itself.
Hi guys,
Just to clear things up. It’s definitely not Windows Defender because the first thing I did when I got this vista machine was to disable the Defender services and use my own choice of software to take care of those tasks.
Now back to the problem. Latest is that I have uninstalled with the avast uninstaller in safe mode (again)and rebooted. Then I reran the Avast installer making sure to right click/choose properties/compatibility and click on run as admin. Then rebooted the pc and got the same message about windows having to block certain programs. Right clicked on that chose blocked programs and there is avast waiting to be clicked and asking permission to be run. So I’m still no further forward.
I did say “Windows Defender or similar / equivalent”, didn’t I?
Now back to the problem. Latest is that I have uninstalled with the avast uninstaller in safe mode (again)and rebooted. Then I reran the Avast installer making sure to right click/choose properties/compatibility and click on run as admin. Then rebooted the pc and got the same message about windows having to block certain programs. Right clicked on that chose blocked programs and there is avast waiting to be clicked and asking permission to be run. :( So I'm still no further forward.
What next…?
Next you give those questions the correct answer. Could you attach an image of those dialogs / questions? Isn’t there an option (checkbox or whatever) to make the answer permanent (so to allow Avast service each time, not only just this boot time)?
Isn't there an option (checkbox or whatever) to make the answer permanent (so to allow Avast service each time, not only just this boot time)?
Hi,
No there is no option to make it permanent. When you right click on the system tray icon for the “windows has blocked some of your programs” app you have the option to run blocked programs which when clicked lists only Avast. Clicking on that simply runs the program (after asking you to give it permission to do so). There is no pop up or check box to make it a permanent choice.
Also its not the service that isn’t starting - it starts when windows starts - but the avastui.exe isn’t run until I run it from the blocked list.
Like I say, when I get to the unblock program (step three) there is no option to make this choice the default it just brings up the UAC permission request and then runs the program when I click on yes I want to run it.
When you download the setup.exe for Avast (or, any downloaded file, for that matter), you should unblock the file before installing Avast (before running the setup.exe). Running “as Administrator” usually helps too.
Reading the complete topic, I see I gave you all the “correct” tips to avoid this type of problems before installing.
My suspicion is that you are not installing Avast in the “correct” way, but of course the possibility that some malware can be also interefering is always opened.
While you may be correct in your suspicion, I’ve been using Avast on several machines for three years now and up until three weeks ago never had any difficulty installing or running it. As I said at the top of the page, the initial problem followed hard on the heels of a virus gaining access to the machine…so maybe someone else can take this on a bit further whith that in mind.
[*]Double click on the icon to run it. Make sure all other windows are closed and to let it run uninterrupted.
[*]Select All Users
[*]Under the Custom Scan box paste this in netsvcs
%SYSTEMDRIVE%*.exe
/md5start
explorer.exe
winlogon.exe
Userinit.exe
svchost.exe
/md5stop
C:\Windows\assembly\tmp\U /s
CREATERESTOREPOINT
[*]Click the Quick Scan button. Do not change any settings unless otherwise told to do so. The scan wont take long.
[*]When the scan completes, it will open two notepad windows. OTL.Txt and Extras.Txt. These are saved in the same location as OTL.
[*]Post both logs
So I’m still no further forward.