Lately I keep getting Security Center alerts that tell me that I have my antivirus protection turned off or not up to date.
My Avast is on and functional and has currrent updates.
Am I doing something wrong or is it a case where MS Windows XP and the Security Center does not recognize Avast antivirus?
Thanks for any insights.
Frank
Please, check your system date and time.
Are you using any other antivirus in your computer?
If you stop Central Security service and start it again, will it recognize avast?
Thanks for the response and suggestions, I am somewhat of a newbie and need clarification on the suggestions:
“Check your system date and time” …are you referring to the clock in the system tray, or is there another date and time module in the system?
“turn of the ecurity center”…do you mean open it and close it or is there a way to shut it down completely?
Frank
Yes, double click the clock in the system tray and check if the date and time are fully correct.
Sorry Frank. My instructions were not clear.
Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
I think in English will have a service called ‘Security Center’ or something like that.
There will be a buttom on the top to stop and then start the service again.
Can you try?
Thanks for the clarification. My system date/time is correct for my time zone and stopping the security center via services and restarting it unfortunately didn’t eliminate the security center alert. It continues to tell me that I “have multiple antivirus programs but they all out of date or turned off.”
I do have several antivirus scan utilities that I occasionally run to scan for viruses, but they are only run manually when selected. The only antivirus program that I have running is Avast and as best I can determine it is fully operational - that is , the icon in the system tray is active and when I open the On Access Protection Control window, all of the installed providers are lighted up except the Standard Shield which is grayed out. Is there some other way to verify that Avast is fully functional?
Frank
Let us know what the other AVs are ?
Unless they are specifically designed as on-demand AV scanners, they may have registry entries that could load drivers and if that happens, avast may disable elements to avoid possible conflict, which could lock-up your system and/or leave you vulnerable.
Low level drivers in conflict… unfortunatelly… the sympthoms are clear…
Which are they?
eicar test for instance.
But the conflict seems, at least to me, obvious…
Thanks for the responses. In answer to the question…“Let us know what the other AVs are ?”
I have over the past year or so used a number of free scans available from vendors web sites. To the best of my knowledge, all but one must be downloaded and installed each time that a scan is desired and only one is found in the ADD/REMOVE listing.
Those that are accessed via a web page are:
McAfee Free Scan; Panda Active Scan; TrendMicro House Call; StopSign; Symantec Security. None of these are found in the Program Files.
Recently I was told that ClamWin was an accurate virus scanner that could be used to complement one primary AV utility so I downloaded it and set it up to only run manually. It is the one found in the Program Files and in ADD/REMOVE.
Since your inputs, I am now wondering if it is ClamWin that is causing the alerts with MS Security Center.
Any thoughts?
Frank
ClamWin has in the past been use as a backup scanner without a problem as it isn’t an on-access scanner, rather an on-demand scanner. So if things haven’t changed recently that may be OK, however, I would try an add remove programs and reboot, to confirm.
Generally on-line scanners should cause a problem as they aren’t installed (on-access) and usually only download signature files, which may cause issues of detection if not encrypted. Panda I think is very naughty in that it creates a folder ‘activescan’ in the system32 folder and its signatures aren’t encrypted and often get flagged as viruses when you run an avast on-demand scan.
Do you have the avast ’ a ’ icon on the system tray ?
If so Double Click on it and you should see all the installed shields, if not click the More Details button. Now check the Standard Shield you may see that the icon is greyed out, click the Start button, you should be asked if you want to persist the changes, answer Yes.
Check the Windows Security Center it should hopefully report avast is running, if so reboot your system and see if the change has stuck.
DavidR wrote…"Do you have the avast ’ a ’ icon on the system tray ?
Yes I do…
If so Double Click on it and you should see all the installed shields, if not click the More Details button. Now check the Standard Shield you may see that the icon is greyed out, click the Start button, you should be asked if you want to persist the changes, answer Yes.
Did that and went to Security Center and unchecked the box that indicates that I would be responsible for maintaining antivirus protection.
Check the Windows Security Center it should hopefully report avast is running, if so reboot your system and see if the change has stuck.
Yes the Standard Shield is lighted (active) and the Security Center indicates that antivirus protection is on and Avast is up to date.
Thanks very much for the assistance. I have been running Avast without the protection afforded by Standard Shield since day one, although all other installed providers were active and running.
Frank
Frank, I don’t think so… my ClamWin (not resident) never conflicted with avast…
Although, while on-demmand scanning could rarely occur what Igor posted.
Thanks for the response regarding ClamWin, Tech - hopefully the alert problem is resolved. Apparently I never had the Standard Shield activated and once that was done the Security Center Alert ceased. I will have to learn just what the Standard Shield is designed to accomplish.
Frank
Basically, it scans all files that is being ‘executaded’ (run), but also floppy boot records, OLE files,
Also it can scan the open/create/modified files.
Your welcome, glad you stuck with it and that all is well.
Many thanks again Tech for all your help and patience.
Frank
Have the same problem as Frank, except that all services are runnning minus the e-mail scanner. Have tried your suggestion of turning standard off then back on then checking Security. Still doesn’t see it.
Also have tried to do repair from Add Remove Progs without good result. Any suggestions? ???
If you have the same problem as Frank then can answer the same questions he was asked.
Particularly the one about other AVs.
Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?
What is your firewall ?
Does it have an email checking function ?
An avast Repair won’t have any effect as the problem is essentially a windows security center one.
Check this - Solution when Windows Security Center does not recognize antivirus
Thanks David,
In response to your question, Avast is the only AV and Windows Defender. Firewall is MS in XP
Pro SP2. Will try stopping the services as you indicated.
Regards,
That was Tech who suggested that I just copied his post. If that doesn’t have any effect, check the link I gave (blue text).
;D Very well, thank you Tech and David for your help! That did in fact take care of the problem.
Any idea as to what caused this issue? At any rate, thanks to both of you for your help.