I don’t believe the files could be corrupted by avast! - unless a virus is found (and when it is, you’re clearly notified), all the files are manipulated in read-only mode. If you want to check, just download the files again (or copy the “corrupted files” somewhere else, where avast! is not installed and do a fresh download) and compare the content of the files.
Josh,
I also believe that the company is writing off this major error and hasn't been very helpful to the several people that have reported it.
Vlk has suggested to something to eangules, I can’t find back here if eangules did it. So the help definatly was/is there.
The problem as some are facing here is not reproduceble by Avast or they would have solved it. I tried it here on 3 systems and no error at all. Evreything is working. So don’t accuse Alwil of writing off a error. They NEVER do that.
eangules,
So weather or not it is MS or Avast at fault the fact of the matter is it is Avast's responsibility to fix the dam thing.So if it is MS to blame you expect Alwil to fix the problems MS has? What kind of strange world are you living in. If a Ford breaks down, that means Toyota or any other car manufacturer has to fix it?
I have spoken with several Alfa and Beta testers for MS products and they all agree, Avast and sp2 are working together without problems. I have two systems running for testing purposes, and there also no problem. Personally I am thinking that the few people who have this problem, also have something else in common. Could be drivers, a application, hardware or something like that, which is causing this behaviour. Since people speak of a clean install I am wondering how they did that exactly.
Put on a firewall before going online to get/install ALL
updates/patches?
Installed the first patches/updates from the update cd?
Installed all drivers including mobo drivers before installing anything else?
etc etc
Many people say they know how to install a os, but it has been proven that only a few know how to do it the correct way.
Calm down everyone, please.
Have you tried removing the two entries I was talking about?
We’re not able to simulate the problem. I have avast loaded here on the latest build XP SP2 and I can run all 16-bit programs (both Win16 and DOS) without any problems… :-\
Btw, I remember that long time ago, InstallShield had problems with something… I don’t know what exactly it was (new version of Windows… fast CPUs… really don’t know) - but a big number of InstallShield-created installations couldn’t be started. Of course, it wasn’t MSI at that time (though nobody said it’s MSI here either, did they?)…
I’m not saying it has anything in common with this particular problem, just that the problem may actually be somewhere completely else that you’d expect 
Did anyone who has this problem already looked in the system and event log? There may be a lot of errors there telling more about the real problem.
There would appear to be some bug between Avast and Windows XP SP2. I have this problem with InstallShield installers 2.x and 3.x only after installing Avast in SP2. Before installing Avast they work fine and if I run the same installer with the exact version of Avast in SP1 they work fine.
Some info:
Fresh install tested both SP1 and SP2
SP2 is latest public (2149), did not get to testing prior builds.
No event log evens suggesting anything.
Related post with relevant info.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=3282
If I disable avast from sys tray all togehter, still does not allow execution. If I disable the 16-bit/DOS component of avast in config.nt, the insaller will work fine. I happen to be trying to install a relatively updated program whos auther apparently doesnt use a very new version of InstallShield. I can reproduce it with many InstallShield 2.x and 3.x installers. One for testing can be downloaded from:
Website
http://www.runtime.org/
File URL:
http://www.runtime.org/gdb.zip
Took a bit of digging but I was about to go insane trying to install some programs. Temporary fix of course is to remark the avast component out of config.nt and then add it back after install. Can someone please look at this. I was all excited about Windows XP SP2 until this came up. From my understanding some isntallers are a bit flakey in SP2 because of new MSI installer service but this should not be related.
Thanks
Remove the reference to the avast sys file from \windows\system32\config.nt . This will solve the problem.
Also, please export the following registry key and send the .reg file to my email address: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers.
Thanks
Vlk
Hi. I have one more simple question. What did you guys install first? Avast, or SP2?
Thanks,
Vlk
Thank you vlk for the help… I used a slipstreamed install of SP2 to install windows, then immeadietly (atleast on my test install) installed Avast on first reboot.
There is nothing in the VDD registry entry on either of my computers I have tried this on.
Also, I noticed this thread was started in reference to Avast Home, it indeed happens with both home and pro.
From my experience with installers in SP2 it would appear something isnt happening correctly on a fresh install of Avast in SP2. Notice earlier in this thread the reference to using system restore and then reinstalling Avast. I have some time on a spare machine today so I will try to run a installer tracking program to see what is difference when initially installing avast vs installing a 2nd time after a system restore.
Sure, at that key (and related HKLM\System\ControlSet001\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers or 002, 003) you should have an avast driver (aswMonVd.dll) 
There is nothing in the VDD registry entry on either of my computers I have tried this on.
I’m afraid this is not true. It seems to be that the SP2 installer somehow screws this key. Just do the export and see the reg file. I’d bet my hat that the entry won’t be empty… (although regedit sees it as empty)
We’re now making avast installer immune to this but I guess we should also notify MS about this…
Cheers,
Vlk
Vlk, I’m not sure this is related but some time ago, the avast driver entry repeats indefinitely here, line after line… It was discussed before without a solution or, better, right now I don’t have this repetition (maybe it was solved ::)). Hope this help.
Hmm… nope… not under currentcontrolset or controlset001 or otherwise… I will manually add it to my machine when I get home and give it a try again. Note, avast’s repair fuction did not solve this either (missing registry entry).
Hmm.. nope..
So you did the export and the entry was empty??
Or what ‘nope’? 
Yeah…
The registry was completely empty. I manually added the path to aswMonVD.dll to the VDD key and now I can run old install shield setups without removing the 16 bit mon from config.nt.
Strange, I was looking in to some friends machines who use avast home and were trying SP2 build 2149 also. about 4 of 6 machines had the problem, 2 didnt and had the registry key properly. One of the two had aswMonVD.dll listed twice as mentioned earlier in another thread.
The registry was completely empty.
I guess you don’t understand what I said: my proposal was not to check the key by looking at it in RegEdit but rather export it to reg file and inspecting the file.
What I was saying is that even though regedit shows the key as empty, it is in fact not. It contains invalid data. And that’s what’s causing the problems.
This happened before with NAV… Adding two groups of zeros (00,00) and everything after that was corrupted (disappear) :o
OK. I am now 100% certain it isn’t just me. I have now tried on a 3rd system and same thing happens.
To explain in detail so to allow someone to replicate the problem.
First of you have to have a system with clean install or at least NEVER ever had Avast on it even if uninstalled.
Then you install SP2 (i run XP pro btw)
Reboot as per nessacery.
Now create a restore point and name it Pre Avast. This step is not what I had done before but will allow you to get working again.
Now install Avast. Reboot.
Now try and run what I think are Installshield created .exe files. The 3 I tried was the Win32 MySQL setup program (latest version), Canon A40 Drivers, and PixelVeiw TV Software. All so far are Installshield apps.
When you double click you will see avast scan it before running. then nothing at all happens. no setup no errors nothing at all.
Now to get working again you must follow these steps. Uninstall and reinstall won’t work.
Use System Restore to go back to Pre Avast but Post SP2. You will notice the above applications are working again. Then Re install avast and reboot. You will now notice that everyhting is working as per normal now. Avat installed and all exe files running.
This is the issue I have had with the past 5 reinstalls on my main machine plus 2 friends computers. Can’t remember what builds of SP2 I used but I did mention them earlier in this thread.
Isn’t anyone going to try to emulate this issue or as I am seeing more often amongst these forums that Avast seems to ignore its customers.
eangulus
Isn't anyone going to try to emulate this issue or as I am seeing more often amongst these forums that Avast seems to ignore its customers.I'm one of those customers and I think that remark was totally uncalled for.