I have a couple of programs that will not rustle up properly until Avasts resident protection is disabled, which took me a fair bit of trial and error to find out and is obviously not a lot of good! When I try and run them, I get an error dialogue box that says "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item." For info, the programs are: G-Pass, an anonymous surfing, tunneling program (see http://gpass1.com/gpass) and the other is MakeInstantPlayer, which is a tool for converting video files into self-running executables (see http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=projects and scroll down). As a matter of interest, it also upsets access to the short-cut properties. Right-clicking on the short-cut "properties" brings up the normal box but clicking on any of the tabs comes up with "The name C:\ program name.exe` specified in the Target box is not valid. Make sure the path and file name are correct". The program icons sometimes change to the generic Windows icon, as well. Disabling the resident protection restores everything to normal. Can I get over this in any way? It is a tad inconvenient.
you can put them in “exclusions”
one of the mods could ask you to send the exe file to Avast as a FP
someone more experienced in these things will be along
Well first avast doesn’t block, but scans and alerts to infection.
None of the images are generated by avast, so if by disabling avast standard shield means it works, then there is some form of conflict.
Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?
What other security based software do you have that might have an effect, resident protection, anti-spyware, etc. ?
@ wyrmrider
There is no FP as there is no avast alarm, the file isn’t being detected as infected. Or davolente doesn’t mention they are detected as infected.
davolente, are you sure the GPass-3.4.4.exe is there on G-Pass folder?
Isn’t it a setup file that has installed the executable (something like only Gpass.exe)?
Thanks for the replies. Wrong choice of words! Shouldnt have said "blocked" and I do appreciate that its Windows thats actually generating the error boxes but couldnt understand why turning off Avasts resident protection cleared the problem, although its not throwing up any infection warning as such.
wyrmrider: I had thought of that but it looks like the exclusions option is only for scanning and doesnt effect resident protection. [u]DavidR:[/u] A conflict of some sort had gone through my mind. I used to run AVG quite happily, but had some difficulty installing their updated version on this machine, (errors during installation. Regretably, Ive forgotten what they were) although it installed OK on another older PC I have, which is why I uninstalled it and went for Avast. I am also running Spyware Doctor and Threatfire as resident, which are both supposed to be OK and not conflict with anything else but I have exited Spyware Doctor (and stopped the service also) and actually uninstalled Threatfire but I still have the same problem trying to run the two programs mentioned. Ive had a look at services.msc and there doesnt appear to be anything untoward there. Ive gradually shut down stuff in the notification area/tray to the bare minimum and still no joy. I was going to try safe mode when Ive posted this, but does Avast run?
Tech: Im not quite sure what you mean about G-Pass. It downloads as a zipped folder and four separate files are extracted to another folder, including the stand-alone executable, which alone is replaced on any upgrade (of which there were quite a few when it first came out!). I moved the folder from my "downloads" folder to the "programs" folder and created a short-cut to the executable. Thats all there is. See attachment. As you can see, the executable icon has changed to the Windows generic and is not would it should be. See second attchment. This is after disabling Avast. I copied the short-cut to the quick-launch bar and that also reverts to the generic quite often but there doesnt seem to be any pattern there. The other programs icon (MakeInstantPlayer) seems to stay as it is, but I still get the error box when I try to run it until I disable Avast`s resident protection. Odd. As far as I can tell, these two are the only ones giving me trouble.
Re. previous, I said Spyware Doctor. I meant Spyware Terminator. Its my age, you know - comes to us all! However, not that it matters as it was shut down, anyway and the problem was still there! :) The G-Pass program does run up OK in safe mode, but Avast is not running anyway at that point so that comment, presumably, doesnt mean a great deal.
AVG is normally reasonable at getting rid of itself on uninstall but just in case there is a tool to remove it.
AVG Remover, download tool from here, http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools there is a 32bit and 64 bit windows version, ensure you use the correct one.
SpywareTerminator is a resident anti-spyware, though there haven’t been any reported issues with conflict with avast, you could try disabling the resident protection, reboot and test again.
Follow David’s instructions, but you might try wyrmrider’s also. about a month ago I was having problems with windows sidebar freezing occasionally on startup,(Windows Vista). By placing the path to Sidebar.exe in the exclusions list of standard shield this has stopped.
Hi all again. Been a tad busy but have tried wyrmriders suggestion of exclusions, but, unfortunately, it hasnt made any difference, assuming I`ve done it correctly. Do I list the entire program folder or just the full path of the .exe file? (As shown in the properties of the program shortcut)
The path needs to be in full or using wildcards (extreme care needs to be taken or you could be putting a security hole in your system).
Probably the easiest method is to use the Program Settings, Exclusions one first, click the Browse… button and navigate to the file, you want to exclude and tick the box to the left of it. This places the path in the Selected paths: window, you can copy and paste this into the Standard Shield exclusions list, that way you know you have the correct path. I don’t believe you need the " quotes " in the path.
I have browsed to the relevant program folders and put them in the exclusions list and, regretably, still no joy. Still get the errors and cant start the programs until resident protection disabled. Heres a grab of my quick-launch bar, which is supposed to be one of the “proper” program icons. These go the same way as the .exe icon in the program file, but, so far, it only seems to be two programs I`m having problems with.
From my initial post is still isn’t clear if avast is actually alerting on these programs, is this the case ?
If not you can add them to exclusion lists till you are blue in the face it won’t have any effect as they are for detections not to be scanned. If they have been excluded then a) they shouldn’t be being scanned, b) if they aren’t scanned, then avast doesn’t have any interaction and c) even if avast did block then logically the exclusion would have stopped that too.
Which would bring us back to a conflict, what is the 64,000 dollar question.
What is the purpose of the attached image ?
As you don’t mention what the “proper icon” is for.
When there is a DOS style icon (wild assed guess this is what you are talking about) it usually indicates that either the file is missing or the path is incorrect.
I did say way back in time 
(it seems like an age ago!) that there were no warnings being thrown up about these programs. Really don`t know what else to try. A conflict with what, I ask myself? How can I narrow it down?