This morning (23 Nov.), WinPatrol alerted me that avast had placed an emergency update in my startup, to be run upon reboot.
Emergency Update 20131121 (presumably the date, 2013-11-21) ,
filename: 4749EAC5-AD58-436B-8F6C-CB01BA377D62.EXE
[EDIT: It seems the executable filename is random/different for every person.]
At first, I thought/expected this was a RUN-ONCE, to fix something… but after rebooting (and presumably having run), I see it remains in my startup list to be run EVERY time I reboot.
Can someone enlighten us as to the nature (reason) for this emergency update? What did it address/fix?
Why is this fix running every time I reboot, rather than just doing the job once?
Please add me to this growing list of people with questions regarding this “Emergency Update”. I rarely reboot my computer - generally only when software requires me to do so.
So, for how many reboots does this need to be run?
Do I back this up as part of my weekly backup, or exclude it as its only temporary?
I think it is a bug of avast… I’m back to restart the pc is run again (like this in normal home…) update in the Task Manager, but the patch already applied this and exclusions work… disable self-defense of avast, remove the executable from the folder empupdate and then with ccleaner it delete the entry into home…reboot and everything is ok…
I just deleted the startup entry assuming that it dates back to November 21 and being modified on 23rd, it did its work by now. If it didn’t, then it would create again maybe (the actual .exe wasn’t deleted). There is no reason an emupdate should stay on startup entry for that long even after several reboots. No problems so far.
Well this doesn’t look like it is a run once affair but a regular startup entry now. Given that it has the /check parameter after the path in the startup command.
So I don’t think this is something that you should remove, I don’t know if subsequent running of the hidden scheduled task for AvastEmUpdate.exe would replace it.
I’m assuming that, since instituted as a RUN (as opposed to a RUN ONCE), this is what avast intended — for whatever reasons yet unbeknownst to us. As such, I have kept the startup entry intact. I have rebooted two or three times since, with no obvious/overt problems, so it seems repeatedly running this process is not causing me any harm.
Hopefully, someone high “in-the-know” will eventually reply, telling us WHAT this update is doing, and whether its continual running on each reboot is required or not. Ideally, avast can issue another RUN-ONCE update to remove this, if that’s deemed the appropriate course of action.
DavidR replied: “My assumption is/was that when run, it checks for the presence of an emergency update”.
Since Avast already has an “Avast! Emergency Update” task that runs at every log-on as part of Task Scheduler — presumably checking (online) for the existence of an emergency update, and if found, either running it immediately, or setting-it-up to run [once] on the next reboot — why would it (suddenly now) need a separate startup entry to check for the presence of an emergency update?
I eliminated it of start (turn off self-defense in avast) after verifying that it was executed in every reboot again and that the patch fulfilled his fucion in exclusions of the web shield…deleted also .exe of folder empupdate…all ok…
Another thing that’s in need of explanation: While I believe we’re all talking about the same “emergency update”, 20131121, it seems that it’s being given a separate (random) EXEcutable filename on each person’s system. That is typically a sign of malware.
On the other hand, the file IS digitally signed by avast, so it should be legitimate.
Avast emergency updates have always worked this way: random filenames (letters and numbers).
When they were first introduced, the download folder for the executable files was C:\WINDOWS\Temp - which was a very bad idea, by the way. At least recently they have changed the download folder.
The emergency update I got does not seem to be the same one talked about in all these posts? I got: C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\setup\emupdate\45283732-120d-471e-8cdd-23f54d298924.exe /check
Is it the same as earlier, or a revised “emergency update?” I worry about running it so am deleting it w/o doing so. I figure if its “for real” that avast! will post here and tell us, or, failing that, watever it does that is good will appear in the next update to the program? This seems logical, I hope?
mwsoft,
that’s the “random” nature of the executable filename we’ve just been discussing. It seems that people who have WinPatrol will see this “emergency update” indicated/titled as 20131121 — presumably representing the date it was first “created” — but most people here only received the update today (20131123). As such, it’s likely your update is precisely what we’re considering in this thread.
After using (and recommending) avast for many years with very few problems, I’m finally forced to register with this forum, and weigh in on this topic.
It concerns me when some randomly labelled alphanumeric executable inserts itself into my auto-startup. I disabled it via WinPatrol as soon as I saw it. After rebooting, no problems.
@avast! As Ricky Ricardo used to say to Lucy, “you got some 'splaining to do!”
