Generic Host Win32 Problem at startup

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi,

I have Avast 4.6 and I don’t know if it comes from it or not, but I have sometimes the following message at the startup of Windows XP :

Generic Host Win 32 process has encountered problems, do you want to send it to Microsoft (It is the translation of my message in French).

Since Avast is launched at the startup of XP, I wonder if the problem is not coming from it.

I have XP SP2 and I use XP SP2 firewall only.

Thanks in advance

2

What if you set the startup type of the “Automatic update” service to “Manual”? (Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Services)

Does that make any difference?

Thanks Vlk

3

I will try it, but I think that in this case automatic update will no longer works. Is it correct ?

It doesn’t make it all the time, only sometimes.

Thanks

4

Thats strange, I have the exact same problem on my laptop since a couple off weeks, I did not make the connection with Avast though. Have you looked at the time off the message?

In my case s far as I can tell it the error is (allways) dated at the time off my last shutdown but shown at the next boot.To give an example I booted my laptop this morning and it gave the Error but it was dated yesterday evening around 22:30 the time of my last shutdown, very strange.

5

Thanks,

But that means that if for example I didn’t want to be connected to Internent, even if the timer is long I will finally have the message.

Do you think that this problems come from Avast Trying to connect to the Web ? How can you explain that the problem appears randomly and not at every boot ?

Thanks

6

Can you post the time stamp of the following files?

\windows\system\ole32.dll
\windows\system\shlwapi.dll
\windows\system\wininet.dll

Thanks
Vlk

7

Kantjer,

Where did you see that the time the problem occurs ?

VLK,
I will give you the time stamp this night if the problem occurs again.

Bye

8

The time stamp was in the error window, don’t no the exact location.

9

I’m contact with Microsoft staff about this. Please give me some time.
Thanks

10

Thanks VLK. Is it a known issue in Avast ?

Please find time stamp for files you asked me :

ole32.dll : 14/01/2005
shlwapi.dll : 27/01/2005
wininet.dll : 27/01/2005

I hope it will help :wink:

Best regards,

11

Actually, chances are the problem is not related to avast at all.
Rather, it seems to be related to a recent MS security update (KB873333).
Let’s wait for the folks in Redmond to find out more…

Thanks
Vlk

12

I have this security update installed. Tht could explain. Wait and see :wink:

13

Just FYI - here’s the current development. I got the following email from a Microsoft engineer yesterday:

[i]…
Thank you for this - you were correct in that it was OLE and, I am happy
to say, it looks like the folks in the OLE and Windows Update teams are
working together to get it rectified :slight_smile:

Kind regards and many thanks for your continued help![/i]

So let’s see what’s next… :wink:

14

Same here.

15

I did a system restore, seemed to be fine for a while, but then it starts happening again every time i boot up my computer, so annoying, hope they come up with a solution soon. What does that generic host program do anyway?

16

Today the error happened again, so i sent an error report to microsoft, the different is that this time, after sending the report, they provided a link for me to go to, it’s a survey asking when the error happen and a little info about your pc so they can come up with something to fix it. Looks like they finally realized the problem thanks to Vlk contacting microsoft. Hopefully they come up with a solution soon 'cause this is getting annoying.

Thanks Vlk! :slight_smile:

17

I get this message on occasions too, I would also like to know what ‘generic Host’ means :slight_smile:

18

Good to know they started the survey. :slight_smile:

To answer your question about what the Generic Host Process is, I don’t know how proficient you’re with computers but to put it simply, it’s the process where the OS runs a number of its services. In other words, it’s per se an empty shell that can contain some worker processes that do some helpful stuff though :))

Here’s a link to the MS site that explains the same thing in MUCH more detail: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q314056&

Thanks :slight_smile:
Vlk

19

Hi,

After installing TweakUI (from Microsoft), I begin to have again the same problem.

Does this problem only occured for Avast users or does this Microsoft problem is generic and come even if Avast is not installed ?

Thanks for all effort being done by VLK to move Microsoft. Alwil is not only doing Antivirus, but make others softs being not infected ;D

Thanks !

20

So is anything else being done besides starting the survey, because i’m still gettting the error message with the timestamp indicating the last time i shutdown the computer, not when the computer is starting up(which was what i expected), just like what Kantjer said.

Can anyone give me an update on what’s being done? By the way, what’s OLE?

Thanks. :slight_smile: