I have been using avast for years now and this is the first time something like this happened. I updated avast to newest version available (9.0.2016.330) and got exclamation mark at the avast taskbar icon…that referred to File System Shield not being active. When I tried to activate it, I got an error message saying; “The following components could not be started - File System Shield”. In the settings menu I couldn’t even click on to active it. (picture below) I’ve literally tried everything that I’ve read about this problem and nothing worked. I’ve tried reinstalling a fresh copy several times, but no results. Furthermore, I’ve tried with avast uninstaller program in safe mode, still no results… So, is there an alternative way to fix this ?
Yes, I forgot to mention that I’ve tried the repair… I’ve also tried reinstalling software several times…but every time the same problem, file system shield not working.
Thanks for the reply, if you have some other idea how to fix this, please let me know.
I’ve installed it by complete download package…but I don’t know whether there is the package for online installation available …? I even tried installing older versions of program that worked before, but now even them appear with the same problem (older versions of avast 9).
Be Sure Too Check Once Uninstall is Complete:Device Manager>View>Show Hidden Devices
If there is anything related to Avast with a yellow triangle then uninstall it (highlight, right click) and reboot.
So, I’ve done everything as you wrote, step by step…installed using online installer, but the file system shield still appears not to be working again. Anyway, I noticed that when installing older avast versions, exclamation mark does not appear, even though the file system shield is not active nor can be turned on. It all looks like avast file system shield *.dll file is missing or something…do you maybe know if there is such file in avast folder ? I’ve checked every single .dll file’s description in the folder and none of them says File System Shield, while there are *.dll’s for both web and mail shields…I will put the pictures of what avast folder contains below, in case you know what could be missing…
Thank you very much for your time and help…I appreciate it a lot.
I’m on Windows XP Professional, service pack 2. I have malwarebytes installed on my computer, but I only run it occasionally, when scanning individual files…anyway, I really doubt that a virus is causing this…but I just can’t figure out what exactly happened to avast, everyone else who had the same problem solved it by just reinstalling the program…hmm.
Yes, please do the clean install again.
I know it is a bit of work, but it will prevent some problems.
If the problem persists, follow the instructions ( http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=53253.0 ) and attach the logs in your next post.
Re-installation on SP3 did not solve the problem. Sorry, but can you please explain me what exactly I need to do ? Do I need to scan the whole system with malwarebytes and then copy the log at the end of it, or is it something else ?
By the way, I can perform boot time scan with avast, but I don’t know where can I find logs once it’s finished.
It seems impossible to find the solution…I’ve really tried everything that appeared to solve someone else’s similar problem and none of it worked. This just lowers my level of protection, but again, I don’t want to switch to another antivirus because I really like how avast works. I just hope some new update or version will solve this problem.