I just recently restored my computer to it’s factory setting so there are very few programs installed on my machine so far. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium on a Dell XPS 630i computer.
I reinstalled Avast and inserted the license file that I had purchased to upgrade it to Avast! Internet Security with a 1-year license. After I inserted the license file that I kept on my thumb drive before the factory reset, Avast! proceeded to update itself. As soon as that was done I was given a prompt to restart my computer, which I did.
As soon as I arrived at the windows login screen I typed in my password and was soon greeted by absence of my desktop and a box stating “An unauthorized change was made. This will result in limited functionality.” The only thing I was able to do was to click on one of the options that would allow me to open a browser to find a solution. If I simply closed the box, it would bring me back to the Windows login screen. I opened a browser and looked at the microsoft support forums and one of the causes of the error that they listed was Avast!
So I rebooted my computer in Safe Mode and used the Control panel to uninstall Avast! from there. As soon as I rebooted again, and got past the login screen in Normal mode windows was fine.
So just to be sure I repeated the process of installing Avast!, adding my license file, allowing it to update, and restarting my computer after they were completed. When I logged in to my account the problem had returned and I was looking at the “An unauthorized change was made. This will result in limited functionality.”
What can I do to fix this? I’m not that technically confident so please guide me through any solution you might have.
Summary:
Windows Vista
Dell PC
Avast! Internet Security Update causes desktop/Windows explorer to not function.
