Minor but annoying XP startup issue with 4.7.981

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
21

OK, thanks.

One more question: does WebDAV ring a bell to you? I mean, are you (intentionally) using any WebDAV drives?

Thanks
Vlk

22

Not that I am aware of, although the XP WebClient service does run at startup, and that service claims to be dependent on the WebDav Client Redirector…

Crashman

23

And that’s exactly where the system was stuck at the moment you captured the dump!

I’d like to ask you to try to disable the Web Client service and restart (with the new version, with the Groups value set). Does that resolve the problem as well?

Thanks
Vlk

24

Vlk,

Disabling the WebClient service reduces the startup sound delay by about half. A delay still occurs, but its duration is now about 4-5 seconds or so.

Crashman

EDIT: May I ask you what the “groups” registry setting does? Despite the fact that it seems to introduce a slight boot delay for Windows XP itself, all my programs seem to load faster with avast! resident and the groups setting in place than when there is no antivirus at all resident in memory! Firefox loads virtually instantly now, and I’ve never seen anything close to that before, with or without an antivirus program running. It’s pretty remarkable!

25

  1. Could you please try running this small app http://public.avast.com/~vlk/WebDavMiniTest.exe and report back what it says?

  2. The Group value only causes avast to load much earlier during the boot process. That is, it provides extra protection against malware that starts automatically with the OS. I don’t think it can give your machine any “magical” performance boosts though… :slight_smile:

26

Vlk,

  1. With WebClient service still disabled, running WebDavMiniTest results in “WsLoadRedir returned 2”.

  2. Maybe I’m going insane or something, or a victim of the “placebo effect”, but I’d swear that programs load faster!

Thanks!

27
1. With WebClient service still disabled, running WebDavMiniTest results in "WsLoadRedir returned 2".

That is very strange I have to say.
And, I assume, if the Groups value is not there, the result is different? (e.g. “WsLoadRedir returned 0”?)

Thanks
Vlk

28

BTW isn’t there anything suspicious in the Windows Event Log? Something recurring on every boot… (especially in the System category).

Thanks
Vlk

29

Vlk,

Nothing suspicious in any section of the WIndows Event Log (that is, no warnings of any kind).

Let me remove the groups value again, reboot, and retry the minitest again.

Back in a couple minutes,

Crashman

30

Vlk,

With the groups value removed now, the value returned is still 2.

EDIT: Actually, now that I have tested with and without the groups value, the improved load times of programs seems to be a function of the new version .981, not the groups registry setting. At least for Firefox and a few other programs I have tried, the load is lightning fast…

31

Hi, seem to have had a similar problem. Avast would only start, eventually, after update with only 3 modules, Network, Web and e-mail. Used regedit to remove “group” from HKLMC\System\currentcontrolset\services\avast!antivirus which worked.

Tried using add/remove program to edit/repair modules ,but this did not work.

32

Greetings, roleo,

My experience was almost exactly the same. Mine loaded with all four modules working, but after I removed all but Outlook/Exchange and adjusted the groups value for testing purposes, I was unable to reinstall the other services using Add/Remove. My system locked up at the end of the add/remove process, and a hard reboot was the only way out. When I got back into Windows, I did a complete uninstall of avast!, rebooted, then reinstalled avast!. This worked fine, and after removing the groups value from the registry again, the boot process was back to normal.

(I didn’t mention this in my earlier posts because I didn’t want to introduce a new twist to the issue of tracking down the boot delay.)

I am currently running the four providers (standard, network, web, and internet mail), WITHOUT the “groups” registry entry, and everything is perfect. The system boots well, and programs run very crisply.

Best regards,
Crashman

33

Crashman, so if you download and run WinObj (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/WinObj.mspx - the download link is at the bottom of the page) and navigate to the Device folder, the object “WebDavRedirector” is not in it?

Thanks
Vlk

34

Vlk,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I fell asleep unexpectedly…we aging people need our sleep, it appears ;D

That is correct. With the aforementioned avast modules running and the “groups” setting removed from the registry, and with XP’s WebClient service disabled, I show no “WebDavRedirector” object in that folder of WinObj. If I enable the WebClient service without rebooting or logging off and back on to Windows, the WebDavRedirector object reappears in the devices list of WinObj.

I then reset the WebClient service back to Automatic and rebooted the system. With “groups” still missing from the registry, the desktop icons, taskbar, startup sound and startup programs all again loaded within one second of the appearance of the desktop. The only very slight difference with the WebClient service automatically enabled at startup is that the avast! tray icon’s “red slashed circle” (signifying that some component is not enabled) appears for a few seconds, but then disappears, leaving avast’s resident shields fully functional. The red slash does not appear with the WebClient service set to manual or disabled.

So, for me at least, the WebClient service itself introduces a very slight delay in avast! components loading fully, but has no effect on the loading of Windows itself or of other startup programs/sounds, and avast! components do fully load within a few seconds. But the “groups” setting being present – with or without WebClient service running at startup – creates the more significant delays and issues we’ve been working on this week.

Thanks again for continuing to look into this!
Crashman

35

Hello there!

First of all sorry for my no-good-english!

Since the newest release of avast, i got real heavy problems with my system!

At first, my system hangs for at least two (!) minutes at startup.
Wallpaper and icons are complete, but the network is “locked”.

Then, after these (long) two minutes, a new error appears when i play a game, have an bt-client open and copy some data an my xbox at once.
In this case, after a few seconds my system shut down, without a warning or something!

Playing a game and doing only one of these things, there is nothing!

Oh, and by the way…
While testing the posted “WebDavMiniTest.exe” this error message pops up:
“Base address mismatch for webclnt.dll! [5AA50000].”

What does this mean?

36

Please update to version 4.7.986, then open avast settings, go to the Troubleshooting page and check the “Delay loading of avast services” box.
That should resolve the issue.

Thanks
Vlk

37

Vlk,

Thanks for the heads up. Downloading it now.

And thanks again for working with me to get me straightened out!

Regards,
Crashman

38

Vlk, does this update do not require restart of the system?

39

It required a system restart when I did a manual update.

40

Crashman, I am still not entirely sure why the issue happened (and I’d really love to play with your machine a bit more to find out) but the latest version should help.

Thanks
Vlk