I have Windows 2000 Pro, Online Armor 3.1.0.26 and Avast Free 6.0.1000
Everything working fine till todays Microsoft updates.
As most of us knows, Win 2000 is not supporter, so all updates are
related to Office 2003, Office 2007 (because I have file format converter)
and Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable.
After succesfull instalation of all 8 updates, restart was requested.
After restart, I receive following pop-up message:
The procedure entry point FindActCtxSectionStringW could not be located
in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll
Where is a point ? What I can do ?
For some important reason, I doesn’t want to change windows 2000.
To isolate problem, I installed updates separately, one by one.
As I expected, KB2467174 Security Update for MS Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable
caused problem described in previous post.
On Microsoft WWW, I found information, that this update apply for systems XP and up,
so not to Windows 2000.
I think, there is also error in Microsoft Update WWW page.
This software should not allow to install updates not suitable for older systems.
(in the past, everything was OK - this is first problem this type)
Anyway, please kindly developers to check relationship between Avast UI and KB2467174.
Same problem on an old Windows 2000 SP4 machine. I tried uninstalling this specific hotfix and rebooting, but it got worse. Avast complained about missing DLLs like msvcr90.dll, msvcp90.dll, and I forgot the third one.
Same problem on an old Windows 2000 SP4 machine. I tried uninstalling this specific hotfix and rebooting, but it got worse. Avast complained about missing DLLs like msvcr90.dll, msvcp90.dll, and I forgot the third one.
[/quote]
I am in better situatuin, because I always made system partition image using Acronis soft
before applying any updates.
So, return to the point “just before” updates is not a problem for me.
I am in better situatuin, because I always made system partition image using Acronis soft
before applying any updates.
So, return to the point “just before” updates is not a problem for me.
Best regards
William
[/quote]
Ah lucky you. I was able to fix the problems by searching for the requested missing files that uninstalled hotfix took out. I have extra copies in other areas in my HDD. Whew! Still annoying!!!
It seems, my problem is Windows 2000 specific.
I installed all yesterday’s updates (including update to Visual C++ redist)
on computer with Windows XP Pro SP3, Avast Free and Online Armor.
Everything is working fine.
So, in my opinion, problem is with Microsoft Update page.
Till now, software installed on this page checked opeerating system and other
software and install only updates relevant to actual configuration.
Yesterday, first time update choosen for installation are not suitable
for particular Operating System.
I understand, that support for Windos 2000 is over, but Update Web Page
and/or Automatic Update Subsystem should still recognize older software
and block not suitable updates.
Fixed it. Here’s how:
Went to Microsoft Update, click ‘review update history’, sorted on date, only update since Feb was Visual Studio 2008 (KB2467174) on Apr 12.
At add/remove programs, uninstalled it.
Uninstalled Avast.
DON’T TRY TO REINSTALL AVAST YET. WOULDN’T WORK FOR ME AND SOMEHOW MESSED-UP REINSTALL IF I TRIED TO DO IT W/O RESTARTING FIRST.
Restart.
Now reinstall Avast.
Cadillac’ing.
I found the same problem when I went my W2K this morning. The error message:
The procedure entry point FindActCtxSectionStringW could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL 32.dll
I used Paylynator’s fix of uninstalling the C++ updates, Avast, rebooting & re-installing Avast. I also reset my Windows update to not include MS software updates…hope that works.
But, now Avast works, but in my MS Outlook I get the error message on send/receive email:
Error: Cannot scan the message body. Error code is 80004003. Invalid pointer
It looks like that problem hasn’t been fixed yet on another page in the forum.
You need to have this update as that essentially updated that kernel32.dll file.
Though this was also needed with avast5, I don’t know if any other windows update might have changed that kernel32.dll file, which would be a bit strange as there haven’t been and win2k specific updated for years.
“If you install the new VCRedists (do this on a test machine not a production machine!), run dependency walker on the updated mfc80.dll and mfc90.dll versions on Windows 2000 and see a new function being called that is not available under XP. → FindActCtxSectionStringA (or FindActCtxSectionStringW with the Unicode version)”
The best “workaround” solution at the moment is to prevent the automatic installation of this Microsoft update on Windows 2000 systems.
Maybe Microsoft will issue a new version that is compatible with W2K?
Hey Dude: I had exactly the same problem with my Win 2000 machine. I was at a loss to fix it and everything I tried failed. Until I read your fix. Thanks, you are the best of the best. I did exactly what you instructed and it WORKED! Thank you so much. I think MS is out of control if they are now sabotaging Win 2000 users cause we refuse to upgrade. Thank again…and again…and forever!
At least Avast got a new customer out if it (well I’m saying customer … I only use the free version!)
Up until yesterday I was using AVG anti-virus on my Win 2000 PC. Like other contributors I accepted the Microsoft security updates and AVG stopped working properly and displaying the ‘kernel error’ message. Thinking it was an AVG problem I uninstalled it and changed to Avast. After rebooting the PC I got more problems so I uninstalled the last update (KB2467174), restarted the computer, uninstalled Avast and reloaded it and now all seems ok. I have blocked KB2467174 even though Microsoft says it is important (what is Visual C++ anyway … do we really need this update?!) Googling this problem it seems that it has stopped AVG, Avira, and Avast from working … all on Win 2000 machines. Even if they fix it I’m staying with Avast from now on.
Paul
I am relieved and thankful for the web and forums for finding solutions to problems.
The following worked beautifully for me. No reboots required, nor did I have to remove and reinstall Avast. After the “Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update” was applied, Avast started right up.
Thank you for this post everyone! We performed the following and problem was resolved (no reboots required)
Removed KB2467174
Installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update (vcrdist_x86.exe) downloaded from this post the following link provided in this post