security centre says avast is off (VishAux.exe)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

My computer, running Windows Vista, has started showing a Window Security Alert. When I click on it, it says “Avast! Antivirus reports that is it turned off.” When I click “turn on now”, I receive the following pop-up message:

“You are about to run a program that did not come with Window. Do you trust this program?
C:/Program Files/Alwil Software/Avast5/VishAux.exe”

I have clicked “Yes, I trust this program and am ready to run it” but that does not seem to change anything. Security Centre still says Avast is off. However, when I go into Avast and click on “status”, it says “SECURED. Your system is full protected.”

Please can anybody advise what I should do?

Thanks.

2

See if this help:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=39395.0

It seems you are missing some Microsoft updates or the certification signature to the file expired

3

Thanks for your reply. I’ve tried following those steps. Under “Digital Signature Information”, it says “The digital signature is OK”. But the problem persists - windows security says Avast is off. Avast says it’s on.

Any other ideas?

4

I had this problem a few weeks ago after a windows update, after a while I got a bit peeved as all the tried and trusted methods that I know to get the security centre to recognise it failed…

So my final resort was to do a full uninstall of Avast run aswClear and then re-install

Now windows is happy - go figure :smiley:

5

Thanks for your reply. I think mine started after a window update too. 2 questions:

  1. Given that Avast says is everything is working, does it matter is Windows Security Centre is saying Avast is off? I can live with the warning if it doesn’t make any difference to the function of Avast.

  2. What is aswClear?

6

No it makes no difference, it was just that I like a central checking area

aswClear is a small utility that removes all traces of Avast

7

OK, thanks. I might wait and see if it corrects itself. If not, I will try re-installing Avast you you describe above.

8

What version of Avast is this? Any other security software on the computer? Any previous security software on the computer? Have you tried a Repair of Avast? Control Panel/Add/Remove Programs/Remove. And after hitting Remove you have some choices. Select Repair and follow the prompts. Even if you don’t get a reboot prompt, reboot anyway when the repair is done. What happens than?

Jack

9

It’s Avast 7 free version. I decided to uninstall and re-install, as suggested above, so haven’t tried repair option yet.

Unfortunately, since I’ve started trying to re-install it’s been stuck on “Windows Installer: preparing to install” for about 45 minutes now. I’ve already cancelled it and re-done the whole process once. Should it take this long to install?

10

Stop the installation and uninstall then run aswclear http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility this removes all traces of Avast which is what I had to do

11

I’d already used the aswclear.exe file the first time I uninstalled it. I tried cancelling the installation re-running the aswclear.exe, re-starting and re-intalling, but still seems to get stuck on preparing for installation. I’ve tried 3 times now.

For the time being I’ve installed AVG anti-virus, as I can’t afford to be without protection and after 3 hours trying to sort it out I’m starting to get a bit fed up, but I would welcome any further suggestions, as I’ve used Avast for years and would prefer to keep using it.

Rob

12

Hmm this sounds a tad weird, nothing like mine (ish)

OK so you have uninstalled via Programs and Features, rebooted to safe mode and ran aswCLEAR
Did you run aswClear for versions 4,5,6, and 7 (not sure what the earliest version was that you had )

Does it just freeze when it tries to install ?
Do you have MBAM installed ? The reason I ask this is that I have just had someone try to re-install Kaspersky and we were only able to do that after MBAM was removed. I am begining to feel that MBAM is getting a bit over protective

13

No, I didn’t uninstall via programs and freatures. I just rebooted in safe mode and ran aswclear. Was that wrong?

I ran aswClear for versions 4 and 7. They were the only two that gave me the option to uninstall.

Does it just freeze when it tries to install?
No. After the Avast progress bar has got to 100%, I get a pop-up saying "Windows Installer: preparing to install". The computer doesn't freeze but it doesn't seem to get beyond this. As I said, I waited 45 minutes last time.
Do you have MBAM installed?
Yes, I do. If I try uninstalling this, will I need to uninstall AVG too before trying to re-install Avast, or should I be able to install it alongside AVG?
14

Avg will not cause a problem initially

15

Thanks for your help with this Essexboy. Sorry I’ve been slow to reply. I haven’t had a time to try uninstalling MBAM an re-install Avast. As AVG is now installed and it seems to be working fine, I’m minded to just stick with that until I have more time to play about with it.

16

No problem - at your leisure ;D