Shady avast Upon System Restore [RESOLVED]

Recently I commented how avast had obviously taken it upon itself to change my Program Update setting to Automatic and proceeded to try and update itself presumably to avast 17 until I headed it off at the pass and stopped it.

Well, it happened again yesterday, BUT … this time I know what action preceded that. This time I know what the culprit is. Not that I am any less peeved.

Okay, first, for the 2nd time in recent weeks I encountered a problem that I couldn’t solve without System Restore. In both instances, I don’t know what I am accidentally clicking on in the System Tray, but suddenly my Task Bar disappears from the bottom and moves on to suddenly becoming a Sidebar on the right side of my screen. :o > :frowning: On both occasions, I Right Clicked all over that Sidebar to try and find a setting that I could change to regain my Task Bar back to the bottom of the screen. But, no dice. Both times I have had to resort to reverting back to an earlier System Restore point.

Anyone know what it is that I could accidentally be clicking on or doing in the System Tray that causes my Task Bar to become a Sidebar in the right side? I have included an image of my System Tray. To the left of the clock there’s just the Epson Event Manager, the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver, the Safely Remove Hardware icon, the Speaker Volume, the Network Connection icon, avast and NetZero. Heck, I even have Mouse Gestures disabled in my Maxthon Cloud browser.

Anyway, after fixing yesterday’s occurrence of the problem with System Restore, shortly thereafter I again like last time noticed that avast was taking forever to download what should have been just a batch of Virus Definitions. I checked and sure enough … my Program Update setting was again moved back to Automatic after I specifically set it to MANUAL the other day.

It is my assessment that with the System Restore that I performed, avast obviously reset itself to factory defaults … changing the Program Update setting to Automatic in the process. Is this normal avast behavior? HAS it always done that? I’ve never come across this situation before. Or is this something that avast was programmed to do upon System Restores only recently so as to stealthily force avast 17 upon those who have yet not switched over? Shouldn’t a System Restore restore avast ONLY to whatever status and settings it was at at the time of the new System Restore point and NOT to factory defaults?

Hi,

this is really weird, because it’s not our intention to force migration for users who have set it to manual. Are you doing offline installation, then turning the updates to manual, then restart and turn the internet on?
The issue might be that avast starts the update before you change the settings…

No, when the, shall we say “infraction” happens, I am not doing ANY kind of installation. Neither offline nor online. Not of ANY software app.

I just happen to be browsing. On this last occurrence, as I recall I was on the YouTube site. I believe I was just simply moving the scroll bar down quickly and accidentally moved into the System Tray and the next thing I knew — BAMM! My Task Bar moved to becoming a Sidebar on the right of the screen.

Then after the immediate course of action to fix the problem by reverting to an earlier System Restore point … there it was. avast taking a long time to download the Virus Definitions. Having learned from the previous occurrence of this situation, I quickly checked my avast Program Update setting and it was now at Automatic.

Hi Chim, left click on the taskbar and keep mouse button pressed, you can move it now.

Right, and be sure to set off avast protection before you revert via system restore in the future.

This should help keep things from going haywire with system restore when using Avast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9yArbiAHHY

Heyyyyy, thanks for that Task Bar relocation fix tip, Asyn! :slight_smile:

It now makes sense as to how I am no doubt accidentally moving it. When I’m doing that quick downward scroll and I accidentally venture into the System Tray with the Left mouse button still pressed … ZAP! That no doubt moves it to the right side of the screen.

Thanks for the valuable insight, mchain … Bob!

Looks like I should be good to go the next time I have to perform a System Restore.

That’s a problem that has been fixed and broken more times than I care to count.
To be sure I don’t have a problem with a restore point, I simply uncheck the box before creation and before a restore.
Once done, I check the box again. (Better safe than sorry.)

You’re welcome. :slight_smile: