(SOLVED) Avast! 7 sandboxes and terminates Explorer and Task Manager

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

After upgrading to avast! 7, rebooting and logging-in to my Windows account , a strange thing occurs. Explorer.exe will load, run for a few seconds, terminate, then load again, terminate, etc. indefinitely. I am able to open Task Manger through ctrl-alt-delete but, it terminates as well. I noticed that there was the red box around Task Manager signifying that it is running in sandbox mode. This has rendered my PC completely useless if avast! 7 is installed. :slight_smile:

I have performed several clean installations in safe mode with different settings. I have attempted to disable the auto-sandbox feature on my account in safe mode but it will not save this setting or any other setting I change in safe mode.

Avast! has not warned me of any malware problems previous to the update to version 7.

I am running Windows XP Home Edition 32-bit.

Thanks, Trevbob

2

See thing following page and read the instructions
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

Also I would download the Avast 7 installer well in safe mode, using the Run command on the windows start menu and typing “msconfig”, selceting the boot tab and then checking the /SAFEMODE and the NETWORK option.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/

Reinstall and select the custom install option, switch off the sandbox. Then if it boots and runs fine, enable the sandbox but have it ask what to sandbox.

If that didn’t help also you might trying running Avast 6 in tell the issues have been corrected.
Avast! Free Antivirus 6.0.1367
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/11113/

3

Can you possibly submit explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe to virustotal.com to have it scanned with multiple scanners? Try safemode with networking. It would be nice to double check to see if these files are infected. Please post the url with the results.

4

Hello,
send us the files (Explorer.exe and taskmgr.exe) to analyze, please. For faster resolution you can use address: hrdy… (… means @avast.com).

Milos

5

I initially had this problem - including a couple of BSOD’s - until I set auto sandbox mode to “ask”. That seemed to solve that problem.

6

@Charyb:

I have uploaded those files to virustotal.com and here are the results:
explorer.exe: https://www.virustotal.com/file/038fe21b73be650fc4bd9d6c5c6bd1ec8e621fb19a894c1089b84a30fd6b3aa2/analysis/1330295359/
taskmgr.exe: https://www.virustotal.com/file/4d2d4b4d3f65770fcac4a0854abab91bde302f8bb5ed7f8ac96a5eccb6a3d29f/analysis/1330295520/

@oklajohn:

I have no way to open the GUI outside of safe mode to change settings without Explorer or Task Manager operating correctly.

@DarkRadiance:

I have tried installing inside and outside of safe mode, using aswclear for different versions - several times with different options. There are no options in the installer utility concerning the sandbox.

Thanks everyone, Trevbob

7

I have fixed the problems. I obtained an original copy of “explorer.exe” from a SP3 installation file and replaced the one on my system. Now, avast! no longer sandboxes it. I must have previously had a modified version.

Avast! apparently did not like this little enhancement program called Prio (saves process priority and adds other features to Task Manager). I uninstalled that and avast! no longer sandboxes Task Manager.

Everything is now working perfectly!

8

Avast doesn’t like Prio?! Good thing I didn’t install Avast 7 as I would have had the same problem you did. I can’t live without Prio…that is the best thing that has ever happened to Task Manager. I have it on all my computers.

9

Now that I have explorer working again, I could reinstall Prio, set the sandbox mode to “ask”, and tell avast! not to sandbox task manager modified with Prio. I personally did not really need Prio anymore. It’s not that avast! does not like Prio specifically, but that avast! does not trust many programs (or modified ones).