User Missing / Black Screen o' Death after update

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

After running the update 3/6, my main user account disappeared. I’ve tried several online tutorials to recover it, with no luck. What I’ve tried:
Rebooting in Safe mode to try Start-up repair
Running the explorer.exe under Task Manager
Uninstalling and reinstalling Avast
Changing Admin privileges on the default user
A System Restore Point, which was dated 3/9.

In all cases, restarting the computer goes to the default main user, which shows only the black screen with the cursor.

I’m running Windows 10 release 180410-1804
I was running Avast Internet Security 19.2.2364, with the 437 build, but after removing it I only had the option to reinstall the free version. I did save the license code if that helps.

Apologies if I left necessary info out or included useless stuff. I’ve about 15 minutes a day to work on this and my notes are cryptic.

Thanks for any help.

2

Windows 10 release 180410-1804 appears to be later than consumer 1809 (17763.348) which is the latest stable build released by Microsoft for general production use.

3

Hi Landlubber,
can you try to use : ctrl+shift+esc shortcut . it will start task manager and from its menu → File → Run new task start explorer.exe . If black screen is caused by not running explorer it should help. Than try upload us system event logs for analysis.
Thank you for report !

4

I’m attaching the file for 17 March. If this isn’t what you need, please let me know. Thanks for any help!

5

Hi Landlubber,
can you try to export more logs please.

  1. Right click on this computer icon
  2. Manage
  3. Event Viewer
  4. Windows Logs
  5. Application, System, Security → right click and select Save all events as …
  6. zip them to one file and name it landlubber_3_2019.zip and upload to ftp
  • procmon log of boot would also help !
  1. Download procmon (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon)
  2. Run it as admin Menu → Options → Enable boot logging
  3. Restart your pc and after restart run procmon again it will ask you where to save log file.
  4. Add it to zip and upload to ftp.

ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming

Thank you

6

Sorry about the delay. I think I got it uploaded, but let me know if you have any problems.

Thanks again!

7

Hi Landlubber,
I cant find any landlubber_3_2019.zip file.

8

:-[ Now?

(It’s been a while since I used FTP - just drag the file into the ‘incoming’ folder?) :-[

9

No,

I m used to use total cmd so here are steps i have to do :

  1. start total cmd
  2. Menu->Net-> Net FTP connection (CTRL+N)
  3. Connect to (host or url) type : ftp://ftp.avast.com/incoming
  4. if you are asked for email address type it as a password
  5. upload the landlubber_3_2019.zip file
10

Or follow instructions here: https://support.avast.com/article/160/

11

Hi Landlubber,
I wrote simple powershell script which should help you to upload your file to ftp server.
http://public.avast.com/~pich/avast_ftp_file_upload.ps1
you will be asked to set email address + filepath.

12

For those not familiar with script files , how can we use this? Thanks

13

I wanted something simple which doesnt require installation of other software.

  1. Make sure powershell is enabled in your pc ! https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.security/set-executionpolicy?view=powershell-6
  2. Download http://public.avast.com/~pich/avast_ftp_file_upload.ps1 and open it in text editor to read the step by step instructions how to use it.
  3. Run cmd.exe in directory where you downloaded avast_ftp_file_upload.ps1 and type powershell
  4. Now you can call the script in two ways :

Upload upload.me file under its original name
avast_ftp_file_upload.ps1 -EmailAddress my@email.com -FilePath c:\temp\upload.me

Upload upload.me file and pick unique name
avast_ftp_file_upload.ps1 -EmailAddress my@email.com -FilePath c:\temp\upload.me -PickUniqueFilename