Warning Message - open in virtual environment

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi there,

The last 2 days when I boot up my PC running XP Pro and Home Avast I get the message to open avast in a virtual environment. I never got that message before.

Do I have to do something? Is there something wrong?

Avast updates throughout the day without a problem.

Also, is there a way to set my posts up so I get an e-mail when there has been a response to my post?

Thanks so much.

2
Also, is there a way to set my posts up so I get an e-mail when there has been a response to my post?
have you seen the "notifie" button at the bottom....next to reply ;)
The last 2 days when I boot up my PC running XP Pro and Home Avast I get the message to open avast in a virtual environment. I never got that message before.
can you attach a screenshot of the message ?
3

When you are about to post, there is an “additional options” to the left. One of those additional options is to receive notifications about the topic.

I think that’s the default too (which can be changed in your profile settings), but I’m not sure.

4

Hi there,

I see now. There’s “Additional Options” and you must click that and the drop down menu provides a box you can check to be notified of posts.

Hopefully, I’ve successfully attached a jpg of the screen shot of what I see when I boot up now.

Thank you.

5

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/WINAMPa.exe-6351.html

Did you get Winamp from a trusted source?

6

What do you mean…??
Which avast…??
Which version…??
Which SP on XP…??

7

Well, now with the screenshot, we can understand that it is NOT Avast starting in some virtual environment or alike.

According to that screenshot, there is some “winampa.exe” trying to run something (or the other way around if you want, “something” is trying to run winampa.exe). Avast is telling you that this “EXACT” and “specific” action is not a very common and expected one, so it offers you the chance to run it only inside the “virtual environment”.

The site that is triggering this action is also in that screenshot.

8

OK, so what would be the best strategy when this box pops up at boot up? I’m accustomed to XP Pro booting into my icons screen. How do I rid my PC of this “winamp” application or whatever it is which must have loaded when I downloaded winamp.

Thanks.

9

Was this this something you tried to installed yourself? Are you sure you want and need this?

It seems like something is triggering the installation of “Winampa.exe” or some component of it. Like if the installation was not yet completed.

If you want to “undo” that, I guess you should check in your “Add / Remove Programs” list and select the specific program (winamp maybe ? ) so to uninstall it. Then reboot and test if the same behaviour still is repeated.

The best option would be to open a new topic in the “Viruses and Worms” subforum. I am NOT saying this is for sure some malware, so please don’t panic. What I man is that people that usually help in that subforum probably are more capable of identifying the problem and they may request from you to run something so to give them some resulting log. With that specific info, they might be able to give you more specific instructions. You can post there a link to this same topic too.

Of, course you can try by yourself the list in “Add / Remove Programs”, remove “Winamp” (or whichever the program is) if it is there and reboot.

In any case, please report back.