What is aswidsagenta.exe and can I disable it?

system · 2017-03-14T18:36:09.000Z

I look at my task manager and find the filename, and the explanation “Identity Protection Service,” and I’m concerned. I see something I didn’t sign up for. I bother with malware protection in the first place because I care about my system’s health. There’s no value in snarky remarks from the experts. If we had time to be experts, we’d be in the expert business. We have other things to occupy our time and minds, but we still care enough to do our homework, and find this occasionally helpful site. Helpful comments are appreciated; looking down your nose at us won’t earn you any more credit than it does in your social circles.

bob3160 · 2017-03-14T23:56:09.000Z

Jim225 post:26:

I look at my task manager and find the filename, and the explanation “Identity Protection Service,” and I’m concerned. I see something I didn’t sign up for. I bother with malware protection in the first place because I care about my system’s health. There’s no value in snarky remarks from the experts. If we had time to be experts, we’d be in the expert business. We have other things to occupy our time and minds, but we still care enough to do our homework, and find this occasionally helpful site. Helpful comments are appreciated; looking down your nose at us won’t earn you any more credit than it does in your social circles.

Why are you concerned, it’s one of the Avast shields that’s keeping you safe.

http://screencast-o-matic.com/screenshots/u/Lh/1489535718560-37365.png

system · 2017-03-18T11:03:47.000Z

The main reason people get concerned is when they face something unexpected in familiar places.
Like seeing some aswidsagenta.exe in process monitor or flagged by the 3rd party firewall for the first time, when it trying to access internet - yes, some people do use the 3rd party firewalls, and, no, I am not suggesting, advertising 3rd party firewalls.
And the person asked if this aswidsagenta.exe can be disabled or, more specifically, is safe to disable without really compromising the status person had prior to introduction of this new component (or revamping of the old one, whatever the case).
Instead some of you went to lengthy and useless discussions of naming your software components more user-friendly, telling everyone off to go search the forums and press-releases and whatnot - do you really expect the Regular Joe to do all that and read all your blogs, forums, etc. when your software does its work without any problems?
The thing is, what was written two pages later really shows the component that has to do with the question and even after that you still can’t contain yourself: “Why are you concerned, it’s one of the Avast shields that’s keeping you safe”. Why not adding “, dummy!” to the end of this phrase to really tell them, what you think?

bob3160 · 2017-03-18T13:10:07.000Z

stepanhoe post:28:

The main reason people get concerned is when they face something unexpected in familiar places.
Like seeing some aswidsagenta.exe in process monitor or flagged by the 3rd party firewall for the first time, when it trying to access internet - yes, some people do use the 3rd party firewalls, and, no, I am not suggesting, advertising 3rd party firewalls.
And the person asked if this aswidsagenta.exe can be disabled or, more specifically, is safe to disable without really compromising the status person had prior to introduction of this new component (or revamping of the old one, whatever the case).
Instead some of you went to lengthy and useless discussions of naming your software components more user-friendly, telling everyone off to go search the forums and press-releases and whatnot - do you really expect the Regular Joe to do all that and read all your blogs, forums, etc. when your software does its work without any problems?
The thing is, what was written two pages later really shows the component that has to do with the question and even after that you still can’t contain yourself: “Why are you concerned, it’s one of the Avast shields that’s keeping you safe”. Why not adding “, dummy!” to the end of this phrase to really tell them, what you think?

So you asked for help, I assume you’ve now gotten your answer and instead of a simple thanks,
you jump to conclusions. No one ever called you a dummy. You would have been one if you hadn’t asked a
question about something that concerned you.

system · 2017-03-18T17:58:04.000Z

bob3160,
I do thank you for telling what component has this .exe file.

system · 2017-05-16T00:15:49.000Z

I just wish I had known it was part of the Antivirus as there is nothing about the name that would tell me up front. I had to look it up online. I looked it up because it as causing a bottleneck on my HDD…

Eddy · 2017-05-16T00:24:28.000Z

Kenny29,

instead of shouting, read the replies in this thread.
Someone from avast already did answer the question.

system · 2017-05-17T02:22:15.000Z

I removed the Behavior Shield component, but now Avast is saying that some shields are turned off:

https://s16.postimg.org/gwzvgj4tx/avast2.jpg

This message would only be pertinent if the behavior shield was installed and turned off, but since the component is removed, it should not show an exclamation mark in the taskbar icon nor should it show this message.

I had to disable the behavior shield because I suspect that it was causing msvcr70.dll crashes on an old game I play.

Asyn · 2017-05-17T07:19:15.000Z

phehojoc post:33:

I removed the Behavior Shield component, but now Avast is saying that some shields are turned off:

This message would only be pertinent if the behavior shield was installed and turned off, but since the component is removed, it should not show an exclamation mark in the taskbar icon nor should it show this message.

Hi, it’s a known bug. Devs are working on it.

Pavel125 · 2017-06-13T13:10:34.000Z

I have problem with aswidsagent.exe - 100% cpu. Behaviour shield is disable.

I have Avast for Bussines, basic.

(sorry for my english)

bob3160 · 2017-06-13T13:13:10.000Z

Pavel125 post:35:

I have problem with aswidsagent.exe - 100% cpu. Behaviour shield is disable.

I have Avast for Bussines, basic.

(sorry for my english)

Repair Avast:
Control Panel> Program and Features (Add/remove program)>Select Avast> Select Repair. Reboot when completed
https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB204

DavidR · 2017-06-13T13:21:53.000Z

bob3160 post:36:

Pavel125 post:35:

I have problem with aswidsagent.exe - 100% cpu. Behaviour shield is disable.

I have Avast for Bussines, basic.

(sorry for my english)

Repair Avast:
Control Panel> Program and Features (Add/remove program)>Select Avast> Select Repair. Reboot when completed
https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB204

Bob since this is about ‘Avast for Business’, I just wonder if this available to Pavel125 or would Pavel125 be better posting this in the Avast For Business / Avast Endpoint Protection sub-forum .

bob3160 · 2017-06-13T13:54:44.000Z

DavidR post:37:

bob3160 post:36:

Pavel125 post:35:

I have problem with aswidsagent.exe - 100% cpu. Behaviour shield is disable.

I have Avast for Bussines, basic.

(sorry for my english)

Repair Avast:
Control Panel> Program and Features (Add/remove program)>Select Avast> Select Repair. Reboot when completed
https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB204

Bob since this is about ‘Avast for Business’, I just wonder if this available to Pavel125 or would Pavel125 be better posting this in the Avast For Business / Avast Endpoint Protection sub-forum .

I just confirmed that this same option also applies to the business version.
(My daughter uses Avast for Business in her business. )

DavidR · 2017-06-13T14:44:10.000Z

Thank you Bob.

Pavel125 · 2017-06-14T05:50:32.000Z

Bob: Thank you

DavidR: Yes, sorry. I found this topic. My assumption - aswidsagent.exe is for all.

Update: It did not help, CPU again 100%,

bob3160 · 2017-06-14T14:10:03.000Z

Pavel125 post:40:

Bob: Thank you

DavidR: Yes, sorry. I found this topic. My assumption - aswidsagent.exe is for all.

Update: It did not help, CPU again 100%,

Sometime ??? All the time ??? What is using all the resources ???

system · 2017-07-19T05:34:52.000Z

I notice that Behaviour Shield (aswidsagenta.exe) is hogging memory and occasionally bandwidth to the hard drive (maxed at 100%) this is despite the fact that i have “unistalled” the behaviour shield component in the “components” setting. I uninstalled it because it is hogging resources even when turned off. So now it is hogging resources even when uninstalled. My next step is to uninstall AVAST and go with something else. Really guys. This is urgent. Fix it.
The symptoms are that my machine goes really slow or even appears to stop, and my internet connection dies and I get “Server not found” responses. I disable and re-enaeble my wifi to clear this. Very annoying. The cure is worse than running-the-risk-of-malware.

Evjls · 2017-07-19T08:10:51.000Z

I noticed avast’s behavior shield is the cause of most problems reported here

I experienced myself that the behavior shield mysteriously prevented a few of my programs to run without any notification. Repairing or clean installation didn’t solve the problem

Yesterday, my friend told me that his low-end laptop was sluggish in all tasks and he asked me to looked for the cause because he’s a basic user. I found that behavior shield was constantly using CPU ~0.1-1% and almost never stayed at 0%. A few of his programs couldn’t run properly too

I decided to uninstall behavior shield and installed the minimum configuration (file & web shields) => his laptop was a lot more responsive and less buggy since then. I tweaked his setup with other programs instead of using avast’s Behavior shield

I also noticed avast behavior shield turned of itself in the past

if there is any unsolvable problems, just try to disable Hardware virtualization, if doesn’t work → disable behavior shield → problems solve

bob3160 · 2017-07-19T12:33:05.000Z

http://screencast-o-matic.com/screenshots/u/Lh/1500467470452-94428.png

Maybe it’s time to:

Repair Avast:
Control Panel> Program and Features (Add/remove program)>Select Avast> Select Repair. Reboot when completed
https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB204

If Repair doesn’t fix the problem, try the following:
Clean Install of Avast:
https://goo.gl/4Ptzkf
If you need additional help with the Clean Install, watch this:
https://youtu.be/p-h3myRD51A
You can download the latest version at: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=205786.msg1409431#msg1409431

ElNarizon · 2023-10-27T10:38:52.000Z

This Behaviour Shield is cranking down my CPU usability to a creep when Windows Update is done, at least partially for some minutes.
(Without that cranking down it would not be some minutes, it would happen much quicker)
Really?
I was not always like that, but actually.

Windows Update is fully shielded, observed and cranked down, at least at some phases of doing the update process?
Has there been any scenario in that an official Windows Update was a threat?
I mean, okay, 2023, so why not; the new normal could mean that even Windows Update is a threat. Who knows.

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