I have Win 8.1-64 Professional. After installation of the Avast Endpoint Protection (client only) system became unusable. It starts veeeeeery slowly (few minutes) and after start explorer.exe randomly hangs when i try to open disks, folders, etc. If i don’t start windows explorer but only run applications (Outlook, Visual Studio, etc.) then i can work some time. But as soon as i open explorer then within few seconds it hangs without possibility to recover.
If after system start and logging in i’m quick enough in starting msconfig, setting safe mode for the next boot and restarting computer (thanks to Microsoft it is almost impossible to catch startup menu in Win 8.1 to boot in the safe mode) then i’m able to remove Avast using avastclear tool and after that everything becomes ok. I checked this 3 times spending almost all working day for this problem. So the problem is isolated - it is Avast EP.
Any ideas how can i solve the problem?
P.S. Unfortunately can’t tell Avast EP version number but it is from today - February 24, 2015.
verify if you have Microsoft update KB3000850 on your PC. Go to Control panel\ Programs and Features and click on View installed updates. Uninstall this update if installed. This update causes the exact behavior you are describing and its only if you have Avast installed.
Tried both. Uninstalled KB3000850 and run “avast! Emergency Update” scheduled task. No changes. Login process takes ~5 minutes during which HDD LED permanently lighting. Shortly after login explorer starts crashing, restarting, again crashing and after some cycles completely hangs.