Take a look here how you can later manage those shields when you need to enable, disable etc
http://www.getavast.net/support/turn-off-shields
Screenshots in the web page are current.
I installed Avast on my own XP system. I only selected the file shield protection.
I restarted twice and did not have any issues.
The only thing is that it looks like Avast is scanning every time I open a program. I can see the little Avast logo’s animation every time I open something.
This may slow things down a little bit.
But overall the program is still very light. Only two open services. Less than 47 mb of memory utilized, though.
It may be light BUT you only have “extremely limited” protection.
Why only lock 1 door in a house that has 3 doors to lock(the Shields) ???
Well, you have convinced me to install the most basic protection.
I don’t use an email client. And I don’t want another layer “protecting” me from my browsing.
Which is why I oped out for those two. But I also added the file protection service to my Vista lap top as well.
on Sunday I will add this protection to my Father’s lap top and I will tinker around with his XP desktop.
When I uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials and Avira I used both of their respective registry cleaners. But I did not use them in safe mode. Perhaps leftover files are conflicting with Avast and causing Windows not to load???
I am unsure what else it could be on his system, considering that Avira does not conflict with my own XP SP3 system.
Web shield stopped trojans few times for me before they had a chance to infect. That was on my safe sites, which happened to get infected. I’d use it if I were you. And DavidR mentioned once that Mail shield makes sense for an event when some trojan wants to start mailing out things even if you don’t have a client.
Uninstalling AV stuff
Stay away from registry cleaners, unless you really must use.
For most AVs, uninstalling by the product’s uninstall in Add/Remove is not enough. If you need clean uninstaller use these links. Also read their instructions as they tell if need to be done in safe mode. And many give you no feedback for many minutes before the final success and a reboot request.
Avast uninstaller - you may need to use it if the original installation got really messed up
http://www.avast.com/en-us/uninstall-utility
Other AV uninstallers
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=46021.0
http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146
I used MSE only once for few days, and it uninstalled cleanly in Add/Remove. Not a trace in the registry when I checked against this list which also includes their uninstaller
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/wiki/mse-protect_start/uninstalling-microsoft-security-essentials/316493c2-8885-46b0-afba-28ebd45c0838
Avira safe mode uninstaller did an excellent job.
Norton/Symantec from OEM installations always leaves some junk behind, but is harmless junk.
It is the uninstaller utilities that I am referring to when I talked about a registry cleaner to remove traces of my previous MSE and Avira installations.
The Avira tool is called “avira_registry_cleaner_en” and the MSE tool is called “MicrosoftFixit50535.”
I can try running them again in safe mode.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=137154.0
This sounds similar to my issue.
No luck. I uninstalled Avast through add/remove programs.
Then I booted into safe mode and ran both the Avira and Avast uninstaller tools.
Booted back up in normal mode, re-installed Avast. Rebooted
Stuck on the loading screen.
Exactly the same symptoms as before.
Restart, “use last known good configuration,” then boots back up to the desktop, but Avast complains that the service is disabled.
What could this be? I find it odd that Avast works fine on my XP machine, but not my Father’s. Both have fresh installs of XP SP3 after a complete format from nearly the same time (only a few days apart.)
?
Perhaps if you describe more clearly how it’s “stuck on the loading screen” and for how long, and does it end up in BSOD if so what’s the message.
Maybe even run OTL and essexboy or Eddy might take a look and see some driver conflict on that machine.
How do you get to last known config? Does Windows suggest it? Do you get in somehow or other?
After you do last known config have you tried just clicking on the avast icon on the desktop or from Start>ProgramFiles>Avast… and perhaps then Avast will start its service after a bunch of updates.
The service cannot start. The only way to have the service start is to do a “repair” installation.
I never get a BSOD. The XP loading bar will just freeze indefinitely. I have to force the computer to shut down by holding the power button. Then when it boots back up, it automatically shows me the menu for selecting safe mode, last known good configuration, and normal boot.
If I do a repair installation in add/remove programs, it will do the exact same freeze when I restart. Just on that one particular system.
What are the makes of both of those XP computers?
What disk did you use to reinstall Windows? Common, universal clean XP or disk(s) specific to the computer manufacturer?
Does your father’s computer work ok other than the avast issue?
It was a full installation CD for XP SP2 that I slip-streamed SP3 onto. I have the exact same installation CD that I bought at the same time from the same vendor, and I also slipstreamed SP3 on top of my SP2 installation. On my system Avast works, on his it does not. We have unique XP keys, by the way, it is not a shared installation…even though the XP CDs were identicle, because they were both purchased from the same place at the exact same time.
They are both home-built systems.
Father’s system specs:
Asus K8V SE Deluxe motherboard
AMD 3400+ single core processor
1.5 gb DDR RAM
ATI Sapphire X800 Pro 256 mb video
Creative Audigy 2 ZS audio
Dual Seagate 300 gb 7200 rpm SATA drives
My system:
Asus A8N 32 SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD FX-60 dual core processor
2.0 gb DDR RAM
ATI Sapphire X1950 XT 256 mb video
Creative X-FI Xtreme Music audio
Dual Seagate 320 gb 7200 rpm SATA drives
As you can see the builds were very similar, just a few years apart.
Also, everything else works on his system (and mine)
The only issue is, Avast prevents his system from booting up. And then when I use last known good configuration, Windows is able to boot, but them Avast complains that its service is not running.
Hi, can you try the following?
- Get procexp.exe tool (Sysinternals Tools).
- Disable self-defense in avast! settings.
- Set registry HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\avast! Antivirus\Start to 3 (by default it’s 2).
- Restart computer, it should start normally.
- Start ProcExp.exe
- On command line, type net start “avast! Antivirus”
- Look if it freezes and if so, create a process dump of AvastSvc.exe.
- Send this dump to me.
I will be able to try during this upcoming weekend. That is the next time I will have access to the system.
Just let me know. Cure to deadlocks is only a process dump so we can see where exactly it hangs.
So I should do a repair installation of Avast so that the service will be re-enabled while I am logged in, before I change the registry start from 2 to 3? Or should I just change that as-is with the service currently disabled?
Any idea how I should restore the Avast service for proper testing? Should I do a repair installation to get it fired up again or what?
Re-enable the service and set it to 3 (to be able to do a manual start from services.msc).
Set it back to 2 (Auto) if you want it make automatically started again.
Running Win XP and ever since updating to 9.0.2016 (AIS), I’ve had the issue of having to waiting at least 10 minutes from boot to login, and then allowing another 5 minutes for Windows to load. I’ve disabled as many processes as possible (leaving only 25 processes running with 2gb ram) and an AMD Sempron 3400+ processor. Before the last Avast program update there were no issues whatsoever. If I don’t wait that 10 minutes from boot to login, Avast will not load at all. I’ve run process hacker and Avast is calling up svchost to run 100% of CPU, something in that last program update is not sitting well with XP. I can have the computer up and running smoothly for hours and then all of a sudden Avast calls up svchost to eat up 100% of CPU resources. I’ve performed a repair install, reset settings to default and there’s no change. I boot up, and the Hard Drive continuously works (scanning) for at least 10 minutes (did NOT do this before last program update). I’ve ran full scans after the latest updates of Avast, ran a Rescue Disk to rule out any type of virus or malware causing the issue along with Spybot S&D (NOT resident in memory), and Malwarebytes. I have no doubt this lays with Avast’s latest update as I had this installed on 2 other (customers) computers with XP having this same issue. I’ll be the guinea pig in helping Avast sort this out, unless Avast decides not to support XP anymore. Just let me know what it is you want me to try so I can not give these 2 people reasons to keep complaining about having to wait when starting their computers.