Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: glnz on December 07, 2014, 03:22:01 AM
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EDIT -- SEE WAY DOWN IN THIS THREAD AT FEBRUARY 2017. AVAST 17.1.2286 IS BLOCKING VIRTUALIZATION AGAIN.
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Original post in Dec., 2014:
I've been struggling for weeks trying to figure out why my good new Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower with 8GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive and an Intel Core i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz - dual-booting Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 8 Pro 64-bit - has NOT been passing the test for hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV). The Intel processor is fully rated for HAV across the board.
All along, it's been the default settings in Avast Free 2015.
The Microsoft havdetectiontool has been saying that HAV is "not enabled" in the PC even though the BIOS has it fully turned on.
Well, today I figured it out. It's an AVAST default setting that is the villain.
Avast - Settings - Troubleshooting - "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization" has been on, so I turned it off, rebooted, and now the havdetectiontool finally shows the good news, "This computer is configured with hardware-assisted virtualization".
Great!!! But bloody hell !!!!
Can anyone tell me why Avast's internal setting to enable HAV takes HAV away from everything else? Avast has certainly been getting sleazy the last two years, so apparently they're also not quality-testing their new versions very well.
Any thoughts? Was this supposed to happen?
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Is there a reason you could not use normal size fonts?
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KevTech - I lowered the font size to 12.
It was very frustrating not finding the clue for so many days.
Now, FYI - this problem shows itself in Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 8 Pro 64-bit - Avast's "enable hardware-assisted vitualization" steals all HAV capability so that the MS test shows that HAV is NOT enabled on the machine. This does not happen in Win XP Pro SP3 32-bit (on my old Dell Optiplex 755 with Intel Core 2 Duo E6850). On the old Win XP Pro machine, with Avast's "enable hardware-assisted vitualization" on, the MS test has the good result that HAV is enabled on the machine.
So Avast should fix this problem for Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 8 Pro 64-bit.
Thanks.
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I don't think the Microsoft tool is accurate as my virtual machines and virtual pc run perfectly but the Microsoft tool fails.
Have you tried another tool?
Try SecureAble
https://www.grc.com/securable.htm
My results and you can see the Microsoft tool was wrong:
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KevTech - that is interesting. I have the grc tool but I did not try it when I got the negative results in the MS havdetectiontool test. Anyway, the GRC tool only says what I already know to be the case, that my CPU and BIOS SHOULD permit virtualization. Which I also confirmed using Intel's tools.
In any case, I don't think I'm wrong, and I don't think Avast is OK.
I would not wish to start to work on virtualization on my new Optiplex 7010 if I have a negative result from MS even if I knew about a positive GRC test. Too much work that's likely to lead to too much frustration. And whatever is the reason for the negative result from MS, it's bound to show up in some other problem if I were to proceed with virtualization.
And, as I now know, the Avast setting has also interfered with certain gaming programs. If you google "Avast intreferes with hardware-assisted virtualization", you'll see some threads. The gamers had to turn off the same Avast setting that I did. I think it's the same underlying issue.
Bottom line - Avast needs to fix this.
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I am running both Avast NG on windows 8 and a VMware windows 7 with no problem
The enable virtualisation should be on by default
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Im running NG on Windows 8.1.
No problems with VMWare, but unbootable VMs with VirtualBox tho.
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glnz,
I have the exact same situation as you. Ever since the new version of avast was released that includes NG I have been unable to get the avast virtualization process to function properly.
I have an Intel Core i5 650 @ 3200 MHz, Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit, 8 GB of RAM, avast Free, and boot from an SSD. The option in the BIOS is set to enable hardware assisted virtualization.
No matter what I tried to get avast to recognize that hardware assisted virtualization was active it never would. I would also check with the Microsoft tool AND also with PC Wizard from CPUID - both would indicate that hardware assisted virtualization was disabled (remember that it WAS set to be active in the BIOS). I tried turning on/off NG in the avast change setup and also repairing avast from the Windows Control Panel.
After reading this thread, I tried unchecking the box "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization" in the settings section of avast and rebooting. Lo and behold both the Microsoft tool and PC Wizard now indicate that hardware assisted virtualization is enabled. Again - the ONLY change was unchecking the box "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization" in the settings section of avast.
I don't know if this means that something is screwy with avast or with my machine, although it may be something that the developers might want to look into.
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I just found another issue that Enable hardware-assisted virtualization is causing and that is slowing down loading of games/apps.
I have been testing many apps and games with all of them showing a significant slow down with Enable hardware-assisted virtualization turned on.
Example...
With ehav on:
Time from shortcut clicked on and main menu showing: 45 seconds and up to 1 minute
Time to load levels: 1 minute 20 seconds and up to 1 minute 30 seconds
With ehav off:
Time from shortcut clicked on and main menu showing: 10 to 15 seconds
Time to load levels: 10 to 15 seconds
All other apps/games I tested had similar results
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Avast - are you reading this?
When will you fix?
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Avast - are you reading this?
When will you fix?
Hi, may I ask why do you need HW virtualization feature on your Dell? I mean, if avast detects your computer has HW virtualization, we'll use this feature and hide it PC settings that you have any (that's why HAV tool reports you don't have such feature). The reason why we do that is from compatibility with other possible softwares. However, if we detect you're using (or you installed) vmware/virtualbox/hyper-v, then we disable this feature in avast (so other apps will benefit from HW virtualization as well).
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Mr. pk - thanks for fast response, and thanks for supplying such a good program over many years.
To answer your question, I shall soon be trying each of (a) XP Mode in Win 7, (b) VM Ware Player and (c) VirtualBox for the first time on my new personal Win 7 - 8 dual boot PC. For better or worse, I'm the (pretend) IT person to my wife's business and the two separate PCs I bought for her mini-office, and I'm trying to keep up with developments. Over the years, my blind experimenting on my own PC has paid off and kept us running through some difficult computer moments.
You seem to be saying that if I'd installed any of these virtualization programs, Avast would have turned off its EHAV automatically. Do I have that right? (A number of threads - especially some issues with gaming - indicate that it's not happening.)
If I have that right, then my turning EHAV off manually is the same thing, yes?
But ... why does Avast monopolize HAV at all? Why couldn't Avast have an EHAV that does NOT cause the "not enabled" message in havdetectiontiool? Do you think my experience is a good thing?
Thanks.
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@KevTech: if EHAV is active, it doesn't mean it's used at all -- avast will start using active EHAV only in very limited moments. So your slowdowns can't be caused by EHAV, probably by caching, running background processes, etc. Microsoft's Hyper-V (based on EHAV) is usually enabled on some Win8.1+ machines and it doesn't slow down these PCs as well.
@glnz: avast detects you installed xpmode/vmware/virtualbox/hyper-v and we disable EHAV automatically (so these software can use HW virtualization feature). Usually only one application in system can use HW virtualization for itself.
>> (A number of threads - especially some issues with gaming - indicate that it's not happening.)
number of threads is something else, it has no connection to HW virtualization (my system is running 1242 threads -- check Task Manager/Performance tab). We don't create any new thread for HW virtualization.
>> But ... why does Avast monopolize HAV at all? Why couldn't Avast have an EHAV that does NOT cause the "not installed" message in havdetectiontiool?
There was a reason for that, I'll ask my coworker, but I'm sure it was probably from compatibility reason. Oh, I just found out, Hyper-V is probably masking this HW virtualization feature as well and we have also a special detection for it.
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There can be only single VMM(hypervisor) active in single moment on single CPU core. It does't mean that multiple Type-2 hypervisors cannot co-exist, they can share CPU time. For example it is possible to execute a VBox VM simultaneously with a VMWARE VM. However Avast is kind-of Type-1 VMM and it is switching host to non-root (guest) mode, because Avast needs to control its guest (former host) completely. Similar approach is used in Hyper-V. Avast virtualization would suspend if well-known virtualization SW (VirtualPC, VBox, VMWARE) is detected. We have already implemented nested hypervisor support, which solves this issue completely but it is not yet ready to release. MS HAV tool reports VTX/SVM is disabled in BIOS, because Avast VMM is faking the MSR containing that info. Avast uses this mechanism to prevent possible VMM running in non-root mode from causing BSOD.
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Can you please provide some details? CPU, Game title, a crack used?
I just found another issue that Enable hardware-assisted virtualization is causing and that is slowing down loading of games/apps.
I have been testing many apps and games with all of them showing a significant slow down with Enable hardware-assisted virtualization turned on.
Example...
With ehav on:
Time from shortcut clicked on and main menu showing: 45 seconds and up to 1 minute
Time to load levels: 1 minute 20 seconds and up to 1 minute 30 seconds
With ehav off:
Time from shortcut clicked on and main menu showing: 10 to 15 seconds
Time to load levels: 10 to 15 seconds
All other apps/games I tested had similar results
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pk: Thanks again for your attention.
If there can be only one virtualization at a time, then Avast should make it crystal clear that Avast is using EHAV all the time, and that other tools will report that HAV is not enabled. I spent two weeks trying to figure out why I was getting a negative result with havdetectiontool - there was no clue anywhere until I remembered that I had not yet installed Avast in my latest Win 8 (no issue) and had the negative result only in Win 7 (with Avast) and then looked for a connection and found some blog posts by gamers who had manually turned off Avast's EHAV.
When I wrote "threads". I meant blog posts, not processor threads. If you google for the problem with respect to gamers and Avast's "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization", you might find them.
► Note that the gamers had to turn off your EHAV - it wasn't turning off by itself and it was blocking their games. Also, some of the folks commenting in this thread have the same problem as I and had to turn off EHAV manually - it is not turning itself off◄
I still think this is not correct and that Avast should fix. Thanks.
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Spec8472 - your technical knowledge is way above my non-tech ability to follow.
But my CPU is genuine quad-core. From your post, I should not have had the problem?
Anyway, please see my immediately preceding reply to pk - Avast should fix this.
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The fix would be great, I agree, but we can't do that, because then vmware/virtualbox/hyper-v would blue screen your computer. So what's better now...
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Can you please provide some details? CPU, Game title, a crack used?
I don't use cracks.
One title is Bioshock retail version not steam version although I have heard it happens with steam version as well.
I have a AMD Phenom II X4 980 CPU.
I have dual boot system and it happens on Win 7 64 and Win 8.1 64 and even on the XP image I have.
I also had a error from securerom saying I was trying to run the game virtual so would not launch but once Avast turned off all is fine.
This is without NG installed.
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The fix would be great, I agree, but we can't do that, because then vmware/virtualbox/hyper-v would blue screen your computer. So what's better now...
None of these in Win 7 by default.
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KevTech - do you mean Avast's EHAV should be UNchecked in Win 7 by default?
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KevTech - do you mean Avast's EHAV UNchecked in Win 7 by default?
No, what I meant was that win 7 does not come with vmware, virtualbox or hyper-v.
Win 8 comes with hyper-v.
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I still think Avast should fix this issue. EHAV on in Avast should NOT prevent HAV in other apps, nor should it cause a bad result in the havdetectiontool.
Can the Avast tech folks advise?
Thanks,
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Bump. This is bugging me.
It means that Avast must be partially disabled for hardware-assisted virtualization to work on the OS.
Why hasn't Avast fixed this?
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Bump. This is bugging me.
It means that Avast must be partially disabled for hardware-assisted virtualization to work on the OS.
Why hasn't Avast fixed this?
See if this fixes your concern:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=166883.msg1187702#msg1187702 (https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=166883.msg1187702#msg1187702)
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Bob - Thanks for note. I'm not a beta kind of guy, but I'll test the effect of Avast's EHAV setting when this new version is actually released. (Not yet through Update Program. My Win 7 Pro 64-bit machine is sticking with version 2015.10.0.2208.)
However, the notes for this new version at the top of your link do NOT indicate that Avast addressed my issue, just that NG will now work on non-HAV x86 machines, where my issue is the opposite.
By the way, why was Minh6's post here yesterday deleted? He posted here "Man, I have the exact same problem and your solution helped me perfectly. I couldn't expect such an ironic uncheck in avast could solve it hahaha."
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@ glnz,
Can't answer your question about Minh6 since I never saw his post.
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pk and Spec8472 -- My Win 7 Pro 64-bit machine has just updated to Avast 2015.10.2.2214. I re-enabled EHAV, rebooted and then ran havdetectiontool.exe, and now this PC now REMAINS enabled for HAV.
So - please advise - did you fix the problem, or is this coming from something else?
It might be something else because, while I had Avast's EHAV disabled these weeks, I installed and ran XP Mode + MS Virtual PC on this Win 7 machine. From your earlier posts, maybe this somehow prevented Avast from re-grabbing and monopolizing HAV. So it's not clear whether the good results just now are because you fixed or because the old problem can no longer come back due to XP Mode+Virtual PC having been installed while your EHAV was off.
Important to know before I update my other Win 7 PCs and consider whether to put Avast on the Win 8.1 Pro 64-bit dual-boot portion of this initial Win 7 machine.
Please advise and maybe explain a bit to the audience here (my noob self). In any case, I'm happy with these good results (so far). Thanks.
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@glnz
I doubt you are still waiting to proceed with your planned updates, but I have noticed that the havdetectiontool behaved in the same way for me, but only for the first reboot. On a subsequent reboot, the tool went back to reporting that HAV was NOT active on the computer as long as I (still) had the Avast HAV setting enabled. My tested system is Win7 64, avast 2015.10.2.2214. Unlike you, I had no intervening installation of virtual systems. I'm NOT running the avast NG option, only toggling the avast EHAV switch.
Since I have no immediate need for other virtual software, I will probably go back to enabling avast HAV for troubleshooting, but will wait for another release cycle for NG due to some of the other reported issues with disk utilization, bloated backups, etc.
If someone knows of a FAQ for the NG feature that has system requirements, impacts, tradeoffs, etc., I'd appreciate a link. The support FAQ only says it runs processes virtually and improves DeepScreen scanning. Does that mean some behavior analysis occurs that recognizes and interrupts the virtual evil doings before actual damage is done, or something less magical than that? There's just not much info I've run across about how NG is supposed to work, even at a relatively high level.
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Is there a reason you could not use normal size fonts? May I suggest that this bug ridden beta has blocked or stopped him from adjusting the size?
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Is there a reason you could not use normal size fonts? May I suggest that this bug ridden beta has blocked or stopped him from adjusting the size?
Aren't you a little late with your reply since the user has already lowered the font size to 12 ???
No forum bug just an over sized choice by the user in his original post.
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Merckxist -- Thanks for your post. I shall re-check on my Win 7 machine when I have a chance.
But I do NOT understand what is NG. What is it? Why is it not explained anywhere by Avast? What is it doing that's separate from what Avast was before? How does it affect this issue?
I think Avast is blowing it. Avast's pop-ups have become incredibly annoying - how is Avast now different from light-level malware?
And this issue makes no sense to me. Why is Avast doing ANYTHING that interferes with ANY computer feature?
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Some information about new avast! NG component: our classic sandbox technology (used for DeepScreen, Sandbox and SafeZone components) restricts a sandboxed application to modify your system. As Windows OS is quite rich for various APIs and frameworks, we need to monitor more and more OS functions invoked from the unknown applications. This works perfect for Sandbox/SafeZone, but it's not enough for DeepScreen analysis. When a malware is analyzed in DeepScreen, we'd like to allow it to behave freely without any restrictions and monitor only its activities. Unfortunately, we might end up very soon if it tries e.g. to load a kernel-mode driver (you can't monitor kernel-mode, and if it gets there, it can control your entire OS, hide itself, connect to internet, ...), or use some undocumented system calls on 64-bit OSes (we use own hypervisor driver to fully protect 64-bit OSes, but this doesn't work on older PCs or with disabled VT-X/AMD-V feature in BIOS).
Avast! NG helps us to analyze malware real-time totally without any restrictions - it can load a kernel driver, it can delete any Windows files, format your volume, everything it wishes. The malware is executed on your OS using VirtualBox engine and the entire OS with malware is monitored. NG was heavily tested for a few months by our user base and we have fixed various HW/SW conflicts and tuned performance. After avast installation, it takes a couple of minutes to prepare NG (this is executed in the background with normal priority in this Beta, it'll be on idle priority in final release).
Avast! NG system requirements:
- physical machine
- Vista+ (32-bit OS with 1.5GB+ RAM, 64-bit with 2.5Gb+ RAM), XP will be supported in final release
- VT-X/AMD-V must be enabled in BIOS for all Win8+ 32-bit OS and for all 64-bit OSes (NG will work correctly on other OSes without VT-X/AMD-V)
- 10% free space on system disk, not less than 2GB (this won't be required in final release)
- in RTM, NG will be disabled on slower computers
If NG components is missing in custom installation, you can check "setup.log" why NG can't be installed on your computer.
In Beta2, new web browsers icons on desktop will be created and you can try to run these web browsers in NG (just for testing purposes, this will be removed after Beta2/RC testing).
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There have been updates since this quote of Sept 2014.
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Yes i have exactly same issue here... All my Laptops(i3,i5.i7) and Pc's VT dissable because of this silly things.. ihave to uncheck the "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization". ijust notice when my dell i7-2670qm, 6 GHZ RAM laptop slower, i use third party software (SIW) and other software and the result are same (VT dissabled), so i check all of my laptops and computer and uncheck the avast "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization" and its all working fine again (enable). what is this?? im one of the loyal avast user and recomend to all my colleagues and friends offices since years ago,now im start doubt about avast product and start to find astep better than avast. yeapp... im not a fanatic person if find trouble in silly things but affected something huge... hope avast can be better and more see the detail next time.
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Yes i have exactly same issue here... All my Laptops(i3,i5.i7) and Pc's VT dissable because of this silly things.. ihave to uncheck the "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization". ijust notice when my dell i7-2670qm, 6 GHZ RAM laptop slower, i use third party software (SIW) and other software and the result are same (VT dissabled), so i check all of my laptops and computer and uncheck the avast "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization" and its all working fine again (enable). what is this?? im one of the loyal avast user and recomend to all my colleagues and friends offices since years ago,now im start doubt about avast product and start to find astep better than avast. yeapp... im not a fanatic person if find trouble in silly things but affected something huge... hope avast can be better and more see the detail next time.
Disabling it has the following effect:
(http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/screenshots/u/Lh/1427464629171-99178.png)
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Bob - what's your point?
My point is that this should NOT be happening. Avast should NOT add a feature that INTERFERES with good operations on the PC. Or Avast should perfect the feature to MOVE OUT OF THE WAY when a good operation needs to run.
And why has Avast gone radio-silent? No fix?
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@ glnz,
Can't answer your question about Minh6 since I never saw his post.
Hmmm, so how would actually seeing the post have made any difference? ??? ::) ;) (point of logic)
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@ glnz,
Can't answer your question about Minh6 since I never saw his post.
Hmmm, so how would actually seeing the post have made any difference? ??? ::) ;) (point of logic)
Because Bob was asked a direct question about Minh6 post (by glnz in https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=162445.msg1188674#msg1188674), which apparently disappeared.
If Bob never saw it he wouldn't know it had disappeared or comment on why it might have disappeared. Fairly logical.
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I've just run into this problem too. Decided to clean install Windows 10 on my laptop - and reinstalled Avast, only to notice that my 64bit VM's were not starting anymore in Virtualbox.
After a long search, I noticed this thread. But then still: I do not have an option "Enable hardware virtualization" in the Troubleshooting section! Maybe because I unchecked the "browser protection" in the installer? Anyway, it seems that even in this case, the virtualization is blocked by Avast and there is no way to switch it off.
I'm switching to another AV.
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Update to the latest version (12.1.2272): https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=187663.0
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Asyn - In this latest version (12.1.2272), there is no longer any reference to Enable Hardware-Assisted Virtualization. Why so? What is happening? No more NG?
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Asyn - In this latest version (12.1.2272), there is no longer any reference to Enable Hardware-Assisted Virtualization. Why so? What is happening? No more NG?
You are right.No more NG. :)
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Topic was dead for a year.
I wonder if antiknijn is using a 2015 version or a newer one...
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Asyn - In this latest version (12.1.2272), there is no longer any reference to Enable Hardware-Assisted Virtualization. Why so? What is happening? No more NG?
Removed hardware virtualization (NG) - replaced with CyberCapture,that has much lower impact on system resources
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My Avast just upgraded to 12.1.2272 and guess what - hardware-assisted virtualisation stopped working !
The "Hardware-assisted Virtualization" checkbox in Avast Settings -> Troubleshooting has been removed as well - great !
Tried disabling "Cyber Capture" and rebooting, but did not work ...
Any alternative anti virus software out there that works fine with HAV ?
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Tom - It remains a mystery to me what NG or Avast's virtualization ever did. It is also a mystery what "Cyber Capture" does. It is also a mystery whether (for Avast AV Free), there is now ANY sandboxing or use of virtualization. And it is a mystery whether or not Avast Free protects from ransomware.
Nothing is explained here. But the updates cause problems, in this and other areas.
Avast spends a lot of effort in designing annoying pop-ups that are the direct opposite of the purpose of their product. In the news, Avast is looking to buy AVG, so that is the corporate focus, not the quality of this product.
I stopped recommending Avast to friends and colleagues. I would be embarrassed to inflict these annoyances on them. Although I still use Avast on my old XP and Win 7 machines, in my Windows 10 machine, I did NOT install Avast, as Windows Defender is working and is nice and quiet and reliable.
Really too bad. Avast was great for a long time.
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My Avast just upgraded to 12.1.2272 and guess what - hardware-assisted virtualisation stopped working !
The "Hardware-assisted Virtualization" checkbox in Avast Settings -> Troubleshooting has been removed as well - great !
See: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=188058.msg1322898#msg1322898
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Asyn - thanks for link. But what does it mean? What is that other thread talking about?
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The devs removed the option in the settings "unintentionally".
As workaround you can tweak the registry, as pointed out by pk.
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The devs removed the option in the settings "unintentionally".
As workaround you can tweak the registry, as pointed out by pk.
I just ran into this problem the other day with the new version of Avast.
"Nox App Player" would not open and I was puling my hair out trying to figure out how to fix this issue. Past Avast versions had the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization setting which when I disabled it would allow Nox App Player to run. But now that Hardware-Assisted Virtualization setting was removed I was going insane. Luckily the registry hack works.
Is Avast planning to add back the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization setting any time soon?
Users who use software like Nox App Player should absolutely not need to hack their registry to get it to open properly.
Avast needs to fix this ASAP :(
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Use the work around to disable avast virtualisation as mentioned by pk.
I see it was removed unintentionally :-[ -- as a workaround, you can disable 'self protection' (in troubleshooting), run regedit.exe and set Start=4 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\services\aswvmm.
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Can I +1 a need for a solution for this? I'm a software engineer and I'm sure the Avast devs can relate to this. The inability to easily tell Avast to let me use Hardware virtualisation is seriously blocking me from important work-related dev tasks.
I just started a new project for a client where I need to write an Android application, I've installed a new version of Android Studio and I cannot launch any virtual Android devices because according to Android Studio the HAV features of my machine are off. They are on, and I already have and use Virtual Box occasionally for some Linux dev work on my Windows dev machine.
It's bloody stupid that we have to fight with the Avast software to do something we need. This is making me regret my purchase of the product, and when it comes to renewal time I'll be seriously considering competing products... if I haven't given up and switched already by then.
EDIT: This isn't a fault with Android Studio, but Avast blocking access. I did have this issue fixed a month ago but the Avast application has updated I see and reenabled features I had switched off, and now seem to be unable to repeat the steps to get full control of virtualisation again :(
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The problem is not only with avast.
The problem is with many VM's that are trying to use the hardware virtualisation at the same time.
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Here we are six months later, and the new version of Avast is doing this again. Avast 17.1.2286
ONCE AGAIN, AVAST'S "ENABLE HARDWARE-ASSISTED VIRTUALIZATION" STOPS WINDOWS VIRTUAL PC - XP MODE FROM WORKING IN WIN 7 PRO 64-BIT.
When I turn off Avast's "Enable Hardware-Assisted Virtualization" in troubleshooting, XP Mode starts working again.
Avast, you really are off the rails. Thank God we don't need you for Win 10.
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What CPU do you have? Did you install Avast first, or XP mode first?
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It is also doing this in windows 10 64bit i5-6600 cpu
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igor -
1) Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower, now with 16GB RAM, two 500GB hard drives and an Intel Core i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz - dual-booting Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 10 Pro 64-bit. Avast is on the Win 7 side only.
2) Two and a half years ago, when I first got the machine, I probably installed Avast Free before I turned on anything else. This problem - Avast taking over the entire virtualization capacity and blocking anything else that requires virtualization - first appeared shortly after I got the machine in late 2014, per the beginning of this thread. Some time in 2015, a new version of Avast stopped the problem. But now it's back.
This is now an old problem with Avast. You were aware of it before and fixed the conflict. Time to do so again, and please don't forget the issue going forward.
No AV should reduce or block the capacity of the machine. Virtualization is not there only for Avast. As you can see from the post immediately above, I'm not the only one affected. Thanks.
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Hi, are there any errors in event log? (Application and Services Logs/Microsoft/Windows/Virtual PC/Admin)
Also what version c:\Windows\System32\drivers\vpcvmm.sys file has?
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I can confirm that with that option enabled by default, my VM ran much much slower, UI was slowly rendered. Switched off the option in troubleshoting -> reboot -> the VM worked flawlessly again like nothing happened
Please fix it. We don't want to uncheck that option but we have to do so to regain the speed of other apps
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Can you please specify your CPU and OS?
I can confirm that with that option enabled by default, my VM ran much much slower, UI was slowly rendered. Switched off the option in troubleshoting -> reboot -> the VM worked flawlessly again like nothing happened
Please fix it. We don't want to uncheck that option but we have to do so to regain the speed of other apps
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Spec -
1) Here's a copy of the most recent ! Error in that log:
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Virtual PC/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Virtual PC
Date: 2/24/2017 8:59:04 AM
Event ID: 108
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: WINDOWS-B686H5R\glnz
Computer: WINDOWS-B686H5R
Description:
'Windows XP Mode' experienced a fatal processor error and has been turned off.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event (http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event)">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Virtual PC" Guid="{[36 hex digits]}" />
<EventID>108</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-02-24T13:59:04.989077200Z" />
<EventRecordID>1919</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="1208" ThreadID="3040" />
<Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Virtual PC/Admin</Channel>
<Computer>WINDOWS-B686H5R</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-21-[10-10-10 digits]-1000" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="String1">Windows XP Mode</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
2) vpcvmm.sys is version 6.1.7601.17514 (Date modified 11/20/2010 at 8:34am)
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Can you please specify your CPU and OS?
I can confirm that with that option enabled by default, my VM ran much much slower, UI was slowly rendered. Switched off the option in troubleshoting -> reboot -> the VM worked flawlessly again like nothing happened
Please fix it. We don't want to uncheck that option but we have to do so to regain the speed of other apps
here you are
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.14393 Build 14393
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
System Model HP ENVY dv6 Notebook PC
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU C2Y39AV
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Insyde F.2D, 08/04/2014
SMBIOS Version 2.7
Embedded Controller Version 52.24
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Mobile
Secure Boot State Off
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.14393.206"
Time Zone Central Europe Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.89 GB
Available Physical Memory 4.42 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.89 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.27 GB
Page File Space 0 bytes
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes
(http://)
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Thank you Evjls, the CPU should handle nested virtualization without problems. What is your virtualization software?
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Thank you Evjls, the CPU should handle nested virtualization without problems. What is your virtualization software?
I use VMware workstation pro 12.5.2 build-4638234 on Windows 10 Home x64 -> virtualized OS: Windows 7 Pro 32 bit
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I'm using virtual box and it won't start up in virtual mode in win 10 X-64, i5-6600 CPU
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Can you please provide logs from failed VM startup: it should be present in the folder where the VM files are stored, in the Logs subfolder
I'm using virtual box and it won't start up in virtual mode in win 10 X-64, i5-6600 CPU
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Hello, I think I have the same problem even with a completely different hardware than the other of the topic The problem occurs with all of the virtual machines, with both VMware hypervisor or virtual box. I performed the minimum avast installation and also the only component web protection shows the same problems, the virtual machines will slowly start and lower performance.
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Hello, I think I have the same problem even with a completely different hardware than the other of the topic The problem occurs with all of the virtual machines, with both VMware hypervisor or virtual box. I performed the minimum avast installation and also the only component web protection shows the same problems, the virtual machines will slowly start and lower performance.
See reply #66
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igor and Spec -
What's the story? When are you sending an update that will fix this (again)?
Others are posting in this forum with the same problem.
Thanks.
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Hi glnz, I am not able to reproduce your issue, using XP mode without any issues with aswVmm on very similar HW. But starting next version, aswVmm will not use virtualization mechanisms if XP Mode installation is detected.
igor and Spec -
What's the story? When are you sending an update that will fix this (again)?
Others are posting in this forum with the same problem.
Thanks.
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Spec - thanks for fast response.
But ...
1) When Avast doesn't use hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV), is Avast weaker?
2) If Avast is weaker without HAV, how? What risks are greater without HAV?
3) If Avast is weaker without HAV, and you can't change that, then I would prefer to have the choice I have now: Leave HAV enabled in Avast until I need to use XP Mode (or other virtual mode), then turn off Avast's HAV manually in "Troubleshooting" while I'm doing a virtual, and turn HAV back on manually when I'm done. In that circumstance, please do not eliminate this choice.
Kindly give us some detail here.
Of course, what we all want is for Avast to be as strong as possible but not interfere with how we use our PCs. It's a shame your team can't make that work.
Thanks for helping.
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Avast is a bit weaker without virtualization as it is used in self-defense, sandbox and antirootkit. But don't worry about detection abilities of standard shields (FS, WEB), it should perform very same even without virtualization.
Spec - thanks for fast response.
But ...
1) When Avast doesn't use hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV), is Avast weaker?
2) If Avast is weaker without HAV, how? What risks are greater without HAV?
3) If Avast is weaker without HAV, and you can't change that, then I would prefer to have the choice I have now: Leave HAV enabled in Avast until I need to use XP Mode (or other virtual mode), then turn off Avast's HAV manually in "Troubleshooting" while I'm doing a virtual, and turn HAV back on manually when I'm done. In that circumstance, please do not eliminate this choice.
Kindly give us some detail here.
Of course, what we all want is for Avast to be as strong as possible but not interfere with how we use our PCs. It's a shame your team can't make that work.
Thanks for helping.
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Spec - that sounds -- well -- not great but not too bad.
However, if Avast cannot make its HAV "get out of the way" automatically, then I would still prefer to keep Avast's HAV turned on and have the option to turn it off when I'm doing something virtual.
Please do NOT get rid of it entirely.
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I got slammed with this today.
Avast auto updated with whole new UI.
Using vmware player 12.5.4, disable HAV and it's fine now.
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Hit by this today, after upgrading from some earlier version... Windows Virtual PC VMs with Windows 7/Vista - no XP Mode
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This problem continues in new version 17.3.2291.
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Have this problem too.
Idea: Can developers just add list of applications that will be allowed acess to virtualization, when Avast obviously fails to recognise them?
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You could try the latest beta: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=15
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This problem continues with 17.5.2302, even with its recent sub-category "nested virtualization".
To be clear, in my Win 7 Pro 64-bit machine, I still cannot turn on XP Mode unless I UNcheck "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization".
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BlueStacks App Player (runs vbox based virtual machine) became very slow after I started using Avast. After investigating I found out that BlueStacks is unable to use VT due to avast.
I unchecked the "Virtualization" setting in avast and BlueStacks started performing well again.
Is there way to fix this automatically?
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While researching some issues that I had with a Win-10 VM on VMWare Workstation 12, I stumbled on this thread.
Had been having performance issues on my VM and been playing with giving more cores and RAM etc. but with no improvement in performance.
However, after disabling H/W assisted virtualization in AVAST, I'm seeing a tremendous improvement in performance on my VMs, tremendous.
I now have difficulty believing that Avast releases this when it sees programs like VMWare Workstation running and using H/W virtualization. Absolutely no way, unless someone can show me that I'm mistaken.
This is Horrible... Maybe Avast is trying to improve their AV but this feature has come short and they really need to revisit this.
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Still the same problem using VirtualBox. Or do they think users are not running VMs on workstations? Disabling HW assist helps, but that's just a workaround.
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This problem continues in version 17.7.2314, and "Use nested virtualization" does NOT help.
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Virtualization is not active at all if nested virtualization is disabled and VBox is installed same time. Did you reboot PC after changing the nested virtualization option? If yes, your problem may be caused by something completely different.
This problem continues in version 17.7.2314, and "Use nested virtualization" does NOT help.
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Spec - This problem started before there was a sub-listing "Use Nested Virtualization".
In any case, since that sub-listing appeared, I have only either checked BOTH boxes "Enable Hardware-Assisted Virtualization" and "Use Nested Virtualization" or UNchecked BOTH boxes.
Also, each time I change the setting, I reboot, or it doesn't change anything. I know this because I cannot turn on XP Mode unless I reboot first.
The headline in this thread remains true. Avast blocks HAV unless its "Enable Hardware-Assisted Virtualization"is turned off.
Also, I am not using VBox. Wroot is trying to use it, a few posts above. I'm not the only one with this issue.
After three years, Avast has still not fixed the problem.
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glnz, are you using AMD CPUs on afflicted machines?
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Spec - no. Intel Core i5 3470 , 16GB RAM , Win 7 Pro 64-bit.
Dell Optiplex 7010 Mini-Tower with BIOS A25 (date 5/10/17). It's actually UEFI, NOT Secure Boot, with Legacy available although as far as I can tell it's UEFI all the way.
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glnz, can you please prepare full kernel dump of your machine with enabled Avast HW virtualization (nested virtualization enabled too) ?
How to configure kernel memory dump creation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/enabling-a-kernel-mode-dump-file, just select "kernel memory dump" instead of automatic
reboot is required after previous step
Use https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/notmyfault to generate BSOD
Press "Crash" button in notmyfault64.exe dialog
Please upload %windir%\memory.dmp to ftp.avast.com, https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB160
Thank you
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So, I encountered a very similar situation but with a key difference.
VMWare Player is not impacted. However, BigNox and Memu (multiple versions) crash when loading the OpenGL driver as long as the Avast has it's Hardware Virtualization enabled. This wasn't an issue until the most recent version update of Avast, but I do not know if the Hardware Virtualization feature is new or just recently modified.
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Hi, microupdate fixing Android emulators issues will probably be released today.
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two years have passed
problem is still here
have to disable avast each time i run bluestacks
#dedication
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Nope, OP posted first on December 7, 2014.
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Because I'm searching for a resolution with my File Server on a VSphere 5.5 Host I found this thread.
Since I've installed Avast CLoud Care I've the problem that from time to time vmware tools are stopped.
I'm not able to login to the server or to reboot in a normal way, allways I need to do a reset.
I'm wondering why this option is not disabled by default if I see that many people have the same problem with hardware assisted virtualization.
I've disabled it now and I'll reboot the server to night and I hope that the problem is solved.
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dominik - will be interesting to see your update.
However, this has not been a problem for a while. Avast has not interfered with my XP Mode in some time.
On my Win 7 Pro 64-bit, the current Avast is version 19.5.2378 (build 19.5.4444.500). Enable hardware-assisted virtualization is on (checked). XP Mode works.
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Because I'm searching for a resolution with my File Server on a VSphere 5.5 Host I found this thread.
Since I've installed Avast CLoud Care I've the problem that from time to time vmware tools are stopped.
I'm not able to login to the server or to reboot in a normal way, allways I need to do a reset.
I'm wondering why this option is not disabled by default if I see that many people have the same problem with hardware assisted virtualization.
I've disabled it now and I'll reboot the server to night and I hope that the problem is solved.
To get a reply I suggest you post your question in the proper forum.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=104.0 (https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=104.0)
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My company decided to move from McAfee to Avast and I installed the latest version (NOT free version, Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus 19.5.2563 (build 19.5.4444.503)) few days go. From that I started to have a series of problems which I never had before:
Slype became very slow expecially in skype calls, and the VPN with other companies became quite unusable.
I found out that as part of the installation there were also Avast Securline VPN. After having disabled that, skype and VPN went back working fine.
Then after a couple of days I needed to use a VM under VMWARE with Windows XP, which I use quite often-
The VM showed to be very very slow (like 10 minutes to start up and in general tens of times slower than usual), initially I did not think about AVAST (as I was running anyhow an unusual CPU consuming activity), searching for issue on how to speed up VMWARE when running high CPU consuming tasks.
Then suddendly I gave a shot to search for VMWARE and AVAST together and found this (and other similar) forum,
I deactivate the flag on the Hardware-Assisted Virtualization and the VM went back to sanity, running the tasks in about 50 times faster.
What honestly looks to me not acceptable is the fact that the answer from AVAST to this problem is "just deactivate the flag" and this issue is there from several years and I did not have it in the former Antivirus.
So far in few days I have needed to disable 2 features of the Avast product for being able to do my job, I would like to use the feature I pay for if they provide more safety to my laptop, and not just renounce to them.
THanks. Stefano.