I must confess that I had decided NOT to waste any more time on this issue, until Avast comes up with a fix to solve this annoying problem, until I read “CaptainLeonidas” reply # 57.
I have, as described in my reply # 54, a laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit, which freezes at Windows startup after updating to avast free 8, but I also have a Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and 2 Windows Xp Pro 32 bit which had also been updated from avast 7 to 8. All three were updated successfully to version 8.0.1482. Due to the problem with Vista on my laptop, I have not updated to 8.0.1483 until now.
Before updating I started regedit to see the value of Start REG_DWORD. They were all set to 3 which is “manual” start.
Then I updated all three PCs to 8.0.1483. Everything works fine after the update and restart, but now the values of Start REG_DWORD have been changed to 0 which is the value for “Boot”. Everything works even after restart!
My laptop with Vista 64 and avast 8.0.1483, which freezes at the progress bar when booting, have value 0 which is the value for “Boot”. I have changed this to 3 and then I have no startup issue!
Everything seems to be working as far as I can see.
The question is: Does changes like these in the registry for this service, as aswVmm.sys concerns remain as intended? I do not know what this means and I do not understand why the avast team, not in any way indicate that there is a problem with Vista 64 bit and tells us that they are working on a solution.
I'll keep this "Fix" for a while and maybe downgrade to version 7, but if avast don’t comes up with a permanent solution, then I will look for another AV instead of avast. Unfortunately, because I like avast and have used it for many years.
As "CaptainLeonidas" in reply # 57 says:
“NOTE: You are editing you registry! If you are unsure of this MAKE a backup first of the key.
Also I do NOT take any responsibility if your PC crashes etc. You are on your own!
By following the steps as written above you acknowledge the fact you may damage your system.”Very wise words.
Greetings
GPJ