Hi.
I run a small local computer support company. I have been recommending and installing Avast Free for years. I have Avast Pro on my work machine, and Avast Free on everything else.
Over the last week, I have had 3 different customer's computers all with the same problem:
The machine hangs just after the desktop shows, or in one case, just after the password screen, but before the desktop. All computers ran Vista 32bit.
In each case, I could boot in Safe Mode. So I scanned the hard drive for errors with Spinrite (DOS) and Chkdsk, ran Malwarebytes, Combofix. None of these showed any problems and still Normal mode would not boot. So then I resorted to Aswclear, and normal mode worked. However, when I tried to install Avast again (latest version) it would freeze the system just after clicking Finish at the end of the installation. The system tray ball would only appear on one of the machines. In all cases, the startup scan would appear but never progress from 0%.
On one of the machines, I even did a Vista repair install, which then meant I had to re-install all the Windows Updates.
For the time being, they all have Microsoft Security Essentials, which also found nothing on a full scan. Ideally though, I would like to put Avast back on these machines as I believe in it's superior protection from my experience and test data I have read.
Customers reported that their machines were working fine until it installed some updates. However, I take this with a pinch of salt as a customer's description of an update can be vague, and I've never had to remove a Windows Update to fix a PC. It normally implies a bigger problem i.e. corrupt files, incompatibility.
The coincidences are too many to ignore though. I hope someone can shed some light on this!
Alex.
