What if emergency update doesn't run?

[DavidR]

Yes a bloody nightmare to actually track down in the various firewall logs, I have entries in my anti-leak (hips) logs for the various creations by AvastEmUpdate.exe.

Now I see there have been creations for the unique file name .exes, in the setup folder itself, created by the AvastEmUpdate.exe process. These are gone very soon after and aren't always going to emupdate sub-folder as I had thought. But the one shown in my last image, was the one in the emupdate folder from 28/03/2014 - this is the one I double clicked to see if I could initiate the emergency update function (it did after a fashion), unsure it did anything conclusive after I rebooted.

I don't use SSM, I gave up on that long ago as it just added another level of complexity, which could make things even more difficult for the emergency update process to get through. Though I have WinPatrol Plus which adds another level, but for the last few emupdates WinPatrol has remained silent, so only my firewall sticking its nose in.

I did find another way that might well work for you (or not) and that is to do an avast repair as that initiates the AvastEmUpdate.exe process after doing its integrity check, see image.

[cooby]

Yes a bloody nightmare to actually track down in the various firewall logs, I have entries in my anti-leak (hips) logs for the various creations by AvastEmUpdate.exe.

OT: I bet you see in Outpost's anti-leak log gems like these and many, many, more - see NormalUpdate.jpg.
On Windows7 Outpost antileak logs are unbelieveable.

I did find another way that might well work for you (or not) and that is to do an avast repair as that initiates the AvastEmUpdate.exe process after doing its integrity check, see image.

I was, too, thinking of trying Repair to maybe put me on the same page you're all on. I just hate to do it but I guess I will. I hope the current config will work, and the wonderful fix for the booting slowness you gave me. I'll probably have to redo that one.

I don't use SSM, I gave up on that long ago as it just added another level of complexity, which could make things even more difficult for the emergency update process to get through. Though I have WinPatrol Plus which adds another level, but for the last few emupdates WinPatrol has remained silent, so only my firewall sticking its nose in.

I'm not skilled enough to use SSM. Tried several times over the years. I mostly put it in recently to see what's with this emergency job, suspecting many failed.
On the other hand, when the firewall is now just a plain packet filter, no hips, no behavior, no nothing, I might keep learning and using SSM since it's a powerhouse ... anticipating how the sky will  fall on XP

[DavidR]

Yes, I see all of the instup.exe activity. These logs get massive and there isn't much in the way of housekeeping, so periodically I will clear them.

Whilst the Repair says it sets things back to default installations, I find that it doesn't, especially for avast.ini changes that you have made.

I'm less concerned about XP end of support than all of the cr4p about doom and gloom come 8th April 2014. My computer hasn't blown up nor become infected. Whether you get infected or not also depends on the user, practising safe hex, and having good security based software, using proactive measures. I still use DropMyRights for all internet facing software, browsers, email clients, etc. etc. to try to limit and potential damage should I ever get infected (not for ten years on avast).

Strangely/interestingly enough my last infection was shortly after installing XP and going on-line to get the updates, I was using A V G then and not long after that I changed to avast.

If all else fails ensure that you have a robust backup and recovery strategy. I predominantly use drive imaging software (weekly partition backups) and I have used many, many times over the years, not once for a malware infection. If I experience a problem that is likely to take more than 30 minutes to resolve I just restore my last weekly image.

When you consider the number of XP users that are still on SP2 (some possibly on SP1), they haven't had security updates for some considerable time.