Unable to end avast processes

[Eddy]

Today I wanted to do a little troubleshooting and tried to end the avast processes through taskmanager.
I disabled the self protection and tried to end the processes.
I keep getting "Access Denied"

With the previous version there was no problem using this procedure, except that I had to shutdown the processes 3(!) times before they stayed disabled.

Program version 10.3.2508
OS Windows XP SP3

Is this a new bug ?

[REDACTED]

I'm not sure I really have an answer for you, but I would say what you are experiencing now is normal and there was a bug previously.

I've often come across programs that won't yield easily and just say "access denied", even as an administrator.  Often they are tied to services, and I believe you have to have special privileges for that.  If it was easy to kill, a malware could exploit that fact and infect a machine by killing the processes.    I think self-defense is for defending against shutdown through the GUI and not related to the task manager process.

I'm sorry to say that you might have to find an alternative troubleshooting test

[Eddy]

The self defense is also for preventing people to shutdown the processes through taskmanager.
Trust me, I know how to get the privileges for files/processes
Real admin account (not a user with admin rights), taking ownership of folder/files and such.

Strangely enough today I am able to shut them down without a problem.