Author Topic: [Culprit found] No automatic vps updates anymore since update to avast free v17  (Read 7821 times)

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Offline bob3160

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As already stated but apparently not believed, Self defense protects itself doesn't
effect other programs or functions.
End of story and end of the novel. Glad your system is fixed.
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Offline lukor

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Hi a-user,

could you, please, post your selfdef.log? The most notable deliberate blocks by selfdefence are recorded there.

Thanks.
Lukas.

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Sorry, for the delay. I only just checked back.

There's only 1 entry in my selfdef.log (translated from localized language):

Quote
13.02.2017 07:40:49   Write access to the registry key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-1000\Software\AVAST Software\Avast denied. [C:\Windows\regedit.exe]

(I have some numbers replaced by x.)
« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 10:32:16 PM by a-user »

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I did some more testing, but most of all I took some screenshots to "present my findings". And for that I installed the english language interface "module". These should help to see what I see (and what I tried explaining only using words so far).

The new part of the findings is that if I just log out of windows and back in without reboot (initially assuming that avast is shutdown and has to be restarted after re-login again - just to see if I could spare me the time of the reboot to take the series of screenshots) and of course without touching the self-defense setting (i.e. leaving it on all the time) there is something peculiar "happening": Ad bar, upgrade button and online context help are "gone again", just like after reboot / cold boot, but the "automatic update connection" was / is established. To see if that notification is for real I blocked all traffic using my firewall. It took avast free about 3 minutes to realize that the connection could not be established - and another minute to realize it could after I un-blocked all traffic again.

For the screenshots, I rebooted and waited 1 hour(!) to make sure it's not just a matter of time an waiting before I took the "before" / "unconnected" screenshots. Then I disabled self-defense, clicked ok and closed the avast GUI. I reopened avast GUI and the Ad bar, upgrade button and online context help were all there and available, respectively. The "automatic update connection" took a few minutes to go from "Connection not established" to "Connection established".

As for the reason why the difference between logout/re-login with and without reboot there are only two explanations that I can come up with.

1. At login with reboot the two conflicting programs are autoloaded around the same time and there's some conflict because one needs to to something while the other one isn't quite done with it's "part" of the process by then. At re-login without reboot they are autoloaded at a different time (because many of the windows background processes that are loaded at login after reboot don't have to loaded again because they are still running and don't compete with other processes to be loaded) and no conflict arises.

2. At re-login without reboot one of the (or both) conflicting programs is (are) not shout down completely and therefore the conflict is slightly different (not as "severe") from the one at login with reboot.

But that's just my hypothesis.

Here are the screenshots (for restriction reasons I have to spread them over two posts) (and apparently they are only visible logged-in forum users):

Batch 1: The "not connected" screenshots:
« Last Edit: February 17, 2017, 11:09:12 AM by a-user »

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Batch 2: The "connected" screenshots - plus a screenshot of the strange "registration time line bar" in total:

Offline bob3160

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Resize the window and those marks go away.
Already known by Avast.
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Thanks for the hint. Unfortunately not working here:

Offline bob3160

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Thanks for the hint. Unfortunately not working here:
It certainly does if you do it correctly. :)
This should help you to accomplish the shrinking of that screen:
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cbnbl86IVE
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Offline DavidR

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Thanks for the hint. Unfortunately not working here:

It certainly works for me you just have to compress the window - one of the few that do resize - until it disappears.
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security

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Well, of course I can make it disappear, but that doen't fix the problem... it just hides it.

I don't really care about that (missing should-be green?) bar, I just wanted to report it - but apparently it was already reported before. So no sense of discussing that topic any further.

Offline DavidR

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Well, of course I can make it disappear, but that doen't fix the problem... it just hides it.
<snip>

No one said it fixed it, just if you didn't like it you could do something.
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security

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I know this topic is from february, but I STILL have the same problem as a-user!

Good news. After some more extensive testing - with countless reboots (the most annoying part of the testing marathon) I found the culprit within avast (free) that's responsible for the conflict - well at least as far I as a normal user can get to the bottom of it.

And as so often with computer problems there was some chance involved and also I was on the right track a few days before but then it didn't work somehow.

Today, I tried many things before I finally got to the finish line.

First of all I re-enabled Fritz!DSL Protect and rebooted.

Then I went to avast (free) to see if I could somehow get it to connect by uninstalling, disabling some module or changing some setting.
Bear in mind that this problem only affects the auto-update of vps and engine, not manual updating by clicking on the "update" button beside the respective section. So there isn't anything wrong with the internet connection or it's accessibility for any program.

I disabled behavior shield. - No change
I rebooted. - No change

So I took some more drastic measures. I uninstalled behavior shield. And as I didn't want to reboot too often I also uninstalled wi-fi inspector and game mode, just to be sure, because I could really do without them if necessary. I rebooted. - No change.

So I additionally disabled valuation/assessment service (not sure which is the term in the english version), CyberCapture and "checking for PUP". - No change.
I rebooted. - No change.

And lastly I disabled self-protection and hardware-assisted virtualisation. No change.
I rebooted. Bingo. I got the ad bar and was "connected".

So I re-enabled everything except for self-protection and re-installed all previously uninstalled modules rebooted and avast could connect.

So, culprit found: avast (free) self-protection.

But as the avast GUI and also the icon were now warning about an important part of avast not being enabled I wasn't content yet. So I re-enabled self-protection. And after several minutes avast still was connected.

So, at this point my workaround solution was to disable self-protection before reboot and re-enabling it afterwards.

But just by chance I did one more reboot after which I didn't login right away but went to do something else. And so I logged into windows maybe 5-10 minutes later. And this time - for the first time - Fritz!DSL Protect asked me if I wanted to let avlauch.exe access avastui.exe. Of course I allowed it permanently. I'm not sure if that was really one important step. But it might, so I mention it.

That's when I got excited, because I thought that now I might be able to leave self-protection on all the time. So I rebooted to test my hypothesis.

Unfortunately, after reboot avast was disconnected again. So, out of pure desparation I just disabled self-protection in the hope that it also might work without reboot.

And it does! After a little while I was connected, got the add banner and online context help. And it stayed that way after re-enabling.

So, for me I just have to disable and re-enable (after the connection is shown as established or the ad banner is displayed) self-protection after windows login. And as the GUI home screen doesn't say anything about an necessary reboot I think, that disabling and re-enabling self-protection doesn't need a reboot and therefore works for this bug.

And yes, it not only claims to be connected now but also updated the date and time when it last updated using stream updates. So it's the real deal, really connected!

I had disabled self-protection a few days before but maybe I didn't wait long enough to take effect - or the entry for avlauncher.exe in Fritz!DSL Protect is in fact necessary.

The only downside it, that because of uninstalling and re-installing game mode the additional settings entry that came with one of the vps updates, "do not auto-add any applications", is gone and hasn't been re-installed.
And also the online context help now is in english not the localized language - but I'm not 100% if it was in localized language before either, I just think it was.

But for now I'm happy. Not just because it works now but also that I finally found the culprit - and it sits as suspected within avast (free).
I did everything the same as a-user mentioned above and I got the same results. I don't see solution in that, because
EVERY time when I turn on or reboot my laptop I have to turn off selfprotection and
as soon as i do that, it say it's loged-in, I can see online context help and automatic update connection is established after a few minutes and than i have to turn it back on, because it notifies me I'm not fully protected.
It is very FRUSTRATING! Every time!?
I thought by now it's gonna be fixed through some updates or newer version, but NO!!!

My question is: Does anyone have found permanent solution how to fix this without disabling and reenabling self protection after every reboot?!

Offline bob3160

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Please start your own topic and explain your problem and give details about your equipment. Also need to know any other Security programs installed.
What exact version of Avast are you running ???
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