New Avast free antivirus causes WinXP VM extremely slow

[REDACTED]

Hello,

Yesterday I got my Avast upgrade to version 17 on my notebook. Meanwhile I have two virtual machines running on VMware workstation 12. One is Ubuntu 14.04 and another one is Windows XP.

The Win XP machine was installed a week ago, which is a pure Windows XP Professional with all windows update until 12/2016 and the newest Firefox browser. No additional software installed yet. It ran smoothly until Avast is updated on my host.

After the antivirus was upgraded, my Win XP machine become extremely unresponsive, which took 5 minutes to boot into desktop, every controls took several second to get response. However, my Ubuntu VM is working fine.

I tried to reinstall VMware workstation or even tried to create new WinXP VM on both VMware workstation and Virtualbox. All of them run slowly. Then I uninstalled Avast and now all VM run normally.

So there must be something related to Avast. Could anyone help?

Terry

[Spec8472]

Hi aa16092000

Please specify your CPU and OS. Disabling hardware assisted virtualization (troubleshooting settings) should fix your problem

[REDACTED]

I am using Windows 8.1 and CPU is Intel i5-4200U.

Disabling hardware assisted virtualization works for me. Thanks

Would there be any fix about this problem in the future?

[REDACTED]

Also experiencing the exact same issue.  I was running a Windows XP VM on WMWare that use to be lightning quick.  It would boot up in about 20 seconds.  It was working great up until March 18.  Then on March 19, something changed.  The VM essentially became unusable.  Would take 5 minutes to boot, would be extremely slow almost to the point of unusable.  Processor on VM would always be at 100%.  Uninstalling Avast fixed the issue immediately.  Not sure what this started happening but appears to be related to Avast.

Avast version 17.2.2288

Host system
Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit
Intel (R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz

[bob3160]

Also experiencing the exact same issue.  I was running a Windows XP VM on WMWare that use to be lightning quick.  It would boot up in about 20 seconds.  It was working great up until March 18.  Then on March 19, something changed.  The VM essentially became unusable.  Would take 5 minutes to boot, would be extremely slow almost to the point of unusable.  Processor on VM would always be at 100%.  Uninstalling Avast fixed the issue immediately.  Not sure what this started happening but appears to be related to Avast.

Avast version 17.2.2288

Host system
Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit
Intel (R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz

The answer was already supplied by Avast:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=198604.msg1376583#msg1376583

[REDACTED]

Thanks.  I have deselected the 'Enable hardware-assisted virtualization' option in the troubleshooting settings and this has addressed the problem.  VM now runs very quick again.  Thanks for the help on this.  Is this meant to be a long-term solution or a temporary troubleshooting step until the actual issues is resolved.  Doing this indicates "If hardware-assisted virtualization is disabled, some virtualization features will not work reliably.  For example, malware may be able to escape the sandbox and infect the system."

Thanks!

[REDACTED]

Is this meant to be a long-term solution or a temporary troubleshooting step until the actual issues is resolved.  Doing this indicates "If hardware-assisted virtualization is disabled, some virtualization features will not work reliably.  For example, malware may be able to escape the sandbox and infect the system."

Thanks!

I am also having the same issue running WIN XP SP3 as guest OS on VMware when using AVAST FREE on host PC running Win8.1.

Would like an answer from Avast if this temp solution above is the only fix available, or if something better that does not break the sandbox function and open the door to possible system infection is coming??

[REDACTED]

I had a similar problem. W7 host, WinXP VM very slow booting and working.
On my host system the "nested" sub-option of "hardware virtualisation" was (also) enabled. On the guest (VM) system there's only "hardware virtualisation" available and it's enabled.

For me, it was enough to un-check the "nested" sub-option on my host system. It was enabled because of the trouble with the current avast version a few days back and for a few hours the nested option enabled was helping. I forgot to switch it off again. But when I used the VM again and it was awfully slow I remembered the changes and disabled it. VirtualBox been working as usual since then.

As I was reading this thread I thought I chip in with first hand experience.

[REDACTED]

The answer was already supplied by Avast:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=198604.msg1376583#msg1376583
[/quote]

That is not the answer. Avast still makes trouble to virtualized machines. Only solution is to get rid of Avast/AVG.

Disabling hardware assisted virtulization kinda defeats the VM experience. Last few years Avast is making extremely hard to recommend it to anyone.

[cucko4]

Hi,

I searched a lot of forums without no clues and, as usual, maybe i found by myself a workaround without disabling virtualization!

I had same problem with Windows 2000 and Windows Xp guests; i set paravirtualization Interface to legacy  both started to work flawlessly.

I hope it helps.

Cheers!