Avast Blocking the new Windows Sandbox - SOLVED!

[carfal]

Am i the only one...Windows Sandbox has no Internet connectivity on my machine. Using Avast v 19.5 Internet Security. When i uninstall Avast the Windows Sandbox has internet. What gives?

EDIT: Well i just worked out that the Avast Firewall is blocking the Windows Sandbox. The problem is the module itself. It has nothing to do with a program that i may have blocked because resetting to default and rebooting still blocks the Sandbox.  Only when i disable the firewall module the problem is resolved. I suspect it has something to do with the pop up about Public or Private Network issue.

[schmidthouse]

Have you set your Firewall profile to Private?

[carfal]

Yes it is set to private but Im one of those people who keeps getting the New network profile popup at startup and when i go to slide it to private nothing happens. It is non responsive. However when i check my firewall settings, the current profile is set to Private. Avast team need to do some work in this area.

This has only started to happen since i upgraded to Windows 1903.

[bob3160]

I have a problem staring the Windows Sandbox and I'm using the Free version of Avast.
So for me, the problem can't be the firewall.

[carfal]

Hi bob3160. In my case, the Windows Sandbox does load normally except in the Sandbox my network icon has an "X" in it and there is no internet connection unless as stated i disable the avast Firewall.

But in your case you dont even seem to be able to start Windows sandbox at all. So do you have VMWare Workstation installed? If so were you getting this error message (See attachment)?

A recommended "fix" for this was
 

Open cmd as an administrator, run below command.

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

After that restart your host.

On my machine this did fix the VMW error but as a side effect caused Windows sandbox to freeze at the logo screen....so i had to restore to a previous image in order to reverse the change.

I dont have any other suggestions for you. Hope this has helped or given you ideas on how to resolve your issue.

[bob3160]

@carfal,
My problem is with the Windows 10 v1903 sandbox.

[carfal]

I can only read the first line of your response as your image is hiding the rest but googling that error code gave me this suggestion

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/1903-update-and-sandbox-error-0x80070057-the/39e95400-e4a2-40d5-9534-12179c882235

Other more general responses from google talked about corrupted files and running  Scannow command to check system files. Turning the Sandbox feature on and off between reboots may also solve your issue. Other than these suggestions i've got nothing. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can help you...

[bob3160]

I can only read the first line of your response as your image is hiding the rest but googling that error code gave me this suggestion

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/1903-update-and-sandbox-error-0x80070057-the/39e95400-e4a2-40d5-9534-12179c882235

Other more general responses from google talked about corrupted files and running  Scannow command to check system files. Turning the Sandbox feature on and off between reboots may also solve your issue. Other than these suggestions i've got nothing. Perhaps someone with more knowledge can help you...

I've already tried all the suggestions without success. If you check the Microsoft help site, you'll also see that it's a problem for which MS doesn't yet have an answer.

[carfal]

Well.... the new v19.6 upd has done nothing to resolve this issue for me. All is as it was before...

Edit: The network profile is still popping up on my PC. First reboot all good, now subsequent reboots the network profile is popping up. It looks to me like no work was done regarding this bug.

[mchain]

Even tho the second issue raised is not what this topic is about, could this setting within Avast be the cause?

(What is in version 18.8 still applies to 19.6)

[carfal]

Sorry mchain, but i'll have to disagree. I've already established in the OP that disabling the firewall restores network access in Windows Sandbox (you have to restart the Sandbox). And since network profiles is part of the firewall ...you see where I'm going with this...

I'm not aware of any setting to disable the network profiling in avast. It looks integrated into the Avast firewall itself. Since this profiling issue reared its ugly head after the v1903 update, it stands to reason that Avast need to iron out the bugs in this module.

Edit: The attachment you uploaded says v18.8. Those settings dont exist in v19.6....unless i'm mistaken?

Edit2: After some hunting around i found an obscure setting called "Open old settings" located under MENU>SETTINGS>GENERAL>TROUBLESHOOTING. Hidden at the bottom is the "Open old Settings" option. Now you go to COMPONENTS>FIREWALL>CUSTOMISE. Here you'll see the NETWORK PROFILES settings.....phew! Finally, now were getting somewhere. So I untick "enable automatic profile switching". Close all the windows. Open all the windows to see if it stuck and drum roll.........still remains ticked.  It seems that us mere mortals have no power in resolving this.

[lolcocks123]

Has anyone found a solution apart from disabling avast! completely?

[carfal]

I think that this can only be resolved by MS or Avast (depending where the issue lies).

FYI, I only have to disable the Firewall component of Avast for the internet access to be available to the Windows sandbox. This way i still have AV protection.

[bob3160]

I think that this can only be resolved by MS or Avast (depending where the issue lies).

FYI, I only have to disable the Firewall component of Avast for the internet access to be available to the Windows sandbox. This way i still have AV protection.

That doesn't work for everyone. I use the free version so there is no firewall. I'm using the firewall that's part of windows 10.
I still can't use the windows sandbox feature.

[carfal]

This answer from MS says their engineers are looking into your issue

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-sandbox-fails-to-start-with-error/e980ac38-a1c7-4769-bdca-361fb42cb978