Temporarily Disable/prevent Avast Internet Security-Win 10 1903 problem

[Applepie_cobbler]

I have a paid 3-machine Avast Internet Security licence, running on Win 10 machines. Two of these machines received the 1903 update notification, and prior to running this, I took all usual precautions including "Disable Permanently" all Avast shields. Both updates failed at the very end with the 0x80070005 MS update error, and various actions and reruns did not solve this.

I then uninstalled Avast on both machines via Control Panel, and reran the updates which completed successfully. I then had to download and reinstall my AIS, including reinput of the paid code.

I would rather not have to do this every time there is a W10 Feature update. My question therefore is how can I disable Avast from running, whilst leaving it still fully installed?

It seems to me there are two possibilities.
1) All the main elements of Avast (excluding folders in Program Data and Appdata) seem to be contained in \Program Files\Avast Software etc. If this folder was temporarily renamed, then presumably Avast would not be able to run. Am I correct, and is this indeed an option?
2) Alternatively, could I temporarily disable the Avlaunch program in Startup, along with all the AV services entries?
I realise that the system needs to be restarted after either of these changes, to bring it up without a running Avast.

If anyone else has suggestions and/or experience as to how to deal with this problem vis-a-vis Win 10 updates and Avast, I'd welcome them.

[schmidthouse]

Hi
Other than uninstalling and reinstalling Avast did you 'disable' Avast self defense. This seemed to work for Bob3160
Read here:https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=156141.2025
Reply #2032 and on

[DavidR]

Hi
Other than uninstalling and reinstalling Avast did you 'disable' Avast self defense. This seemed to work for Bob3160
Read here:https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=156141.2025
Reply #2032 and on

One of the major problems with that is you never know when a windows update of feature update is going to occur, you can't keep it switched of forever.  Hell I'm still waiting for the 1903, I never even got 1807 because it took so damn long MS stopped updating 1803 because 1903 was meant to be coming soon.

Another fine mess MS.

[schmidthouse]

Hi
Other than uninstalling and reinstalling Avast did you 'disable' Avast self defense. This seemed to work for Bob3160
Read here:https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=156141.2025
Reply #2032 and on

One of the major problems with that is you never know when a windows update of feature update is going to occur, you can't keep it switched of forever.  Hell I'm still waiting for the 1903, I never even got 1807 because it took so damn long MS stopped updating 1803 because 1903 was meant to be coming soon.

Another fine mess MS.

Agreed David

I don't think the OP tried disabling 'Avast Self Defence' however.

[Applepie_cobbler]

Thanks, all. I haven't tried turning off the Self-Defence feature, although I did read the posts and consider doing so. The problem there is that re-running the updates after failure is so time-consuming that I frankly hadn't the patience for any empirical testing, and therefore went for the full uninstall option.

I'm fairly new to W10 (from W7), and I'm not impressed with the update regime or stability. Almost every one, and certainly Features, throws all kinds of errors; some new, some old, but all unwarranted. The two machines I've updated to 1903 are running Home, but my desktop is 1809 Pro and set for Semi-Annual Channel and long deferrals. I suppose one day the 1903 buglist will contain more "Fixed" things than "Mitigated" and "Under Investigation", but I doubt it.

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

Your certainly not alone in issues with windows 10 feature updates.  I'm still on 1803 waiting on 1903.  I never got 1807 MS cancelled it as it was taking so long and they were about to release 1903.  So much for that, then MS stated they were going to update all 1803 versions as support for that ends in November.  It has been a real crap shoot and all I'm getting is crap.

[specialist17]

I've had problems with Windows updates too so i use this tool to force the updates https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

[DavidR]

I've had problems with Windows updates too so i use this tool to force the updates https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Currently I'm avoiding these options, but perhaps so when it gets near the November dead line.

[bob3160]

I've had problems with Windows updates too so i use this tool to force the updates https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

That tool was offered a long time ago.

[DavidR]

I've had problems with Windows updates too so i use this tool to force the updates https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Currently I'm avoiding these options, but perhaps so when it gets near the November dead line.

Well I finally got fed up and used the windows update assistant.  Boy why do I wait until 11pm to do stuff like this. 

It fell over a several times and on reboot it was still showing win10 version 1803.   

I had previously disabled the avast self defence module and I noticed rollback commands in WinPatrol and on restart this kicked in.  RollBackRX Home also got in the way, I had created a rollback prior to trying the update. 

In the end I had to uninstall RollBackRX before I restarted the windows update assistant, these didn't take as long, I can only assume that they were still present and finally it booted into 1903 and said it would be restarting several times as updates were downloaded.

Once it was finally installed I did a check for updates and had one for dot net framework.  Finally all was done and I can get to bed at 1:40 a.m. in the UK.  Will eventually get around to installing RollBackRX Home again.