When Windows starts a red circle stays for 1 minute..

[Lisandro]

On my current system I just wrote a small routine to delay 2 minutes at startup and then NET START:
all the services start, as they should as SYSTEM. 

Living and learning... a very good thing to test... I'll do soon 

[Vlk]

Guys, I'm afraid I'm unable to follow... What we're trying to do is SPEED UP the startup of the avast service, not DELAY it, right??

I mean, there is absolutely NO need for the Internet connection to be present when the service is starting. It seems that somehow, the service control manager is locked and isn't starting other services (avast including) while that one is initializing...

The avast service has a dependency on "RPC" - but so do many other services built into Windows - so it's not very likely this is the culprit. Anyway, you could try to remove the RPCSS dependency and see if it makes any difference.


Cheers
Vlk

[Culpeper]

Is there a bug in the Avast startup?

[alanrf]

Vlk,

sorry if the "delaying" issue is confusing you.  The issue related to deferring the start of other non-essential services (not avast) at startup to reduce any potential interference with avast completing its startup tasks.

[Vlk]

Hi guys, I've got some news. Igor was kind and mentioned that he has seen a similar issue on one of his own machines (running Windows x64 - but that doesn't seem to make any difference). So, I did some monitoring and found that the problem is caused by the "Workstation" service that hangs on startup (most likely communicating with the network stack) while holding the global SCM (Service Control Manager) lock (preventing other services from starting).

So, what I did is create a dependency of the "Workstation" service on the avast services - and voila, the problem was solved. You can try the same - chances are it will help on your machines, too.

I have created a reg file to make it simple - just import http://public.avast.com/~vlk/avast-fast.reg , reboot the machine and see if it makes any difference.


Please note that the reg file assumes that you're using the "Web Shield" and "Internet Mail" providers, that is, that the two corresponding services are installed on started (almost always the case - unless you have played with the avast config a bit).


Cheers
Vlk

[Culpeper]

Very good!  Thank you.

[Vlk]

So - did it make a difference?

[Lisandro]

I have created a reg file to make it simple - just import http://public.avast.com/~vlk/avast-fast.reg , reboot the machine and see if it makes any difference.

Troubles.

1. BSOD in next boot. PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. Error Message: STOP 0x00000050.
    I think it's related to AntiKill feature... but I'm not sure.

2. Troubles with Comodo firewall after the second, valid, boot.
    The avast services 'refuse' to connect 
    The CPU activity of the firewall process goes above 90%

3. Removing the Registry key and booting... things become ok again.

[Culpeper]

These is beyond the average user and would probably be best if corrected in a future version of Avast.   

[Vlk]

1. BSOD in next boot. PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. Error Message: STOP 0x00000050.
    I think it's related to AntiKill feature... but I'm not sure.

Hardly, but to verify, you can send me the corresponding minidump (from \windows\minidump).

2. Troubles with Comodo firewall after the second, valid, boot.
    The avast services 'refuse' to connect 
    The CPU activity of the firewall process goes above 90%

Heh, seems like a bug in Comodo...(?) There's nothing inapropriate in the reg file, I mean, what it's doing is legal and valid - but Comodo probably gets somehow confused...

...and would probably be best if corrected in a future version of Avast. 

Well, the point is, this is really a problem in Windows. One of the services (in Igor's case, "Workstation") is locking the whole system and so other services are not given a chance to start... 

Cheers
Vlk

[Lisandro]

Hardly, but to verify, you can send me the corresponding minidump (from \windows\minidump).

Not this time... The feature was disabled...

Well, the point is, this is really a problem in Windows. One of the services (in Igor's case, "Workstation") is locking the whole system and so other services are not given a chance to start... 

My logon was slower than ever... The task bar took more than one minute just to appear...
Before, it appears, avast was working and not a trouble. Using the reg file I can even see the taskbar, system tray, programs loading, etc. 

[Vlk]

That doesn't sound too surprising given that the Comodo process was eating almost 100% CPU...

BTW you really have generation of (any kind of) dumps disabled?? That's very odd! Why's that? It doesn't bring any benefits as far as I can tell...


Cheers
Vlk

[Lisandro]

BTW you really have generation of (any kind of) dumps disabled?? That's very odd! Why's that? It doesn't bring any benefits as far as I can tell...

No, I don't have it by choice...
The Alert service was down due to Computer Locator service (or whatever is its name) either...
Even set to Automatic start... So, I can't configure dumps right now...
Maybe next boot... Something is blocking them 

[Vlk]

They both depend on the Workstation, which (by doing the change) now depends on the three avast services. Do you normally run both WebShield and Internet Mail providers? (as otherwise, the reg file will not work for you, as one of the services will not start).

[Lisandro]

They both depend on the Workstation, which (by doing the change) now depends on the three avast services.

How can I turn back the system to the original state?
Just deleting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanworkstation key or just a value of it?

Do you normally run both WebShield and Internet Mail providers? (as otherwise, the reg file will not work for you, as one of the services will not start).

Sure... but they start manually (the default values).