Avast GUI open every time at startup

[OsFly]

This start to get anoying, but the last days avast UI is openeing at every startup.  How can i disable this bad behaivor from avast ?

Or when is avast going to fix this ?

[Asyn]

Repair Avast:
1. Avast GUI -> Settings -> Troubleshooting
2. Click on 'REPAIR APP'.
3. Follow instructions.
4. Reboot.

[OsFly]

I tried that last time with other problem of files that cannot be deleted from the virus chest. (still not solved) So sorry, but not believe this will fix it.

I will look into it again at available moment.

Avast is going fast down in quality the last year, especially since the free upgrade to premium things not get better for my feeling.

[HansDelbruck]

I am having this exact same problem.
Ever since the latest update every time I boot up/start my PC Avast opens up. It is getting very very annoying. The fact that everyone is not adding to this topic leads me to believe that everyone is not experiencing this issue. However the fact that you and I are tells me that some people are experiencing it.

So I'm guessing Avast will do nothing to help us, as my experience shows me that they don't care, as with other issues. But maybe we can help each other to find the answer.

Let's see what we have in common and what we have that different ... from each other and from other uses that are not having this issue. Maybe then we can narrow it down to what is causing this popup at boot time. Attached pics show how I am set up.

[DavidR]

I can see nothing like this on any system I have installed avast free on.

Given the lack of shields you have installed, there should be even less reason for the UI to open.
Is it opening at a particular section of the UI ?

When the UI is open, try clicking the Notifications (Bell Icon) and see if there are any notifications listed ?
Is the avast tray icon present and if so does that show something other than the normal avast tray icon ?

[DougCuk]

I am also experiencing this behaviour when starting Windows - the Avast GUI opens for no obvious reason and just sits there. You can close the window each time but it does get annoying. There appears to be a timer controlling the popup of the GUI as it doesn't occur if you restart soon after it has displayed - but only if you leave the PC off for some time (6 hours? Maybe less)

I have tried the recommended "Repair App" option and it makes no difference - didn't really expect it too as there is no actual error - and this appears to be a programmed action within the Avast startup. Maybe this is designed to force the display of adverts at the bottom of the the GUI window? 

Installed version is Avast Free 20.5.2415 (build 20.5.5410.561) - with File, Behaviour and Web Shields active
The update to v20.5 installed the Ransomware Shield but this appears to be inactive (only active in paid version I think).
Only other modules installed are Browser Cleanup & Do Not Disturb

[HansDelbruck]

DavidR,

Is it opening at a particular section of the UI ?

No, just the main window as if I clicked on it to open.

When the UI is open, try clicking the Notifications (Bell Icon) and see if there are any notifications listed ?

No notifications listed.

Is the avast tray icon present and if so does that show something other than the normal avast tray icon ?

Yes, icon is there and looks normal.

Only thing I can think of is I do have and use BleachBit and sometimes CCleaner. Could they be removing something every time they clean or something? Something that Avast does once and keeps track of the fact that it did it once, but then BleachBit cleans that out so Avast thinks it hasn't done it yet so it pops it up again as if it's new?
Just grasping at straws here.

Could my firewall be blocking something that it wants to do and because it can't get out it pops up? But they why won't it tell me that it cannot connect or something rather than just popup this regular looking window with no error?

[DavidR]

If either BleachBit or CCleaner tried to make changes to Avast then there is a possibility that the Avast Self-defence module is likely to get involved.  That would 'normally' be in the form of a screen (full window) asking if you wanted to do this, but in these cases I don't know if it would just block it.  I can't see why the UI would open and certainly not say why.

I would certainly suggest modifying/checking Avast in both BleachBit or CCleaner.

The same could be said of your firewall (?) allowing avast processes, but again I can't see it opening the UI. 

[petr.kolacek]

Hi all, I would like to help with this particular problem and also discussed it with developers here at Avast. As this is nothing we can easily induce we need more information. First one is to check parameters of all of the UI processes they are executed with and second one is getting AV and system logs from your machine.

So, if I may kindly ask you, please do the following.

1/ Download Process Explorer from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer. Extract the archive and run the tool executable based on your CPU/system architecture (x86/x64) under admin account. Once the tool is running, find avastui.exe process, right click on it, choose Properties and look for string in Command line property. Please note the string can be very long. Copy and paste strings from all of the running avastui.exe processes here, if possible.

2/ Please follow instructions from the page https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/33/ and let us know the ID of the package.

With both of the information I belive we are able to troubleshoot the problem together

Have a nice day!

[HansDelbruck]

OK so #1 I will do. Info below.
#2 I will not do. I have done this before and I have no desire to that again. Perhaps someone else that is having the same problem will do it for you. I don't want to install yet more crap on my PC.

But with regards to #1 here are the screenshots of what you ask for. There are 2 instances of avastUI.exe so here are both screenshots.

The command line section in the second pic is very long and can't be seen so I copy and paste it here:

Code: [Select]

"C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe" --type=gpu-process --field-trial-handle=6636,14625151775502547813,17155305557001399098,131072 --no-sandbox --log-file="C:\Users\MYACC\AppData\Roaming\Avast Software\Avast\log\cef_log.txt" --log-severity=error --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/72.3.3626.1895 Safari/537.36 Avastium (20.5.2415)" --lang=en-US --proxy-auto-detect --disable-webaudio --force-wave-audio --disable-software-rasterizer --no-sandbox --blacklist-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas --disable-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-video-decode --blacklist-webgl --disable-bundled-ppapi-flash --disable-flash-3d --enable-aggressive-domstorage-flushing --enable-media-stream --allow-file-access-from-files=1 --pack_loading_disabled=1 --gpu-preferences=KAAAAAAAAACAAwCAAQAAAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAMAAAAIAAAAAAAAACgAAAAEAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAoAAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAOAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAABAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAUAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAEAAAAGAAAA --use-gl=swiftshader-webgl --service-request-channel-token=5610408160631623115 --mojo-platform-channel-handle=6660 /prefetch:2

[DougCuk]

Attention of petr.kolacek
UPDATE: Details posted below with FULL Command Lines from a problem instance of this issue.

Here is the command line details from Process Explorer for the two extra copies of AvastUI.exe
"C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe" --type=gpu-process --field-trial-handle=3188,12719562391597509942,9522595642050787246,131072 --no-sandbox --log-file="C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\Avast Software\Avast\log\cef_log.txt" --log-severity=error --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/72.3.3626.1895 Safari/537.36 Avastium (20.5.2415)" --lang=en-US --proxy-auto-detect --disable-webaudio --force-wave-audio --disable-software-rasterizer --no-sandbox --blacklist-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas --disable-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-video-decode --blacklist-webgl --disable-bundled-ppapi-flash --disable-flash-3d --enable-aggressive-domstorage-flushing --enable-media-stream --allow-file-access-from-files=1 --pack_loading_disabled=1 --gpu-preferences=KAAAAAAAAACAAwCAAQAAAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAMAAAAIAAAAAAAAACgAAAAEAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAoAAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAOAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAABAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAUAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAEAAAAGAAAA --use-gl=swiftshader-webgl --service-request-channel-token=4626828311287642562 --mojo-platform-channel-handle=3040 /prefetch:2


"C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\AvastUI.exe" --type=renderer --no-sandbox --autoplay-policy=no-user-gesture-required --field-trial-handle=3188,12719562391597509942,9522595642050787246,131072 --disable-gpu-compositing --service-pipe-token=13952111705718002618 --lang=en-US --log-file="C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\Avast Software\Avast\log\cef_log.txt" --log-severity=error --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/72.3.3626.1895 Safari/537.36 Avastium (20.5.2415)" --proxy-auto-detect --disable-webaudio --force-wave-audio --disable-software-rasterizer --no-sandbox --blacklist-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-2d-canvas --disable-accelerated-compositing --disable-accelerated-layers --disable-accelerated-video-decode --blacklist-webgl --disable-bundled-ppapi-flash --disable-flash-3d --enable-aggressive-domstorage-flushing --enable-media-stream --allow-file-access-from-files=1 --pack_loading_disabled=1 --device-scale-factor=1 --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --service-request-channel-token=13952111705718002618 --renderer-client-id=6 --mojo-platform-channel-handle=7180 /prefetch:1

Copy of these two strings posted below (third post down) as a text file attachment if that might be easier.
The Avast Support Tool upload has a File ID U4ZRH

FYI HansDelbruck
The screenshots you posted do not show the information requested - the full Command Line string.
Also the Avast Support Tool is a standalone program - no install required.
But it may upload more data than some might be prepared to divulge.
Mine was a 21MB zip file.

[HansDelbruck]

Doug,
You said "The screenshots you posted do not show the information requested - the full Command Line string."
Please look closly at my entire post. I posted the command line string above it in the "code" block 

I did just notice that hwne I opened Chromium browser the Avast window also popped up. Well after I had started my PC. For some reason it appears as though after a fresh boot if I open Chromium browser Avast opens too.

[DougCuk]

Apologies HansDelbruck - I didn't notice the "code block" when I first read your post.
I am using the Google Chrome browser and have had no issues with it triggering the AvastUI
- in fact it only seems to happen on my system in the first minute after a cold start.

[DougCuk]

Attached is a text file with Command Line strings from an instance of the problem auto-starting GUI.

There were three AvastUi.exe processes in total shown in Process Explorer
The normal hidden version with a Command Line of   AvastUI.exe /nogui
The two extra copies have the extra long Command Lines as shown in the attached text file

[HansDelbruck]

Also I just tested to see if BleachBit or CCleaner might be the culprit and it appears not. I ran BleachBit and then rebooted and it happened. Then I did not run BleachBit and rebooted and it still happened. So it appears as though it is unrelated to BleachBit or CC.