windows XP doesn't find my anti-virus. please help

[maroon1]

I have Avast! home edition, and it is working fine. but the problem is that when I go to the windows security center it says that windows doesn't find any Anti-virus on my computer

This suddenly happened to me today.

I have downloaded IE7 yesterday, and maybe IE7 is causing this problem to me, but I really don't know.
what do you think ?




I have the latest version of avast! home edition, and it is updated

[Spiritsongs]

   Hi :

      Perhaps you should have followed Polonus's advise at :

      http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=24170.0  !?

      Much too soon to get a newly released program; should wait
      a while for further bugs to be found and "removed" .

      Most of the "regulars" here know my view is to "disable"
      the "Windows Security Center" because of : 1)
      unreliable info at times ; 2) the info at :
      www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1639276,00.asp .

[DavidR]

After checking out what Spiritsongs said, you might want to check out this and a forum link.

Windows Security Center not recognising avast!
Frequently asked questions about Windows Security Center

Check this - Solution when Windows Security Center does not recognize antivirus or firewall

[thuun]

uninstall the secerity center,
that's what i did.
useless. autoupdates work fine w/o.

[ConLeah57]

Does having avast 4.7 affect the Windows XP firewall?

I can't get into it anymore - I get an error -

"Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot display Windows Firewall settings"

I've only been using 4.7 for a few weeks - I'm a newbie.  Am I missing something?

[holy_saiyan1]

I have Avast! home edition, and it is working fine. but the problem is that when I go to the windows security center it says that windows doesn't find any Anti-virus on my computer

This suddenly happened to me today.

I have downloaded IE7 yesterday, and maybe IE7 is causing this problem to me, but I really don't know.
what do you think ?

I'm having this problem too, and I don't think it's IE 7 related, because I haven't installed IE7, and don't plan on doing so, either.

Maroon1, did your problem occur after the last update?  Mine did.

After checking out what Spiritsongs said, you might want to check out this and a forum link.

Windows Security Center not recognising avast!
Frequently asked questions about Windows Security Center

Check this - Solution when Windows Security Center does not recognize antivirus or firewall

I followed your directions, DavidR to the T, but it doesn't seem to be working.  Should I just wait until the next definitions update and hope that the bug isn't in those, too, or what?

[DavidR]

avast! has no effect on the XP Firewall, it isn't a firewall.

Personally I would take this as an omen to get a firewall that provides protection against unauthorised outbound connections, which XP's firewall doesn't.

Whilst the windows XP firewall is usually good at keeping your ports stealthed (hidden) it provides no outbound protection and you should consider a third party firewall.
Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.
- Zone Alarm free http://www.zonelabs.com works fine with avast and has a reasonably friendly user interface. There are others, Comodo, Sunbelt Kerio, Jetico, etc.
See some firewall tests for comparison, some are freeware but many are paid for versions http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests.php. Also see http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml

[DavidR]

After checking out what Spiritsongs said, you might want to check out this and a forum link.

Windows Security Center not recognising avast!
Frequently asked questions about Windows Security Center

Check this - Solution when Windows Security Center does not recognize antivirus or firewall

I followed your directions, DavidR to the T, but it doesn't seem to be working.  Should I just wait until the next definitions update and hope that the bug isn't in those, too, or what?

Have you rebooted since applying those changes ?
This option has been the only one, which has had any degree of success, but the windows security center isn't fool proof at best and flaky at worst. The reminders are a bonus as you can do your own monitoring in any case.

I doubt either IE7 or avast VPS update has anything directly to do with this, just check out the PCmag link in Spiritsongs post.

[holy_saiyan1]

Yeah, I rebooted, as per the instructions.  Twice, to be sure.  Oh well.

Regarding the article, I suppose this was a minor issue at the time of the writing (almost two years ago), I really don't think that the PC Mag "security watch special" referenced is all that relevant today. 

If it was, I'm sure we'd have heard much more from other reporting venues about this exploit being used, or about the exploit (which appears to me to be nothing more than a proof-of-concept possiblity found by the writers), and then being patched by MS.  Also to keep in mind, this article was written when all the FUD about upgrading to XP SP2 was going around.  So I take it a grain of salt.

Frankly, it offends my senses as a tinkerer of computers and mechanical stuff to shut off a warning light because it happens to be somewhat annoying (doing things the speedy way), instead of finding the root cause and fixing it (doing things the right way).  I suppose I must be alone in this contention, so off to hiding the notification I will have to go...

[DavidR]

Yes the article is two years old, but that was only offered as an aside to the fact that from what I see in these and other forums/newsletters the windows security center can be flaky and extremely difficult to resolve problems with detection and or recognition.

Even the MS KB article that I referenced is over a year old and that FAQ list doesn't even talk about or skirts around the 'What happens if WSC doesn't detect my AV' question completely, no suggested corrective action.

You will have noticed I'm not one of those who didn't install SP2 there are way too many advantages against limited issues or FUD not to install it. More so now that security updates for XP SP1 end later this month I believe.

I too don't like masking symptoms, treat the disease, is generally my advice, which is why we advised trying deletion of the repository database, in the hope of when it was rebuilt it would correct the issue. But, there are times when life is too short, especially as there is no Microsoft suggest repair option for the WSC if it isn't functioning correctly.

[ConLeah57]

Does having avast 4.7 affect the Windows XP firewall?

I can't get into it anymore - I get an error -

"Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot display Windows Firewall settings"

I've only been using 4.7 for a few weeks - I'm a newbie.  Am I missing something?

I'm not a super W XP user, so I let Windows update send me them; since I got this pc (2004). 

I'm running SP2 and haven't had any problems until I unloaded Norton antivirus 2005 to install a different product.

Oops, this thing quickly became infected with trogans, adware, etc.

I found avast and have performed many scans, which have fixed alot.  I run Ad-Aware se frequently as well..

However, even though I thought I've cleaned up everthing, I can't get to websites that I used to - some game sites; my husband's favorite blog site doesn't work properly either; my kids can't open their e-mail links on msn.

I can't acces windows update either.

Today I unloaded and re-installed W XP but this didn't fixed the problems listed above.

I read the fix and I really don't understand how it can fix the problems above.

I'm frustrated.

[holy_saiyan1]

For the record, my problem cleared itself up with the latest update.  I really do think that it was a problem with the VPS, but oh well.

And sorry for being so obstinate regarding the article, I just tend to take what I read with a grain of salt when it contradicts personal experience, that's all. 

Apologies for the thread hijack! 

[Spiritsongs]

   Hi ConLeah :

      When someone mentions their prior antiVIRUS was Norton,
      we are concerned IF it was COMPLETELY REMOVED !? In
      addition to "uninstalling" from "Add/Remove Programs", we
      recommend using the "Norton Removal Tool"; did you use
      this ?
      Should have more than Ad-Aware for detecting SPYWARE; I
      have this program. However, I also use the FREE version of
     "SUPERantispyware" from www.superantispyware.com; it is
      good at detecting & quarantining "Items" that Ad-Aware does
      not .
      And it would be advisable to get a software firewall and NOT
      use the Windows "1-way only" that comes with SP2 .

[ConLeah57]

Thanks for the reply Spiritsongs

No I didn't use the Norton Removal Tool.  I assume that this is available on their website.  I'll scope it out later.

Any recommendations on a good firewall program (purchased and/or free)?

[DavidR]

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT
You can also download SymNRT, a Norton uninstall tool that uninstalls all Norton 2004/2005/2006 products.

- Zone Alarm free http://www.zonelabs.com works fine with avast and has a reasonably friendly user interface. There are others, Comodo, Sunbelt Kerio, Jetico, etc.
See some firewall tests for comparison, some are freeware but many are paid for versions http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests.php. Also see http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml