How to stop forced restart

[KDibble]

I've got Avast Business Pro running on Windows 2019 RDP server. I was just logged in there and got the message that Avast will restart the system when I log off. NO NO NO! There are a whole bunch of other users logged in, some running stateful applications, who will be booted out with loss of data if this happens.

In the first place, older versions of managed Avast (see 8.x, for example) NEVER did this. There is no valid reason for Avast to force a restart ever.

More to the immediate point: How can I block this on a SERVER that has MULTIPLE users? I need to know this as soon as possible, because now I can't log off until I've got it blocked.

Thanks.

[Lukas Mizoch]

I have four W2019 servers and I never seen that behavior. Are your policy correctly defined both for workstations and servers?

[KDibble]

Thanks for responding. This was a false alarm. I was in a full-screen RDP session on the server when I got the pop-up from Avast, so I assumed it was happening on the server. In fact, it was happening on the workstation that I was running the RDP session from. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times in my experience in which an event on a workstation has managed to display a message over top of a full-screen RDP session, so I was certainly very confused. However, I should have checked the task bar on the RDP desktop for the "cartoon balloon" button before posting here.

It happened again today, so I will add that this is now two days in a row that this workstation is rebooting as a result of changes to Avast, and I will repeat my statement that this is bad behavior. Older business versions of Avast managed to stay adequately up to date without forcing reboots and there is no legitimate reason for Avast Business Pro to do this.

Thanks. Sorry about jumping the gun.

[Infratech Solutions]

In some cases, even micro updates, AVAST push to production, require device reboot in order to apply the changes properly. Those changes are later part of the next product version and can be related to the latest threats or fixes detection issues.
 
However, the micro updates do not change the program version. This mechanism is important in order to keep the protection level as high as possible without the need to release a new version of the AV.

AVAST understand that the device reboot is disturbing, but at the same time it is important to apply changes necessary to keep the protection as high as possible.

[KDibble]

I appreciate the response.

Avast is not modifying the Windows operating system, therefore there should almost never be a real need to reboot the operating system when Avast is changed--the only exception would be if Avast was completely uninstalled.

If Avast modifies its own services, and the Avast developers really think the changes are so urgent that they cannot wait for the next user-controlled reboot, then Avast could restart those services without rebooting the operating system--silently, and without disrupting anything else going on. IMO Avast is rebooting the OS solely as a matter of convenience for itself, since it's an easier way to restart all of the various Avast services.

I would also note that, while Windows 10, by default, does not really shut down when a user tells it to (and this is user-configurable), Avast could read that bit somewhere and pop up a message informing the user that s/he should restart the computer when it is convenient. In any case, the specific experience that I described here--two forced reboots two days in a row--happened on a Win 7 machine, which, by default, actually shuts down when I tell it to shut down.

Anyway, I realize that I am tilting against a windmill here.

[Infratech Solutions]

Anyway, I realize that I am tilting against a windmill here.

Our response is a copy/paste of an AVAST response about our concern of reboot system with this kind of updates/upgrades that we made some weeks ago.

It doesn't mean that we are agreee about current procedure, so you are not alone!

We think that it's very important for us (as users, distributors or resellers) and for AVAST to know our ideas and feelings and tell them what we think is not working well. We know that our concerns are taking serious on AVAST and they work to improve their products and services.