Avast not seen by vista

[Confused Computer User]

Hello,

Well I just keep getting these problems, but I appreciate that I get help solving them. This issue is not urgent but it’s a bit of a pain in the ...

I have a HP Pavilion dv2700 with 4GB RAM running Vista Home Premium SP1 (32 bit). The issue is the following. When generating a system health report (open Performance Information and Tools, Click Advanced tools and select the system health report) I am told that the Security center is unable to detect an active anti-virus application.

At first I thought that it was because of Windows Defender. Let me elaborate. On my Desktop (E-machines H5088 with bla bla... Vista Home BASIC) I have the same software applications, avast included, and I do not get the same problem on it. The reason why I mention Windows Defender is that on my desktop for some reason this was automatically disabled.  On the laptop this was not the case. So I disabled Windows Defender and still, the same issue keeps popping up.  The Security Center is all green and says my anti-virus is up to date and working.

What can I do?
Thank you in advance for the continued support.
Cheers.

[DavidR]

Try this, I have absolutely no idea if this will work in Vista, it does in XP.

* Click Start, Run and type CMD.EXE

* Type this command and press Enter:

net stop winmgmt

* Using Windows Explorer, rename the folder %windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository. (For example, %windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository_bad.). %windir% represents the path to the Windows directory, which is typically C:\Windows.

* Switch to Command Prompt window, and type the following and press ENTER after each line:

net start winmgmt

EXIT
Reboot

[Confused Computer User]

well, thank you for the suggestion david, but no luck.

[Confused Computer User]

any other suggestions, please...
Cheers

[DavidR]

Sorry zero Vista experience.

[Confused Computer User]

Well it's ok. I mean it's weird that Vista would contradict its self in such a strange way. What's more, my desktop computer does not have this issue. I tried un-installing and re-installing, but no luck. what should I do? Any body else using Avast on Vista? Thanks.

[DavidR]

By all accounts Vista SP1 and the WSC have got worse rather than vetter.

Something I should really have asked on your last reply was, what does "no luck" mean exactly ?

Yes I know it didn't work, but why didn't it work, e.g. what errors were displayed, etc.

[Confused Computer User]

Ah,

good point. Well i type the command prompt and I get this message that disabling the program has an impact on the security center and something else. I'm ask if I wish to proceed Y/N. I type Y and I am told that a system error 5 occurred, and that  access is denied.
 one of the programs being stopped is Hpqwmiex. That might be the reason but how do I get passed that?

[Confused Computer User]

one more thing the same issue has been reported on:
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/1164-action-center-reporting-avast-not-up-date.html
and on
http://forums.teamphoenixrising.net/showthread.php?t=46730
... I'll try the second forum and see what it gives.

[Confused Computer User]

nope..same issue as before, access denied...in the end it's doesn't matter, I'll just leave it as it is....the security center says it's up to date and running so it's ok.

[DavidR]

Well Vista has the ubiquitous UAC and permissions/access denied, I don't know if you have to jump through some UAC hoops by somehow using the run as or some such. I have avoided Vista like the plague and the way things are going I probably won't ever install it if windows 7 proves to be better.

[scythe944]

Running Vista Ultimate (cracked even) SP1 with Avast installed on a POS (in my opinion) Dell Dimension 2400 with 768MB RAM.

Working wonderfully with UAC enabled.

Installed Avast before I applied SP1.

I know this really doesn't help your situation any, I just thought that if I let you know that mine works, it may give you hope!

As for the Hpqwmiex... it seems to be related to an HP Security center of some sort.  Maybe that's the problem?

http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/hpqwmiex/

Get rid of that thing and use the original Vista security center and see what happens.

[Mr.Agent]

work fine here and i don't see what is your problem i really don't know what u can do sorry maybe u can call a informatician for he can see it because i got the same vista,bits and thing like you and still no problem there

[Reductase]

Working fine here on Vista as well.  I think it is a repository update problem and you need to follow DavidR's instructions again but when opening the command prompt from the start menu you should right-click the shortcut under accessories and choose "Run as Administrator" for proper change authority.  I have seen systems that take up to 15 minutes after reboot for Windows to properly restore the repository depending on startup programs/settings.

[Confused Computer User]

Ok,

It's official, I have 0 vista Know-how, even after using it for a year and a half. So I skipped the run console and started the CMD.EXE directly from it's source but I ran it as an administrator. Followed DavidR's instructions

* Click Start, Run and type CMD.EXE

* Type this command and press Enter:

net stop winmgmt

* Using Windows Explorer, rename the folder %windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository. (For example, %windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository_bad.). %windir% represents the path to the Windows directory, which is typically C:\Windows.

* Switch to Command Prompt window, and type the following and press ENTER after each line:

net start winmgmt

EXIT
Reboot

But all I got was the security center saying it doesn't see an anti-virus. Told it to ignore the problem and that I have a Anti-virus program that I check but the thing would not go green. So I re-installed Avast, again and now it's back to the same issue as listed at the beginning of the thread. So the Security center is green, but the little reliability check shows otherwise. I'm giving up on this since it doesn't matter all that much to me at this point. Thank you all for the suggestions and continued support.

My apologies for the chronic lateness in my replies.