Latest Avast 5 free ed. freezes immediately after boot time is scheduled; Vista

[Airtent]

I work at a pc repair shop where we install Avast free edition for our customers after getting rid of viruses. I am beginning to notice a recurring issue since the change to allow a boot time scan in either 32 or 64 bit windows. Every time that I install Avast on a windows vista machine, update the latest definitions, then schedule a boot time scan on just the system drive (unchecked unpack archive files), the avast ui freezes after hitting the schedule button.  If I try to click on restart from the avast window, nothing happens.  I am able to click start, then choose restart that way, but it ends up sitting there, never closing any windows/programs.  I even try to do a command line prompt (with correct admin rights) shutdown -r -t 1 to force the pc to shutdown in 1 second, but it never does. 

It doesn't matter if vista is 32 or 64 bit, if there is no service pack, or sp 1 or 2 installed, it does the same behavior.  Is this a bug, or something else?  Just happened to me on a vista home premium 32 bit pc, with service pack 2 installed. 

If I install Avast, update it, reboot, then when it comes back into windows, I can configure the boot time scan without any lockup or issue.  This doesn't happen if using win xp or 7.  Also once Avast 6.x is no longer in beta phase, I will see if its been fixed.

Any help on this?

[Rednose]

Hi Airtent

I can't reproduce it. I followed your instructions to the letter, but no freezing here

Greetz, Red.

[Airtent]

I run various programs such as malwarebytes, ccleaner, etc to get rid of any viruses, so maybe something that I am running before avast is what is causing it.  Oddly its just on vista machines and not others.  Maybe I'm not giving it enough time when it finishes with getting the latest update and clicking the schedule boot time button.  Don't really do anything different for xp or 7 machines.  Hope its gone by the time 6 is up and running at least.

[ark1993]

I also remove viruses for customers and put Avast on their computers. I have just recently received 2 vista computers (both laptops), this exact same thing happens to me, as soon as I click to schedule a boot time scan, it freezes and the only way to shut it down is to press the power button. I also run programs like malwarebytes before doing this, but I think it has something to do with vista, or some compatibility issue with avast, and not those programs, I've done boot-time scans on other non-vista computers and this never happened.

[bmore]

I just wanted to report that I'm running Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit on my Acer laptop with Avast Free Edition 5 and it is now hanging in suspended animation after attempting to schedule a boot-time scan. It actually started when software I was installing set Avast off due to Relevant Knowledge being hidden in the installer, but was detected when it was extracted to a temp folder. Avast recommended a boot-time scan, and when I manually set it to avoid restarting my laptop, the UI, as well as Avast froze. Checking Task Manager, I can see that bcdedit, the boot editor is running, and my initial thought is that this might be the cause of the problem. I tried and failed to scan for spyware because the Avast hang is interfering, but will try again after I restart. Based upon the other replies, it could be that Avast 5 Free might have issues with the boot editor. I have no idea why it hasn't updated to version 6 yet, but hopefully that will resolve any future boot-time scan issues.

[igor]

Do you have any additional behavior blocker / HIPS installed?