new install corrupts user profile

[mr.hurt]

Greetings.

I just installed avast! 4 HE tonight on my Win2K+SP3 system (as Administrator), and, upon reboot, my regular, 'user' account was un-logable/destroyed.  Win2K subsequently created a new one ('user' became 'user.COMPUTER_NAME').

My Administrator account was unchanged.

I was able to recreate the account, and copy most of the important stuff back over, but the process was a major pain in the neck.  The cusp might have been the SMTP/POP Wizardry (that was the only part of the software that showed that particular user account in the Setup), but I can't really say.

Any thoughts on why I should keep this software installed?

-mr.hurt

[kubecj]

Avast installer doesn't play with the profiles directly, just thru legal win32 api. If anything destroyed the profile, Windows would be the first to blame. Such one-in-a-million accident doesn't prove anything though.

[mr.hurt]

Avast installer doesn't play with the profiles directly, just thru legal win32 api. If anything destroyed the profile, Windows would be the first to blame. Such one-in-a-million accident doesn't prove anything though.

Oh, I'm more than willing to blame win32 (it's let me down more than a few times) ;-)

I've had this happen before, but it was due to my own un-wise modifications of some part of the system (most-notably, changing Permissions within the registry).  I've a decent grasp of what I should, and should not, do to preserve a healthy system--my current install has lasted me well over a year, now, and things were <em>very</em> healthy.

My interest in purchasing the full product is dependent upon an analysis of this software, but that is all but nill until I can get some sound idea as to why this happened directly after a fresh install of a new piece of software.

If this happened now, it will (most-probably) happen again.

I have un-installed the software until I can narrow-down what may have produced this erroneous situation

My experience, in retrospect:

a) dl the software from avast.com (as a non-Administrator 'user').
b) logged-off user, and logged-on as Administrator
c) verified Full Rights to the entire registry and all fixed-disks
d) activated the .exe, and chose Custom Install (unnecessary I now realize, as I kept the defaults)
e) Accepted the License
f) Selected to activate the boot-time scan
g) Followed the Mail Scanner Wizard, chose Option #1 (I utilize Mozilla as my MUA, and send directly via SMTP via my ISP's Smarthost)
h) Rebooted, and let the boot-time scanner complete
i) Prior to log-on, my install of Kerio notified me that the Avast! software was attempting to establish a connection to 'somewhere' . . . pressed Deny about six times as I was unsure what this was all about (and I do not, in practice, allow unsolicited connections when I am not using my restricted, 'user' account)
j) Logged-in as my 'user' and boom!--my computer acted as if I had created a new account (Welcome Screen; default Desktop settings; email not working; etc.)
k) Explorer'ed to Documents and Settings to find that my user account still existed, yet an additional one had been created:  'user.COMPUTER_NAME' . . . I've seen this before, so I (thought I) knew what to do . . . logged-off user/logged-on administrator and deleted the user.COMPUTER_NAME account . . . log-off/log-on and the user.COMPUTER_NAME account was created again ;-\
l) Had to resort to drastics:  delete both user and user.COMPUTER_NAME, log-on as user, and re-set my configuration manually/copy-over important info from a backup of the user account, etc.
m) Of note: my Administrator account was completely unchanged (thank-goodness)--verified by backup comparison

Any thoughts on where in this process I may have made a mis-step?

[kubecj]

j) Logged-in as my 'user' and boom!--my computer acted as if I had created a new account (Welcome Screen; default Desktop settings; email not working; etc.)

Have you tried to check event log? There should be some message about such an accident.

[meozz]

I have exact same problem as mr.hurt. new profile added with name.computer_name. Ocurred after setting - Generate VRBD when computer is idle & then logging off to another profile.
No ERRORS of any type in Event Viewer (application or system) for 6 days prior to installing avastHome edition, EXCEPT false positive for - aavm initialization error:cannot run provider, Jscript - mentioned in another post.
Any suggestions how to solve? TY

[meozz]

I have exact same problem.
Profile added with name.computer_name.
Ocurred after setting - Generate VRDB when computer is ile. Then when logged off to another profile a new one was created from scratch with no settings.

No ERRORS in Event Viewer for 6 days prior to installing avastHome, EXCEPT for AAVM initialization error: cannot run provider, JSCRIPT

Which was mentioned in your forum.

[whocares]

"c) verified Full Rights to the entire registry and all fixed-disks"

Hi, how exactly, and why did you do this ?

you sure you didn't actually SET/Change something there, like in your previous Setting-registry-rights_adventures ?

[meozz]

Absolutely Nothing was set EXCEPT for Avast settings. If you right click on avast Virus Recovery Database (VRDB) Generator, "i" icon in system tray - You can set - To Generate VRDB when computer is idle OR set to activate with screen saver. Check Avast Help contents under Healing.

I have set this back to activate with screen saver (do not use a screen saver) so it remains unfinished as it will not be started with that setting.
Moderator if you are reading this, can you advise if I should continue with the database backup? I do not know if this was part of the problem.

The only other issue at the time of installing avast was, as mentioned in this forum another POSSIBLE false positive - Win32:Trojan-gen {UPX!} - virus detection on first scan, the file IDENTIFIED by avast was TASKMAN.EXE
This file was deleted.

My system is win2k professional.

[meozz]

Win2k + sp3 service pack as was mr.hurt's

Corrected problem with profiles/accounts  successfully - with avast4 Home edition still installed. But after three log ins/log outs problem returned.  Created a couple of profiles/accounts which also renamed themselves   name.computer_name.  Again corrected profiles, PROBLEM SOLVED directly after uninstalling avast4 HE.
Hard to believe that avast av is not the cause or influence of the PROBLEM.

[kubecj]

I've searched MSDN twice for the possible reason, found nothing.

We still don't know if it's a standalone machine, notebook with roaming profile, computer in LAN etc, which network providers...

[Lisandro]

I´m XP Pro user. I had to install and reinstall avast because a registry corruption did by Norton SystemWorks (not NAV itself).
This problem was discussed in forum.
I had no trouble with user profiles. When a user (or administrator) deletes a user account and recriates it again, appear the <name of computer>_<user> account (even in XP systems).
I´m quite sure that this has nothing to do with avast application.