I'm very angry with avast

[bobo1]

The trouble with windows xp or vista restore, that it takes critical snapshots of windows configuration at that time related to time/date stamps and avast will not like this and locks up showing modules not running even fix now will not work.

If i have to do system restore at any time ie if windows fails to run i remove avast / restore to an earlier time in safe mode. Reboot and re-instal avast from scratch.
No problems!

[Tgell]

The trouble with windows xp or vista restore, that it takes critical snapshots of windows configuration at that time related to time/date stamps and avast will not like this and locks up showing modules not running even fix now will not work.

If i have to do system restore at any time ie if windows fails to run i remove avast / restore to an earlier time in safe mode. Reboot and re-instal avast from scratch.
No problems!

So the only way to do a system restore with avast! is to uninstall avast! first. Isn't it possible to do a restore with avast's system protection turned off? Also, I am wondering if creating system restore points manually with avast's system protection turned off would also work. This is kind of confusing.

[DavidR]

That wasn't said, some state simply disabling the avast self-defence module is enough as at times the system restore is going to try and delete avast files (so it tries to block that action).

Also as has been suggested if you use system restore from safe mode that should work as avast doesn't run from safe mode.

Though there is often an unexpected consequence of running system restore, if it does remove some avast files then it is very likely that you may have to reinstall avast.

[norel]

I'm finding it hard to make a generalized complaint about Avast. I've got it on two other computers, XP with WSR enabled and Vista without WSR. It works perfectly on those systems. But I recently acquired a Dell with XP SP3 and it's been nothing but problems. Just when it seems to be working good something else goes wrong. I finally uninstalled it on this computer.

[Lisandro]

This issue was supposed to be fixed.
Which version of avast are you using, Tech?

Latest beta 6.0.1352 (before the problem occur I've upgraded from 6.0.1351).

The problem here is that System Restore is deleting avast's own files so it's quite difficult to cope with that.

And what about the old /forceinstall switch. I've forgotten it. Can it be used?
Will it work if we have access to an .msi file and force the installation with switches?

[Lisandro]

Hello Tech,
I tried to do a system restore with avast installed and System Restore failed. Is this because of avast's self-protection module and does this have to be disabled before using System Restore? I never had a failure with System Restore before.

I've disabled avast self defense module before starting the restore process.
The most of the times, system restore fails for me. Now, that it worked, avast got corrupted.

[Lisandro]

So the only way to do a system restore with avast! is to uninstall avast! first.

No, it won't work. The restore will bring avast back to an unstable situation, will bring back files and the registry.

I am wondering if creating system restore points manually with avast's system protection turned off would also work. This is kind of confusing.

The creation of a restore point does not require the self defense module to be off. It works in both situations, on and off.

[Lisandro]

Reboot and re-instal avast from scratch.

If, at least, we can save the settings and restore them back...
But it's not acceptable, for me and many others, that we need an installation from scratch in these situations.

[hayc59]

Windows System Restore has never given me a problem
and use it when needed, I have not had to use WSR since this the last two
updates 'final' and 'BETA' of avast! but thanks to Tech's report I will
definitely think twice until resolved!! thank you Tech.

[Lisandro]

Then it is very likely that you may have to reinstall avast.

Well... I suppose the "repair" option should be for that: repair a broken installation and avoid having to do it from scratch.

[Tgell]

Okay,
I uninstalled avast!, then I did a system restore to a date a couple of days ago. Avast! was back but in control panel I did a repair install and everything went back to normal. I just had to do a definition update.

[twl845]

Haha, Rollback Rx used avast! 4.8 detection message in its video...

Good. What does that have to do with shutting off SR and using RB instead? 

[Dch48]

This may or may not have something to do with the problem. I was having trouble with my restore points getting corrupted and not able to be defragmented nor removed. I found that the problem was not being caused by Avast but by, get this, Office 2010, in particular the starter edition that came preinstalled and that I had activated. Searching around, I found that the problem can also exist in the full versions of Office 2010. It has to do with that mysterious Q drive that Office creates to enable the new virtualization features of Office 2010. It conflicts with the Volume Copy Shadow Service in Windows 7 and causes restore point corruption. I removed all traces of Office 2010 and installed my old developers edition of Office 2007. It installed, fully updated, and causes no problems with System Restore at all.

I don't know how many of you use Office 2010 but if you do, it may be causing problems.

[Lisandro]

Thanks Dch48. I'm with Office 2007 yet.

[dagrev]

As an alternative that works, I installed Rollback Rx on my computer and shut SR off. Restoring to an earlier snapshot takes 10 seconds. Wait for a sale to purchase at BitsDuJour.

For what it's worth, I've been using RollBack RX for over a year and would never be without it.  It's too easy and too good.  It's saved my bacon many times. I never could get Windows Restore to work when I really needed it to.