Found a dangerous combination of settings!

[timjor19]

I have found a couple of settings in avast 4.0 that do NOT mix well.   (SEE NOTE AT END BEFORE REPLYING)
I made the mistake of combining:
If unable to notifiy user (screen saver running etc) - DENY action.
( I can't get into the Avast setup to figure out what the other setting was.)

The settings caused AVAST to put WinXP into ETERNAL BUSY during
boot up.
Condition was verified by setting avast processes to manual startup
using the system admin tools for services via SAFE MODE startup.
Until I did this, the machine would start loading up and then became
unresponive with the avast tray icon not showing the 'a' on the
icon...it looked more like a small blue ball with a white dot.

I need help !  How do I either restore the AVAST config file to defaults or change the flag for the above setting?

Help! Humans!
NOTE: !!!
I found out how to recover it... I manually restarted the
services after allowing WinXP to fully startup. Then I went
back into the advanced settings under "BLOCKER" and reset
it to allow actions if Avast is unable to ask for user input.

WOW! Sometimes I scare myself silly!
 

[whocares]

Hi,

could you tell us, WHAT actions you blocked ?
deletion/modification of files ?

was the screensaver running at all ?

[timjor19]

Yes, I found out what the setting combination was exactly...

If you go to the advanced 'blocker' page in settings:
Have "DENY" selected if AVAST is not able to notify the user of a
blocked item such as screen saver or startup.
In combination with that for the BLOCKED items:
If "DELETE" is checked and WinXP wants to update a file during startup, the machine will be locked up and you cant even do
{CTRL}-{ALT}-{DEL} to kill the process or shutdown.

I was only able to 'fix' this by setting the processes to 'Manual' start in the Win XP administrator tools by booting in
"SAFE" mode for WinXP.
Then I was able to start the AVAST processes manually after WinXP
was finished loading and uncheck the box for 'DELETE" block.
All was well after I reset that option.
I still have "DENY" and "FORMAT" set to block formatting until
the machine is booted to avoid nasty
trojans and etc. But there must be a way for AVAST to interact with
a user during startup to enable "DELETE" blocking while the system
is booting.
NOTE: Screen saver could not possibly be running if WinXP is
just booting up after you turn the machine on.

Tim J.
Help! Humans!