Avast and AdAware Won't Start

Hi All! I couldn't find any useful information on this topic and finally remembered this website and all the helpful experts on here...

Anyway, my problem is that I just noticed today that avast! IS isn't starting up. Whenever I try to start it I get a message that reads: "This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator." Suspiciously, I also get that message when trying to start Ad-Aware.

I'm currently running the most recent versions of both programs on Windows 7 Pro w/ Service Pack 1.

Does anyone know how I can even begin to tackle this problem?

Thanks in advanced!

-Ricardo

 

Greetings, flagg6805, and welcome to MajorGeeks...

I strongly suggest that you perform all of the steps listed in the Read & Run Me First thread, then start a new thread in the Malware Removal Forum and attach the requested logs to your first post(s) in that thread.

 

Thanks, will do!

 

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't Ad-Aware also contain an antivirus too ??

 

Yes it does.

 

Thanks, I did and my computer is clean. So this is a software issue, I guess. So the question is, what is causing this to happen, if not a virus?

-Rick

 

If you are still wanting to uninstall Avast!, try the following:

Please download and run Avast! Uninstall Utility
This utility must be run from Safe Mode.

 

I don't want to uninstall it unless i absolutely have to. I paid for the upgrade to avast internet security and don't know what I did with the registration code

 

Agreed with thisisu: an uninstall/reinstall of avast! might very well be in order, especially if the avast! and Ad-Aware programs are the only two apps that are seeing the permissions problems. That, or uninstall both programs and try another antivirus app to test - there are several good freebies from which to choose.

*As an aside: I think it's pretty much the consensus around here that Ad-Aware is a vastly outdated concept. There are much better antispyware solutions available - in fact, avast! itself now contains an antispyware component.

 

Sorry - didn't see your last post. You should be able to contact avast.com and request a copy of your registration information.

 

I wonder if it's a conflict running both Avast! and Ad-Aware?

From what I read here: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
it's also an antispyware and antivirus or am I misstaken?

 

That's what I was thinking too.

 

Do you have Avast Internet Security (paid)? If so I would strongly suggest to remove Ad-Aware first and see if that helps? If you have in (free) Spybot that Teatimer, be sure to disable that first prior to uninstalling Ad-Aware.

PS: It's been years that I used Ad-Aware and therefore not sure of current version.

 

It's Ad-Aware 10, and it contains full features, anti virus, antispyware, sandbox, Real-time protection, game mode, I believe oma is correct, there may be a compflict between the two.

 

Thanks to everyone for your input. I was away this weekend and couldn't reply so....

I uninstalled Ad-Aware (I was only running avast! at once, just had ad-aware as backup) but when I go to uninstall avast! I get a message that reads: You do not have sufficient access to uninstall avast! Internet Security. Contact sys admin. Thing is I'm logged in as an admin. So how do I get avast to uninstall then is the question?....

Thanks Caliban, I had thought about that and will if I decide to keep avast! and get it working again!

-rick

 

Good morning...

To verify: you are attempting to uninstall avast! using the Avast Uninstall Utility while the machine is booted into an Administrator Safe Mode account?

 

Ah, no, but I will try that now...

 

Yes, please try the Safe Mode route.

Be advised that you should load some type of antivirus protection before reconnecting to the internet.

 

Ok, so I was able to uninstall avast! IS from my computer using safe mode. I then redownloaded the program and when I try to install it, I get the same message as I did originally.

 

Just an update... When I tried reinstalling avast! I got an error message saying that the following were blocked by group policy:

aswRegSvr.exe
aswRegSvr64.exe

Two separate messages, one for each. Any idea what's going on here?

 

There is probably some Ad-Aware remaining that won't allow you to install Avast.

See if AppRemover picks up any remnants of old av programs:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/AppRemover_d6090.html
Here's what it will remove: http://www.appremover.com/supported-applications#win7

Also it wouldn't hurt to run CCleaner and see if it finds any registry entries that can be removed.

 

Ok so... I ran cCleaner and it found a bunch of avast! registry entries that I had it fixed. Then I used AppRemover to uninstall Ad-Aware. Re-ran cCleaner to get rid of Ad-Aware left over registry keys. Rebooted machine. Still have same problem.

 

Since this appears to be a permissions issue, is there any way you can add exceptions for 'aswRegSvr.exe' and 'aswRegSvr64.exe' in the Group Policy editor? I have no idea if that will work - just askin'...