Avastclear gives error 'stub cannot run installer / updater ...'

We've had a few license warnings for Avast Business Antivirus Cloudcare recently. Usually when upgrading, eg from Cloudcare 4.2.x to 4.3.0. To fix the licence warning you usually need to uninstall the current version, reboot and reinstall the latest. Even then it doesn't always work and using avastclear, the official uninstaller program from Avast / AVG is the way to go. Note that this should be run from Safe Mode.

When you run avastclear you might see the error shown in the diagram here.

"The stub cannot run installer / updater executable 'c:\users\   \appdata\local\temp\_av_iup.tm~
\instup.exe' (code 0x10b)"

Took a while to work this out - you need to be logged into Safe Mode as the local administrator, not a domain admin account.

Then the uninstall will run and reboot.




15/10/18 Update - also seen this warning with some sort of permission issue, had to move the avastclear program to another directory, eg c:\temp or c:\windows\temp
 
 9/12/18 Update - Permission issue if you downloaded as the domain user then switched to local, try making a copy of avastclear and run that instead

3 PCs missing from AVG Avast Cloudcare Console

Strange problem at one site with AVG CloudCare v3.6.4. Only one of 3 particular PCs would ever appear in the console at once. Lets call them PC26 (Maint), PC29 (Chef) and PC31 (Accts). This week PC29 was listed, status ok, updates ok. It even had the correct label name against it showing that is was Chef's computer. I tried reinstalling PC31 which succeeded, but it appeared on the list with the name Chef rather than Accts - and PC29 dropped off the list. I relabelled it to Accts, then PC29 came back on the list instead but with the new label.

Took me a while initially to realise that all three were essentially sharing one database entry and the last change/install took precedence as far as the console list was concerned.

Also tried removing AVG CloudCare off all three PCs at once and using the AVG Remover tool, rebooting, then reinstalling each one. And the same again but with the brand new 4.0.2 release of Avast Business Cloudcare. No chance.

In the end, after 25 mins online with tech support, we used the 'setup.exe -b' command to re-register the clients to the CloudCare database and reset registry keys. This cleared the problem and all clients came up normally.

To use setup -b, start a command prompt with Admin rights. Then change to the appropriate directory, depending upon client and 32 or 64 bit, eg
C:\Program Files(x86)\AVG\CloudCare   or
C:\Program Files(x86)\AVAST Software\Business Agent\

AVG CloudCare keeps prompting to Restart after Update

Seems like AVG Cloudcare with the AVG 2015 component (CloudCare version currently showing as v3.3.1) sometimes gets stuck on an update. It may just be for non-admin domain users, I haven't been able to confirm that for certain.

The user gets prompted every day for a Restart, which then nags hourly if they click postpone. Restarting and logging in as admin doesn't clear the problem -  it repeats again the following day.

Couple of options - the simple one is to go into CloudCare > Options > Advanced Settings > Update > Manage, then click the Delete Temporary Update Files. Reboot and you shouldn't be prompted again.

The more tedious option, if that doesn't fix the warning, is to uninstall and reinstall. After using the Uninstall from Control Panel > Programs and Features, do a reboot if required. Then run the AVG 2015 Remover program, that can be downloaded from AVG's utilities website here: http://www.avg.com/gb-en/utilities
Reboot, check there are no AVG folders left in C:\USERS\username\APPDATA or in Program Files or Program Files (x86) - and then reinstall. That definitely clears the problem !

AVG 2011 Internet Security Business Edition reports NDIS driver not found

Just upgraded a client from AVG 9 to AVG 2011. This was to the Business Edition of AVG Internet Security (and Anti-Virus) 2011.

One of the laptops running Windows XP SP3 failed to uninstall the previous version properly then screwed up the install of the new one.

When you opened the AVG Console, the Firewall reported an error 'NDIS driver not found'.

Running a repair install didn't help and that article about manually installing the AVG Network Filter Driver from Local Area Connection properties didn't work either.

I did an unistall of AVG and was still connected to the Internet and network ok, however when I looked in Network Connections there was no Local Area Connection and no Wireless Connection.

To fix that I went into the Device Manager and uninstalled both LAN and WLAN devices. Then did a Scan fro Hardware Changes to reinstall them. That did the trick and AVG 2011 reinstalled successfully after that, presumably finding the NDIS that had been MIA.

Rather than doing a full AVG uninstall and reinstall, maybe worth testing if uninstalling and reinstalling the LAN and WLAN devices recovers the NDIS error ...

Antivirus XP 2008 or 2009 virus/spyware removal

I've come across a few PCs in the past month with the Antivirus XP 2008 problem. Basically its some spyware that fakes your Security Centre to look like there's a problem and needs fixing. It looks very authentic. There's a very thorough write-up at The Register, Anatomy of a Hack.

Two of the infections I saw had got in past AVG. One had 7.5 Free and the other had v8 but slightly dated definitions - unlucky timing, I wouldn't hold it against the folks at AVG. My AVG 8 Pro spotted the .exe as soon as I copied it over to the PC.

I've heard of a couple of cases where people have had to put hours into extracting the bad and getting their PC back up and running - should have called Redleg tech support first ;-) Best fix I've come across has been the AntiMalware product from Malwarebytes. You can find it over here.