Getting rid of Avira adware, once and for all

[Red Squirrel]

Ok, I've tried EVERYTHING but can't seem to kill off that stupid avnotify.exe from starting up when I do an update. VERY annoying to get to my PC and have popups all over once a day.

I found lot of stuff online retaining to GPOs, tried, works for XP, but not 2000. Tried to write my own avnotify.exe program that loops in background to overwrite the avnotify.exe but keep it in memory so it can't be overridden, failed... no matter what, it just keeps coming back. It's like a virus in itself...


Also, is there perhaps another alternative to avira I can use? I'm sick of all these programs that have a pro version and try to shove it down your throat. Perhaps something 100% free. I could go without an AV as I know what I'm doing, but still rather have one, specially on my p2p box so I can scan files (though I could always use clamAV for that - the p2p stuff resides on my linux server).

I was on AVG maybe about a month ago but they've become VERY bad with all their nags lately and their updater does not really work properly. not to mention having to reboot my computer constantly.

 

[plion]

try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah thats exactly what I tried lol. Exact doc and all. The XP part works fine, but not the win2k part. Though I'm wondering if is because of my Domain, though its not a full AD domain and does not push any policies. (Samba domain)

When I try to double click the exe I do get an error saying there is a restriction in effect though, but when the av lanches it it seems to ignore the policy.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: plion
try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

That is great (I use XP).

THANKS!!!

MotionMan

 

[Rottie]

I find hard to believe many of you really hate popup what if avira is trying to make important notice or warning about virus breakout you might not even know? I leave it on because i want to make sure the virus def update still working

 

[Red Squirrel]

If it was a small balloon popup at bottom that came and went away it would be fine but when its a HUGE popup that takes up the entire screen and stays there, it is very irritating. It's equivalent to having spyware/hijacks imo.

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
If it was a small balloon popup at bottom that came and went away it would be fine but when its a HUGE popup that takes up the entire screen and stays there, it is very irritating. It's equivalent to having spyware/hijacks imo.

take up the entire screen i am thinking you have a small monitor?

 

[Quiksilver]

delete.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Rottie

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
If it was a small balloon popup at bottom that came and went away it would be fine but when its a HUGE popup that takes up the entire screen and stays there, it is very irritating. It's equivalent to having spyware/hijacks imo.

take up the entire screen i am thinking you have a small monitor?

I have a 17" standard width LCD at the office and the pop-up pretty much took over the whole thing. On my 24" widescreen LCD at home, it was still quite large.

MotionMan

 

[Elstupido]

I dunno, but when you are getting as good a product as Avira, I really don't mind making one click of the mouse, to get rid of the "annoying pop up"

I mean how many clicks does one do in a day? Could be a whole lot worse. I just deal with it.... If I don't like it i would go with a pay thing, and believe me they can annoy you with a whole lot more than pop ups, like taking over your whole registry.

Try Norton or Mcaffee, and you will know the meaning of annoyment

 

[Sid59]

click it closed, it comes with the FREE product. If you're calling a popup on a free application that you installed voluntarily to protect your documents, files and operating system equivalent to a spyware /hijack, you should rethink this product.

dont like it? dont install it?

dont like it? pay for it.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: Sid59
click it closed, it comes with the FREE product. If you're calling a popup on a free application that you installed voluntarily to protect your documents, files and operating system equivalent to a spyware /hijack, you should rethink this product.

dont like it? dont install it?

dont like it? pay for it.

Or, option three:

Originally posted by: plion
try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

MotionMan

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: Sid59
click it closed, it comes with the FREE product. If you're calling a popup on a free application that you installed voluntarily to protect your documents, files and operating system equivalent to a spyware /hijack, you should rethink this product.

dont like it? dont install it?

dont like it? pay for it.

Or, option three:

Originally posted by: plion
try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

MtoionMan

I agree but to say he's so inconvenienced because he installed a free app that doesn't require registration, personal information, email address, that popup takes up 90% of his screen all day when it updates.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The issue is I have to deal with this popup on more then one PC including VMs with screen res so small the X is off the screen, and this also stops me from being able to install it on other people's computers without generating tons of calls. On winxp the fix seems to work though but 2k no luck.

Anti virus protection is a very basic need for a windows box and should not require having to pay. That's one thing I would not mind seeing MS come with, is a built in AV, as long as its very basic, and simply works. (though that would be asking for too much from MS )

 

[MotionMan]

I do not mind putting up with some advertising for free software. I just think this DAILY, FULL-SCREEN pop-up is just a little too much.

MotionMan

 

[George P Burdell]

I've disabled avnotify.exe as well.

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: plion
try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

Windows XP Home and Pro:

Boot into Safe Mode (tap F8 repeatedly after you restart the computer)
Log in using the Administrator account
Go to C:\Program Files\(Avira)\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avnotify.exe
Right-click avnotify.exe-> properties-> security-> advanced


I'm in safe mode. i log in as administrator. i right click on avnotify.exe and goto properties, but i do not have the Security tab???
I only see General, Version, and Compatibility tabs.

WinXP Pro sp3

What am i doing wrong?

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: plion
try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

Windows XP Home and Pro:

Boot into Safe Mode (tap F8 repeatedly after you restart the computer)
Log in using the Administrator account
Go to C:\Program Files\(Avira)\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avnotify.exe
Right-click avnotify.exe-> properties-> security-> advanced


I'm in safe mode. i log in as administrator. i right click on avnotify.exe and goto properties, but i do not have the Security tab???
I only see General, Version, and Compatibility tabs.

WinXP Pro sp3

What am i doing wrong?

Your not doing anything wrong, it's what they wrote that is wrong. That only works for Windows Home

Follow what is written write underneath..

Windows XP Pro & Vista Business/Ultimate 1. Start-> Control Panel 2. Administrative tools-> Local security policy 3. Click on Software Restriction Policy-> Action (at the top)-> create new restriction policies 4. Right-click additional rules (on the right side)-> new path rule 5. Click Browse and navigate to C:\Program Files\(Avira)\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\ and double-click avnotify.exe-> set the security level to Disallowed-> apply-> ok

 

[Red Squirrel]

For win2k I *think* I got it working. I did what that page says but that alone does not work (can't open it manually but somehow avira manages to bypass that security) but on top of that I also made sure the logged in account is not running as administrator and I also removed ALL permissions from that file, even went into advanced permissions and removed all rights to take ownership etc... nobody is gonna execute or write to that file.

I'll report back whether or not it worked, not using that VM atm so I shut it off to speed up my compile times which are done on same server.

 

[Excelsior]

I use Vista Home Premium 64bit and couldn't get it to stop popping up. I switched to avast.

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: Excelsior
I use Vista Home Premium 64bit and couldn't get it to stop popping up. I switched to avast.

I can't believe people are switching to an inferior (not saying it's bad by any means) product just because of ONE popup you get daily.

I'd say for as good as Antivir is, it's worth it.

Avast has its own share of annoyances. It has that popup in the corner always telling you it has updated, when it failed to update, etc. And it doesn't go away for a while unless you click on it. Maybe you can disable it, but I never stuck with it long enough to care.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: hans030390

Originally posted by: Excelsior
I use Vista Home Premium 64bit and couldn't get it to stop popping up. I switched to avast.

I can't believe people are switching to an inferior (not saying it's bad by any means) product just because of ONE popup you get daily.

I'd say for as good as Antivir is, it's worth it.

Avast has its own share of annoyances. It has that popup in the corner always telling you it has updated, when it failed to update, etc. And it doesn't go away for a while unless you click on it. Maybe you can disable it, but I never stuck with it long enough to care.

I can. The damn thing even popped up while I was in the middle of a game. If I could disable it, I'd go back to it.

Hell the main reason I switched to Antivir was the pop-up in AVG 8 (that other people were bitching about). Unfortunately, Antvir wasn't an improvement in that area.

 

[Red Squirrel]

LOL I actually switched from AVG for same reason, AVG was good but since they decided to move to being corporate whores and discontinue the free version and force to upgrade, they've been a PITA with their constant popups about upgrading to pro etc...

Personally if I had the knowledge of how virus defs work and the time to keep up with all the new viruses and write defs I'd make my own AV that is very minimalistic, and has management capabilities (central management server) and it would be 100% free. If anything I would only charge for extra services, like make free version update once a day, paid version as soon as new update comes out - or something.

 

[XBoxLPU]

Originally posted by: plion
try this http://www.elitekiller.com/fil...isable_antivir_nag.htm

Worked for me with Vista x64 thanks

 

[BTA]

If you dont like the popup, buy the software.