14 DAY TRIAL // Security vendor Avast has recently released updates for its security products in order to resolve issues experienced by customers after installing the latest Windows 7 and 8.1 monthly rollups.
The April 9 Patch Tuesday monthly rollups and security-only updates for Windows 7 (KB4493472 and KB4493448) and Windows 8.1 (KB4493467, and KB4493446) caused devices running Avast security software to freeze on boot and become unresponsive.
The issue impacted devices running Avast for Business, Avast CloudCare, and AVG Business Edition on Windows machines.
Avast has released fixes via the emergency update for version 18.7, 18.8, 19.4, and 19.3 of its security products, and users are recommended to install them as soon as possible on devices impacted by the aforementioned issues.
Update blocks in place
If the device can’t boot, Avast says users should load the login screen and then leave the systems in standby for about 15 minutes, as the updater runs, downloads, and applies the updates in the background.
“Some of these machines are completely unable to log in, and some log in after a very extended period of time,” Avast says. “While this problem is currently being researched, we have developed micro-updates that should resolve the issue and restore functionality to our users, which are being rolled out as soon as they are available.”
Customers with proxy servers configured in Avast and not in Windows may not be able to download the new updates and resolve the issues. In this case, they are recommended to launch the Safe Mode, uninstall the botched updates, and then install the Avast updates. More information on this fix is available here.
Meanwhile, similar issues are also encountered on devices running other security products from Avira and Sophos. Microsoft has already issued update blocks on systems where such software is detected, at least until fixes become available for impacted customers.