Avast is an Antivirus software that provides protection to users’ devices against viruses, parasites, and hackers. The program features a free mode with basic functions such as scanning and real-time protection and it also has paid features for extended support. Quite lately a lot of reports have been coming in of the users not being able to turn on the Avast’s Firewall Protection. This problem occurs after a trojan manifests itself on your computer and then blocks Avast from taking any action by changing its configurations.
This has been frustrating a lot of users as they cannot get Avast to scan for viruses and the Window’s Firewall/Defender is of no use in locating and getting rid of the Virus. In this article, we will guide you with some solutions to fix this issue and also provide you with a list of the causes of this error.
What Prevents the Avast Firewall From Turning ON?
According to our investigations, the reasons due to which the Firewall is prevented from turning on are:
- Virus/Trojan: This error can be triggered after a Virus or a Trojan implements itself on your computer through the internet. Viruses or Trojans are often downloaded when you visit unsafe websites and download content from them. These Viruses/Trojans change the configurations and settings for Avast such that it can no longer provide Virus/Firewall Protection services.
- Corrupt Application: It is possible that due to a virus or some other reason, Avast’s installation files got corrupted. If that is the case, the software will no longer work properly and you might face issues with certain elements of the software.
Now that you have a basic understanding of the nature of the issue, we will move on towards the solutions. Make sure to implement these solutions in the specific order in which they are provided to avoid any conflicts.
Solution 1: Scanning and Deleting Viruses
First of all, we will have to get rid of the Virus or the Trojan that is manifesting itself on the computer. For that, we will need to use a third party Anti-virus software except for Avast because it has already been corrupted. We suggest you run three Antivirus Software to ensure complete eradication of the error.
RogueKiller.exe:
The first Antivirus software that we are going to be using is RogueKiller which will scan and delete viruses and trojans. In order to run RogueKiller, perform the following steps.
- Click “here” to download RogueKiller.
- Once downloaded, click on the executable and follow the prompts to install it on your device.
- Close any extra programs and right–click on the “RogueKiller.exe“.
- Select the “Run as Administrator” option and a “Pre–Scan” will be initiated.
Clicking on the “Run as Administrator” option - Click on the “Start Scan” button and wait for it to finish.
Clicking on the “Start Scan” button - Click on the “Delete” option and wait until the process finishes.
Clicking on the “Delete” option
Malwarebytes:
Another good option to remove threats from the computer is “Malwarebytes”. In order to learn how to use Malwarebytes, you can read our article from here.
Combofix:
The last Antivirus that we recommend you to run is the “Combofix” Antivirus. In order to run that:
- Download the “Combofix” Antivirus from here.
- Click on the executable and follow the prompts to install it.
- Make sure to close all “Browsers” and third-party applications before continuing
- Right–click on the “Combofix.exe” and select “Run as Administrator” option.
Clicking on the “Run as Administrator” option - If Combofix asks you to install “Recovery Console” allow it by clicking on “yes” in the prompt.
Prompt after installing Recovery Console - Also, if Combofix asks you to update the program allow that as well.
- Combofix will run automatically and remove threats from your system.
After scanning and repairing your computer through all of these programs it is safe to say that the Virus from your computer has been removed. Therefore, now we can reconfigure Avast to the previous settings by reinstalling it completely.
Solution 2: Re-Installing Application
By following the above solution we can say with certainty that the virus that was manifesting itself on your computer has been removed and now it is safe to re-install Avast. In order to do that:
- Press “Windows” + “Run” key simultaneously to open up the Run prompt.
Pressing Windows+R to open the Run Prompt - Type in “appwiz.cpl” and press “Enter“.
Typing in “appwiz.cpl” in the Run prompt - Select “Avast” from the list of programs and click on the “uninstall” button.
- Click on “yes” in the prompt and follow the rest of the prompts.
- Avast will now be uninstalled from your device and you will be asked to reboot your device.
- After rebooting the device, follow the steps from “Method 1” of this article to completely clean it from your registry.
- Now download Avast from here and click on the executable to install it.
- Once it is installed, make sure to run a system scan and check to see if the issue persists.
Solution 3: Contacting Avast Customer Support
If the above methods didn’t work for you then it is possible that the issue might be isolated to your computer. Therefore, we recommend generating a “Debug Log” file and posting it along with your details on the Avast Customer support forum. In order to generate the log file:
- Open Avast and click on the “menu” button in the top right corner.
- Click on the “Settings” option and select the “Troubleshooting” tab.
Selecting Settings from the menu - Make sure that the box before “Enable Debug Logging” is checked.
Checking the “Enable Debug Logging” option for Avast - Navigate to the log folder, normally it is located in
C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software\Tuneup\log\ - Send the log files located inside the folder to the representatives on this forum along with some details about your issue.
