AVG Update Cripples Windows 7

[Boyfriend]

For those of you who are using Windows 7, you may want to watch out if your using AVG antivirus to protect your system. On Wedensday night, AVG released an update for it’s antivirus program which*completely*crippled Windows 7 64 bit systems and rendered them useless.

The culprit was a simple virus definition update version*271.1.1/3292 (432/3292). The error message that appeared was:

STOP: c0000135 The program can’t start because %hs is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

More info: AVG Update Cripples Windows 7 (WOT: Green)

AVG Blogs: AVG fix for computers running on Windows 7 64-bit platform - updated

AVG Forum: Windows Will Not Start After AVG Update

[Alboguy]

Typical AVG...

[leofelix]

AVG strikes again
I remember when millions of XP users had their OS completely messed up by AVG

[INDRANIL]

Hmm Bad luck . That can be happened with any av product . Fix is available .

[Neo]

thx i dont use it :P

[princeaniket]

i was using win 7 32 bit version and now degraded it to vista home premium..
i am at least safe by it..

[luffy]

What is AVG? Is it McAfee neighbor?

[princeaniket]

What is AVG? Is it McAfee neighbor?

ha ha ha.. what a comment..

[Neo]

i dont understand update
if u cant start how would avg update to fix the issue

[safeguy]

Moral value of the story: Sometimes, having the *latest* up-to-the-minute updates can bring more harm than good.

Here's a good read by Dedoimedo:

Automatic updates are dangerous

Back to topic - I'd think that AVG ought to have learnt something from their past mistake by now....they can't afford to screw up PCs by such repeated incidents. Not only does it bring grief to its users but it'll tarnish their image further...no matter what they say (explanation of why it occured) or how many words of apologies they offer. Not even free licenses to Pro versions can repair the damage although that may calm down the situation by a small margin...

I don't know what others think but I'd rather swallow a few 'harmless' FPs that bring slight annoyances rather than a stupid update that messes up everything...

Although it doesn't seem like it's affecting 32-bit users, I'm already thinking of replacing AVG (that was installed by someone else for it's 'simplicity' and 'quietness') on my uncles' netbook with another AV that has a better 'reputation' seeing that he grants me the permission to install the right apps for his PC. I initially thought that I'd let it be as I was giving AVG the benefit of doubt and assume that it is "improving" with it's latest releases despite some known and published issues but such news isn't music to my ears...too bad.

P.S. I'll probably fail to convince my other relatives who are fans of AVG to use something else though. I'll let those be...so no worries for AVG. They're not losing all of their customers