Stop Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 from booting up with Windows

Is there a way to do so? I have just installed the trial version since I heard it has really good detection and repair capabilities but I only want to use it as an on demand scanner, like I have always done in the past with NOD 32/ESET AV, but I can´t seem to get rid of it.
I have disabled all the options from within the program, I have removed it from the list of startup programs and all its processes are set to manual except the update service which cannot be changed even in safe mode (it something like it´s not really a service but a placeholder for another service ) but it keeps coming back on every boot, there are always 3 or 4 processes running (plus the systray icon). Does anyone know how to disable it so I can just start it as needed?
Thanks a lot in advance.

 

Hi jhr76

It sounds like you are trying to stop it without first disabling the "self protection" feature found in most AV software. This feature while useful, can also cause problems.

When self protection is on, it is supposed to protect the AV from being disabled due to a viral/malware attack, user mistakes, etc., although these type of protections also can cause other apps to break in some cases due to the AV disallowing certain registry changes, although the protection is to be for the AV program itself, it can still cause issues.

In your case, find the self protection or whatever bit defender calls it, and disable it. then your attempts to tame it *should* work unless BD has other tricks of embedding or protecting itself, but I think the problem is its built in protection that is hindering you from stopping it and using as manual solution.

Hope this helps.

Jim

 

If all you want is on-demand scanning, then you might check out the free tools. The 60 second scanner may do all that you want.

 

@ Jim1cor13 : if it has any self protection feature then it is not listed in the settings menu, and if there is then it must be disabled already because I turned everything to off but it still comes up on boot (3 processes: bdagent, updateserv and vsserv even though automatic updates are off and the virus shield is disabled)

@ Notok : I don´t know what the 60 second scanner is, and in any case I`d like to be able to use Bitdefender since I heard good things about it. There must be a way to stop it from starting automatically

 

Hi jhr

The services you have listed can be disabled, but it takes more than just disabling from services.msc. I am almost certain there is self protection but not certain what BD calls it. You can go to Start, Run and type services.msc and see what is listed from BD and make sure you have them actually set to "Disable".

The other method is to go to device manager, then from the file bar under "view", click "Show hidden devices" and now look under "Non plug and play drivers". I believe there you will find vsserv, etc. or at least be able to disable them at a low level then reboot. Just remember, I am not sure, but with BD, if you are able to finally accomplish taming it down to on demand only, not sure if it will work properly if vsserv is disabled, it might just have to do with updates, but I cannot remember.

It has been awhile since messing with BD products, but I do remember i was able to shut it all down, that may have changed in later releases though.

You will find some interesting things in the "non plug and play drivers list" under hidden devices, maybe even some entries from programs you thought were uninstalled that still have an entry. Please, just be careful as playing around in this area can cause problems if the wrong module is disabled or if one is not paying close attention to what they are stopping/disabling.

Hope you can work it out.

Jim

 

BitDefender has a few free products, and they may do what you want without trying to configure the paid version in ways that it's not meant to be used.
http://www.bitdefender.com/toolbox/freeapps/desktop/

The 60 second scanner does scheduled and on-demand scans of your system. TrafficLight does link checking, and so on.

 

Interesting thanks.

 

There is a free on-demand version. -http://www.bitdefender.com.au/solutions/free.html- An older engine but might not matter if only scanning on-demand with the same signatures

 

@ Jim1cor13 : I couldn´t find anything from BD under the list of hidden services, though I may have missed it since most of the names are rather cryptic, the only thing that might have something to do with it is bdfwfpf but I´m not sure and I´m not willing to risk disabling it. According to a google search it is "BitDefender Firewall WFP Filter Driver", but the firewall insn´t part of the AV (I had tried total security first but I found it too obtrusive, too many processes so I uninstalled it and I already use Online Armaor Free and I`m happy with it).
I think I´ll let it be for now and see how the system behaves, the few times I checked all 3 processes were using between 12 and 15 megs of RAM. Otherwise I´ll try one of the other free BD products (I had been using one alongside NOD32, but apparently it was an old engine, Bitdefender 2009 Free.

Thanks everyone for all the help

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Bitdefender 2013 an AV that will not allow installation as an on demand "only" scanner? I seem to remember that when I was running it a couple of years ago.