HitmanPro.ALERT Support and Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'other anti-malware software' started by erikloman, May 25, 2012.

  1. RonnyT

    RonnyT QA Engineer

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    For those running in to the startmenu issue with HitmanPro.Alert installed can you try the following?

    Kill the user mode process of hitmanpro.alert and see if that recovers the ShellHostExperience / StartMenu.

    Right mouse taskbar 'Task Manager'
    - More details
    - Switch to TAB users
    - Click open the user
    - Select HitmanPro.Alert proces(ses).
    - Right mouse -> End Task

    Don't kill the service.

    Anyone able to host a remote support session on a system with 100% reproduction?
     
  2. plat1098

    plat1098 Guest

    I can tell you after a great week of fast startups without having to sign out/in, I installed Alert just now, first the 723 whereupon the frozen Start/taskbar occurred, then rebooted to allow installation of the 729, again with the Start/taskbar issue and a "TaskHostWindow is preventing shutdown" message. Also, for the first time, there is an event id 7011 timeout error involving startup of OSArmor service. If so inclined, I'll volunteer for a remote session. Alert is uninstalled again and pending.

    hmpa and shell exp host.PNG
     
  3. RonnyT

    RonnyT QA Engineer

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    So if you install 729 again you will get a second Critical event and start menu is not responding?
    Did you try to kill the user mode process of HitmanPro.Alert also and has this any effect?
     
  4. plat1098

    plat1098 Guest

    Yes, I did. It was then necessary to uninstall Alert in Safe Mode because I couldn't get the power options via right-click this time. It's pretty clear the cause and effect. Here, a snip showing no Alert processes after I removed them in users/task manager and failure of Settings. There was no recovery of any kind after Alert services were stopped. Any other information you need, I can try to provide. Thanks. Edit: you can see OSArmor service did not load.

    frozen taskbar.PNG
     
  5. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    So much for that theory. :(
     
  6. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    Well after a fresh install of build 729 in Windows 10 1703, no problems in over 24 hours! :thumb:
     
  7. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    Original problem:

    3 computers, 1 desktop and 2 laptops. Desktop worked fine with 729 but neither laptop did. Desktop did not have Malwarebytes but the two laptops did.

    Results for uninstalling Malwarebytes from two laptops: MIXED

    I uninstalled Malwarebytes on one laptop and reinstalled 729. Problem solved

    I uninstalled Malwarebytes on the other laptop and reinstalled 729. Problem with accessing apps from Windows start button and using Windows search window still exists.
     
  8. RonnyT

    RonnyT QA Engineer

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    We have reports that for some users changing the following setting solves the issue:

    Right mouse click on Start menu -> Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in Options
    Scroll down to Privacy -> Use my sign in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart -> slide setting to OFF.

    Please let us know if this helps, if it doesn't try to create a new user account (local) and see if that is also affected by the broken start menu issue.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...l-user-or-administrator-account-in-windows-10
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2018
  9. paulderdash

    paulderdash Registered Member

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    Indeed that was the solution for me, IIRC.
     
  10. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    I had my fingers crossed. Sadly it did not work for my remaining laptop.
     
  11. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Ronny, I have already tried changing that setting on my machines and at first I thought it worked but soon enough the Start Menu bug returned.
     
  12. MikeRepairs

    MikeRepairs Registered Member

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    Adding the second user profile did not fix the start menu, It appeared to fix it at first, but the 2nd profile had the same issue when rebooting.

    Whenever the HMPA start menu problem happens, this is a related error / symptom when restarting: The system hangs up with "Task Host is stopping background tasks. (\Microsoft\Windows\Plug and Play\Device Install Reboot Required." System will sit here forever. Workaround: click on Restart Anyway.
     
  13. JEAM

    JEAM Registered Member

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    A very interesting thing happened yesterday. The HMP.A shield icon in the Notification Area had disappeared shortly after the crashes reported in the quoted post. But yesterday the HMP.A icon came back on its own; previously, a reboot had been necessary to bring it back.
     
  14. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    I have uninstalled HMPA build 729 for a 2nd time from my Win 10 Pro 1703 system.

    Lost control of the user session again. Menus and application windows would not open and close correctly any more. Opened task manager, but could not end any tasks. CPU usage showed 0% for all running tasks. This has happened several times since updating to 729. I run fine at startup, this issue only appears after system has been running for a while.

    Had to power off, rebooted, then uninstalled HMPA. Rebooted again, running OK again, without HMPA for now...
     
  15. focus

    focus Registered Member

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    After trying many things, this worked for me.....

    "Just by these steps : 1- Right click on start menu and click on Run. "For those who the start menu does not respond with right click, right click on taskbar - click on Task Manager - from File menu on the left upper corner select Run new task". 2-White the command regedit and click Enter. 3- Go to path [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService]. 4-Double click on Start from the right side. 5-Change the value data to 4 then OK. 6-Reboot. That's it."

    Caution: make a backup before trying this fix...it has worked for me long term but there are no guarantees. I even hesitate to post this but it may help. The fix came from a long thread that I can't find now.

    Here is the link, go to page 5...

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...t-window/c47b5fca-cc6d-405e-b563-5ba0a4c82892
     
  16. MikeRepairs

    MikeRepairs Registered Member

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    I have not tried that yet, but I read that doing that will turn off the Windows Push Notification service.

     
  17. dios

    dios Registered Member

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    The hmpa-app but not the service crashed today, this is what I found in Event Viewer:

    Faulting application name: hmpalert.exe, version: 3.7.3.729, time stamp: 0x5a537f89
    Faulting module name: hmpalert.dll, version: 3.7.3.729, time stamp: 0x5a5378cc
    Exception code: 0xc00000fd
    Fault offset: 0x00064a14
    Faulting process id: 0x174c
    Faulting application start time: 0x01d38e0a9b4a39a9
    Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\HitmanPro.Alert\hmpalert.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\hmpalert.dll
    Report Id: 4d7c4e17-01e1-428e-9904-1a7dc7c49c7f
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:

    When I restart the hmpa-app it starts without issues but the system tray icon is gone until I reboot. (Maybe I could restart the service but that will leave a small window of opportunity for attack, right?) Also, when I start the app now (not yet rebooted), two instances of hmpalert.exe show up in the "Details" view of Taskmgr.exe. Apparently one instance is still running in the background. If that means the protection is still working, it's a good sign.

    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
    Version 10.0.15063 Build 15063
     
  18. maniac2003

    maniac2003 Registered Member

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    I run into the same issue now with 729 but not every time. Killing the processes does not work for me.
     
  19. dios

    dios Registered Member

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    This has occurred to me as well recently, but I didn't know if it was related to hmpa. Nothing would open, not even task manager.
     
  20. maniac2003

    maniac2003 Registered Member

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    Got the issue 4-times in a row. Disabled HMP.A service > reboot > problem gone for now.
     
  21. MikeRepairs

    MikeRepairs Registered Member

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    Had the issue on a couple more customer computers today, could not sell them HMPA right now.
     
  22. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    No errors or logs implicating HMPA 729, or anything else, just ruling it out because it was the most recent change on the system.

    But oddly enough, just had the same issue occur without HMPA running. So now I am going to investigate other things, like the update that Firefox recently rushed out to v 57.0.4 in response to the Intel memory bug. I generally always have a Firefox browser window open, but it would seem odd that could hang windows up. Will try to work around that and see. I have Chrome as a backup. ;)
     
  23. feerf56

    feerf56 Registered Member

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    Does HitmanPro.Alert protect my processor Meltdown and Spectre bug against?
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2018
  24. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I have temporarily uninstalled HMP.A from my machines to check for the Start Menu reliability.

    One thing I noticed straight away after the first restart, the Windows Start tone is working again.
     
  25. pilipali

    pilipali Registered Member

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    Does Hitmanpro.Alert conflict with F-secure internet security 17.2? I sometimes get this notification that my license has expired although it has not. Problem goes away when I re-insert F-scure license code. License is legally bought and valid. I have e-mailed to F-secure support about this and they suspected HMP.A might cause this but I don't know.
     
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