HitmanPro.ALERT Support and Discussion Thread

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

  1. focus

    focus Registered Member

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    Well for me, it fixed the start menu problems and that terribly annoying "Task Host is stopping background tasks" message. HMPA is still installed and working fine. Just went through the last round of WIn 10 and HMPA updates with no problems. I hope you get yours sorted out while still able to use HMPA.
     
  2. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    You could try adding F-Secure to the list of exclusions in HMPA.
    1. Click the gear and switch to advanced UI
    2. Click the blue exploit mitigation tile
    3. Click applications
    4. Scroll all the way to the right and you will see the option to add an exclusion

    Probably a good idea to reboot afterward.
     
  3. maniac2003

    maniac2003 Registered Member

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    Just made the change, let's see if this fixes it for me.
     
  4. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    Well I continued having Windows issues even after uninstalling HMPA 729. I did run the system file checker with 'sfc /scannow' and it was clean. Also ran 4 different on-demand malware scanners (Hitman, EMSI, Malwarebytes, and Zemana), and all clean. All services, drivers, & processes checked with Virus Total. 100% clean!

    So I have rolled back to a system image from a month ago, that was running build 723, and then inserted the registry hack that prevents HMPA autoupdate. So if something was corrupted in Windows recently this should work around that.

    So far, so good! We'll see how this goes. The only things that have had an application version change since re-imaging are Chrome, and my AV. I have no control over that with Avira, as they get pushed out like the definitions.
     
  5. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    Are the Hit Man poohbahs hard at work on a fix so we don't have to try using body english to make 729 work?
     
  6. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Be aware that not everyone is having a problem. I've been running the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update since it was first released with a number of HMPA versions without issues. It's still not clear exactly what is going on.
     
  7. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    I am aware. As stated supra. I had problems with two of three computers. Now down to one of three. Thanks for telling me that it's still not clear exactly what is going on.
     
  8. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    I'm not sure you understand me; I'm saying that the problem may not even be HMPA. I've seen the issue with the Windows 10 Start Menu not responding on systems that don't and never had HMPA installed.
     
  9. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Same here, but then I haven't had the issue on any of my machines since uninstalling HMP.A the other day either.
     
  10. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    Not mine. Did you read my previous posts? Problems started when 729 installed and went away when I uninstalled it. Occurred multiple times. Might not be a common problem, but others seem to have a similar problem.

    Doesn't really matter I suppose. I am still hopeful someone from Sophos will post a status update even if they don't know what the problem is.
     
  11. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    So much for that theory. Alert is uninstalled but two machines just had this Start Menu bug. One still has and I have restarted multiple times and Start Menu is still unresponsive.
     
  12. paulderdash

    paulderdash Registered Member

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  13. pilipali

    pilipali Registered Member

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    This seemed to help, for a while. Got the same F-secure error when started windows today. I did not know what process to exlude, so I added these (see attachment).
     

    Attached Files:

  14. Victek

    Victek Registered Member

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    Looks like you got it covered :) , but to confirm open the Task Manager to see which F-Secure executables are running resident and make sure they are on the exclusion list. You may also be able to add HMPA to F-Secure's exclusion list.
     
  15. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    Dear HMPA guys. I was hoping to hear some sort of status update on the problem I and others above are afflicted with. Nothing fancy required. Maybe something along the lines of:

    a) We've called for a congressional hearing so we can get to the bottom of it, or

    b) We've got our best code man on it and he won't eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom until he fixes it, or

    c) We're flummoxed, don't have a clue, and have given up - good luck.
     
  16. RonnyT

    RonnyT QA Engineer

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    Hi Lawdude,

    Let me stress we're investigating this issue, but it's not just our software that runs in to this problem, there are people who have the same issue with other AV/AM software installed.
    There are even people who have this on fresh machines with only Windows Defender. So we are looking for ways to change our software to prevent this from happening, but the real fix must be provided by Microsoft.

    For now there are two workarounds that seem to work for most people:
    ===================
    Option 1:
    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

    Option 2 (cut/paste from mentioned URL):
    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
    ===================
     
  17. Socio

    Socio Registered Member

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    There is a third option I posted here https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...windows-10-fall-creators-update.397421/page-9

    Open Regedit and go to;
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WpnUserService

    add a DWORD (32bit) "DelayedAutostart" and set it to 1
    add a DWORD (32bit) "AutoStartDelay" and set it to 10 (this gives it a 10 second delay you could go higher or lower but 10 seems to work just fine for me.)

    I boot up with a fully functional menu and I am running HMPA.
     
  18. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Guilty. :(
    That would be fantastic if you could manage that.
    I completely agree.

    I'm reluctant to try registry "fixes" at this point. Maybe when the next upgrade, due in March, arrives it will include a fix. :p
     
  19. Adric

    Adric Registered Member

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    Last edited: Jan 24, 2018
  20. lawdude

    lawdude Registered Member

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    Okie dokie
     
  21. maniac2003

    maniac2003 Registered Member

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    Fixed for me with the registry change. Thanks @focus
     
  22. dios

    dios Registered Member

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    HMPA 3.7.3 build 729 doesn't want to add mpc-hc64.exe to the list of excluded applications. Some other applications seem to be added just fine, although you have to reload the interface where they are shown in the list for those applications to show up in the list. Can anyone confirm this issue? I've upgraded to the FCU and reinstalled HMPA.

    Edit: nvm, it worked after first removing mitigations.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2018
  23. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Hi Ronny,

    That link does not work.
    I have reluctantly tried this registry tweak and will see how it goes. Fingers crossed! :doubt:

    Does anyone know exactly what changing the value from the default (2 in my case) to 4 does?

    Thanks.
     
  24. guest

    guest Guest

    Regarding the startup type (DWORD Start):
     
  25. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Thanks as always, @mood . :thumb:

    I've found it disables Push Notifications.
     
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