Removing AntiVir Nag Screen on Windows XP Home Edition

Does anybody know how to successfully remove the AntiVir nag screen on Windows XP Home Edition?

With XP Professional it was successful using the Local Security Policies under Administrative Tools; which is unavailable in XP Home.

With Windows 2000 it was successful using the security tab on the actual executable file and choosing the options to deny executing it; which is unavailable in XP Home.

I just got a new PC and I am pretty much stuck using XP Home for legal reasons, seeing how I never had legitimate licences for the other OS's. I am just hoping that somebody has figured out a way to successfully block the AntiVir nag screen on XP Home. I like AntiVir, but I will not use it with that nag screen, no way.

OT Rant: One thing that really angers me about AntiVir is when it updates while you are playing a movie from the computer through to the stereo and TV and also with full screen games; it really screws things up. They really need an option like avast! has so that the pop up does not interfere with full screen applications.

Cheers,
Dave

 

I agree. Sunbelt Kerio Firewall's Application Behavior Blocking feature will do this even inthe free version, but it's a pain at first because of the many pop ups that happen as programs need allowed or denied. Also ProcessGuard Free will do it, but using either one isn't the way it should have to be done. I rather just get E-mail from Avira about the Premium Version along with the news letter they send. I have temporarily switched to AOL AVs and like it, but I do miss having Antivir PE on board.

 

Just switch to another free av if its bothering you so much. Avast, avg, clamwin and etrust antivirus are all free and do a good job.

 

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=814484&postcount=31
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=817473&postcount=60

 

Much appreciated. Those links worked like a charm.
I apologize for not doing a more thorough forum search on my own, I was going mostly from memory of recent threads.

Thanks,
Dave

 

I saw this before, but I guess it just seemed to be easier to uninstall Antivir and install an equally effective AV at the time, as it actually bothered me more to have to go into Safe Mode and change something, then the Nag Screen itself did. Especially when Avira is apparently too stubborn (like myself obviously) to just do away with it. I have always said how much I like Antivir, and as a matter of fact I used the old version that you had to manually update. This whole Nag Screen thing for me is now more about Principle than it is about being bothered by a simple clicking of an ok button. I know my posts may not have always reflected this, but honestly why can't Avira just do away with it? Do they truly feel this makes a difference in selling more upgrades this way? I don't really know for sure, but my guess would be that many other AV's have had as many, or at least close to the same amount of increased sales as Avira has from it's Freeware Users, without the High Test Scores and especially without a Nag Screen.

 

Daved and ggf31416, I tried stopping the Notifier by going into safe mode, logging into Administrator, and then following the rest of the instructions listed in the post, but I obviously did something wrong as the Notifier was up when I got on the PC this morning. Where I'm not sure what to do is after right clicking on avnotify exe. then going to properties, security, Advanced, and finally edit, is where the option to not let it execute for all users is. I changed permissions to deny, but that apparently didn't work. I see a list in edit, but again not clear where to go from there. I would appreciate further help. I am usually a little more computer literate than this and will try again, but I look forward to your responses and thanks ahead of time.

 

You are in the right section. You only need to place a checkmark in the box for "Traverse Folder / Execute". I believe that is what it is called. You have to do that for each user group. For example, select Administrator and click Edit, place a checkmark for "Traverse Folder / Execute", click OK. Select Users, follow same steps. Select SYSTEM, follow same steps. Select (your user name), follow same steps. Sort list so that the Deny "Traverse Folder / Execute" one's are at the top, I'm not sure if it matters or not though.

 

Thanks for the quick reply DaveD. I appreciate it. I went ahead and did exactly what you posted. I ended up with a total of eight Groups by having two each of Administrator, System, Users, and myself, with four of them of course being the changes made to deny Traverse Folder/ Execute listed at the top. I'll most likely have to wait until Monday to check it, but I trust that you gave me the right info, so thanks again for that. By the way have you used AOL AVS? I started a thread about the Kaspersky Chkdsk problems some people are claiming to have using both KAV and AVS. Just curious what your thoughts may be on this.

 

I did use AOL AVS for several weeks not too long ago. One thing that I liked about it over AntiVir PE was the automatic updates. The updates were quick, often, and not bothersome at all. With AntiVir PE the updates were only once every 24 hours and had a popup (not the notifier) that would kill games and/or movies that were running in full-screen mode. I liked that AVS had a mail scanner as well, but not a completely necessary.

But as I had said in a previous thread, AVS just bogs the computer down too much for my use. AntiVir is quick and snappy without the need for all of those "optimizations" that AVS has. Even when you enable all of the optimizations it is still slower then AntiVir. If you look at the Retrospective/ProActive Test for May 2006 at http://www.av-comparatives.org/ you will see that Kaspersky is one of the slowest scanning engines in the speed section.

I really haven't got anything against AVS (Kaspersky) but for me, performance is important to me. Both AV's have similar detection rates.

I also have to admit that the Chkdsk error has me worried as well. It did affect me, probably because I changed the settings every which way and ran many scans just to see what it was all about. But I'm not willing to try it again until there is some "official" recognition of the problem.

 

I remember your post now DaveD. Yeah this thing with the Chkdsk seems very real. Mine doesn't hang at 7% like some have reported nor am I getting any errors, but Phase Two does take a long time before it starts to scan. Maybe this is normal I don't know, and after it starts the rest of the proceedure goes rather quickly. Not sure, but other than that I may have dodged a bullit. I'll stick with Antivir, as I read it will soon update faster by not having the Guard disappear during the update. That, along with the Administrator fix I'll call it to prevent the Notifier Window will keep me happy I believe. Also I do think my PC is faster with logging on and off, than it was with AVS. Anyway, thanks again for your help and your reply to the AVS question. You take care and have a good evening.

 

I need to correct what I had previously said about the update popup killing full screen games and movies...

Changing the Display Mode of the Daily Update within the Scheduler of AntiVir PE to "Invisible" allows updates to work and not interfere with full screen games and movies.

However, since I have the Notifier nag screen disabled, I am not sure if that would affect full screen games and movies or not. I honestly don't feel like testing that out.