James Delahunty
12 Nov 2008 4:18
A recent update to AVG 8 has caused massive headaches for its owner and for many users who ended up with a crippled Windows XP operating system. At the core of the problem is a false positive of user32.dll, a vital Windows Operating System file, which the updated AVG 8 reported as a trojan horse. Upon the false detection, the AVG update prompted the user to delete the file to fix the problem, which in turn could result in Windows XP endlessly rebooting.
The problem affected the Windows XP operating system with SP2 or SP3 installed. It didn't affect systems using Windows XP in the English language, but affected Windows installations using the Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish languages. Upon noticing the problem, an update to fix it was immediately pushed out.
"AVG is actively working to remedy the problem some users are experiencing related to the most recent update to commercial and free versions of AVG 7.5 and AVG 8.0 in some languages. A number of users who installed the update mistakenly received a warning that the Windows system file user32.dll product version 5.1.2600.3099 was infected with a Trojan virus and were prompted to delete a file essential to the operation of Windows XP." a company representative said.
The Czech anti-virus company has posted a fix tool and further details on its website. For users who are unable to boot Windows after updating to the latest version, they have been told to, "contact their AVG reseller or ask a friend to download the information and fix tool for them." This latest problem comes after a recent update identified elements of the ZoneAlarm security software as a threat.