XP updates - no icons - Online Armor causing the problem

[OldGifford]

After installing the latest XP upgrades there were no icons or task bar and ctrl alt del did not bring up task manager. I had to hard reset the PC and go into safe mode to restore XP to an earlier time to get my user account working again.  I downloaded some of the updates and the same thing happened again. I tried installing updates a couple at a time, same thing. I then uninstalled OA and downloaded and installed all the updates without a problem. I installed OA from a fresh download and once again no icons or task bar so another reset and safe mode to uninstall OA. Anyone else seen this?

I noticed these recurring error in the XP logs.


The COM+ Event System failed to create an instance of the subscriber partition:{41E90F3E-56C1-4633-81C3-6E8BAC8BDD70}!new:{58FC39EB-9DBD-4EA7-B7B4-9404CC6ACFAB}.  CoGetObject returned HRESULT 8000401A.


The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
AFD
Fips
intelppm
IPSec
MpFilter
MRxSmb
NetBIOS
NetBT
OADevice
oahlpXX
OAmon
OAnet
RasAcd
Rdbss
Tcpip
truecrypt

 

[GT500]

Did you put Online Armor in Learning Mode when you installed updates? We do recommend that Online Armor be running in Learning Mode when installing Windows Updates.

[GT500]

Our developers have determined that this issue is most likely due to an update to Microsoft Security Essentials, and we recommend adding exclusions to Microsoft Security Essentials for Online Armor, and vice versa.

To create an exclusion in Microsoft Security Essentials, please follow these instructions (note that you may need to restart your computer in Safe Mode before doing this, and you can find instructions for that at this link):

• Open Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Go to the Settings tab.
• Select Excluded processes from the menu on the left.
• Click the Add button on the right.
• Using the little [+] and [-] buttons to the left of folder names to open and close them, navigate to the Online Armor folder, select the file you wish to exclude, and click OK to add it.
• Repeat the last two steps until you have added each of the following files:
  • oacat
  • oahlp
  • oasrv
  • oaui
• Be sure to click the Save changes button in the lower-right corner when all of the files have been added.

Please note that the Online Armor folder should be as follows:

C:\Program Files\Online Armor

On 64-bit editions of Windows, it will be a bit different:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Online Armor

Here are instructions to add Microsoft Security Essentials to the exclusions in Online Armor (be sure to restart your computer if it is running in Safe Mode, as Online Armor will not run in Safe Mode):

• Open Online Armor.
• Go to Options in the menu on the left.
• Go to the Exclusions tab.
• Click on the Add button.
• Using the little [+] and [-] buttons to the left of folder names to open and close them, navigate to the Microsoft Security Essentials folder, click on the folder to select it, and click OK to add it.
• Be sure that the option to also exclude subfolders is selected before closing Online Armor.

The Microsoft Security Essentials should be in C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files\Common Files, and it may be named Microsoft Security Client.

[Datastor]

Hi Arthur, 

 

Thanks for the details and instructions provided, all has been done and working well!

 

Out of interest would be be possible for Emsisoft to add/perform the exclusions during any new install if MSE is detected and/or offer a utility/script for customer that have already got Emsisoft rolled out and would like to update a range of company computers?

[OldGifford]

Thanks Arthur, it worked fine, that set of updates has seemingly caused lots of problems elsewhere

[GT500]

Out of interest would be be possible for Emsisoft to add/perform the exclusions during any new install if MSE is detected and/or offer a utility/script for customer that have already got Emsisoft rolled out and would like to update a range of company computers?

Right now Online Armor does not automatically set up exclusions for any other software. I don't know if our developers would be willing to do this, however I can forward your question to them so that they can consider it.

As for scripting exclusions, the way Online Armor's settings are saved does not allow for this. Also, such a feature could be considered a security vulnerability, as an infection could script exclusions for itself and thus bypass Online Armor's protection.