[gui-talk] Another AVG RFree Edition question ee

Joel Deutsch jdeutsch at dslextreme.com
Wed Sep 12 10:52:21 CDT 2007 

Hi Steve,

Well, I'm not going to worry over this any more if it doesn't finally 
prevent the program from doing its job. I mean, yesterday I discovered that 
after I make a legitimate change in the scheduling menu, close the menu 
properly, then press Escape to exit that function, which also was never 
troublesome before, I get the silly error message. Just out of curiosity, I 
went into that same menu again, left it, and pressed Escape to leave the 
Test Center, and that time did *not* get an error message. So it isn't even 
consistent. And the error messages are completely uninformative. Why I 
should have to worry about their log file is beyond me. Would it be so 
financially burdensome to them to have a few explanatory words in the error 
message itself, as a more civilized program would do? I don't think so.

anyway, I discovered that AVG has a repair feature that operates much as the 
Jaws Repair does, where you launch the installation file again but choose 
Repair when it detects that the program doesn't need to be installed and 
asks you what you want to do. No, its messages in those dialogues aren't 
very explicit or helpful, but my long experience with the Jaws Repair 
allowed me to guess correctly what was going on. So I ran the repair on this 
copy of the program, and now let's see if it persists in this behavior with 
the error messages about nonexistent transgressions. A little more such 
silliness and I may just give in and move to that Nod32 program that has so 
many fervent partisans on the JFW list and the Blind Tech list, the kind of 
people who, every time someone asks an innocent question about how to 
operate their AVG program, one of the Nod 32 people pipes up with a rant 
about how AVG is junk and everyone with any sense should be using Nod32. 
It's so predictable that you could put money on it. The reaction, I mean.

Thanks again for your support.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 8:00 PM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Another AVG RFree Edition question ee


Hi Joel,

I've had installation problems go away more than once after a second boot 
even though it should not happen.
However, the odds are that you are correct, that another boot won't change 
anything.  Still, you might try the same
manual scan again at some point in case something has changed that solved 
the problem.  Unfortunately, logic only
works some of the time with computer problems because they are getting so 
complicated.  I could come up with a
couple of scenarios where something you didn't know was running at a given 
time could have interfered.  You may also
have just plain run into a bug that affects yours but not all systems.

I have no idea if there is anything of use in the ".ERR" file.  Since they 
do not provide any technical support, it is
possible that they have placed some information of value in that file, but 
it could well be of no help as you suspect.
However, clicking on a file and having it open in NotePad is a different 
process than opening notePad and then
opening the files.  NotePad won't read every files, but there are times when 
text files are created with other endings.
Often, for example, status messages showing installation activities written 
in text are placed in ".LOG" files, and at least
on some systems, clicking on them will not open them with any programs by 
default.  However, NotePad will usually read
them.  You can also right-click a file and the menu that comes up will allow 
you to choose how to open it.  You can
even add what Windows calls an "association."  It is possible to tell 
Windows that you would like to open ".err" files
with NotePad and clicking on them would still work.  However, this only 
affects which file ending triggers which program.
It will not, for example, make one program read a file it can't read.  For 
example, you could open a ".DOC" file with
NotePad even though it is usually a Word file.  However, you would see a 
whole lot of junk.  You may or may not find
the original text burried in there.  You can also create a text file and 
then save it as a ".DOC" file.  When I say "save
as" I simply mean naming it as a ".DOC" file.  I don't mean finding a ".DOC" 
option in the "save as" menu because you
won't find one in NotePad.  Now, if you clicked on that file, Word would try 
to read it even if it is a text file.  I don't know
what Word would do.  It might just tell you that the file is not in correct 
word format or maybe it would try to convert it
from text to word.  The point is that clicking on a file simply opens the 
program that windows has associated with that file
using the file type or file "extension" that is after the period.  You can 
look at the long list of associations in, I believe,
folder options, but it's pretty boring unless you have a particular 
interest..

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:33:41 -0700, Joel Deutsch wrote:

>hello Steve,

>Yes, I rebooted after uninstalling, rebooted after installing also. There
>shouldn't have been any reason to just keep rebooting after that, not that 
>I
>can think of. And yes, I understand that .err identifies an error message,
>and if it wouldn't open in Notepad when I simply clicked on it, the way a
>text file would, do you think it would open if I launched notepad first,
>then imported it into the blank file? I never thought of that as being
>different. But in any case, I'm almost certain that even if I would see the
>contents, they'd be gibberish to me.

>last, I couldn't send the filename or its contents to Grisoft, because I am
>using the Free Edition and it doesn't include tech support.

>As for the rest, well, as I think I said , I got one of those vague error
>messages when I concluded a manual scan in the copy of the program I have
>just replaced, and now I've gotten an error message in an entirely new copy
>of the program after doing something else that ought to be legal, as well.
>In-between, the first copy of the program has been expunged from my system
>as best I as a regular end user is supposed to managed (meaning uninstall
>from Control Panel, and delete any files and folders from the hard drive,
>but not know how to go into the Registry, which I'm not qualified to do.

>And then I rebooted. And then I downloaded and installed and configured an
>entirely different copy  of the program. And rebooted . And changed a
>setting I should have been able to change without incurring a penalty. And
>got another error message. I can't easily say this is a bug that's
>universally in the program, I don't think. Millions of people use it
>successfully. Could it be some incompatibility related to my own innocent
>Dell Dimensions 2000 system with Win XP home? Who knows.

>Ah, well.
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
>To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 5:55 PM
>Subject: Re: [gui-talk] Another AVG RFree Edition question ee


>Joel,

>The file name ends with .ERR, and windows uses these last characters to
>figure out with which software to open a file.
>If I were you, I would try opening the error file with NotePad and see if 
>it
>Makes any sense.

>Sometimes when you install new software, it is a good idea to reboot an
>extra time even if it is not specifically specified.
>I've seen cases where an installation was not quite complete even though
>indications wer that it had completed.
>Therefore, rebooting and trying again is not a bad idea unless you are sure
>you had already rebooted several times
>between the completion of the install and when you got the error message.

>I probably don't have to tell you that even if you had done something 
>wrong,
>the software should have informed you as
>to what you did and end gracefully.  You're dealing with some sort of bug 
>or
>system problem.  It is possible that the
>contents of your ".ERR" file might be meaningless to the reader but mean
>something to AVG.  Therefore, you might
>want to save it in case you end up writing to AVG.

>On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:48:01 -0700, Joel Deutsch wrote:

>>HI Doris or anyone who may understand what happened, below.

>>With Doris' reassurance, I went ahead and downloaded both updates I was
>>offered for my newly installed copy of AVG Free Edition v. 7.5. After 
>>doing
>>so, I checked the status messages that display on the Control Center
>>interface, and everything was now in order.

>>Then I had one more thing I wanted to do, which  was to disable the daily
>>virus scan so that I could run it when I chose, less often than daily and
>>at
>>whatever time of day might best suit me at the time. So I launched the 
>>Test
>>Center and went to the Scheduler tab.

>>There, as experienced users will know, you find the scan and the update
>>service listed separately, one after the other. Whichever of the two you
>>wish to reschedule, you put it in focus, selected, then tab to the control
>>that opens a dialogue for modifying its schedule.

>>I didn't touch the schedule for the update, because that takes only a few
>>seconds and is no problem for me. And it's vital, of course, if you want 
>>to
>>try to keep up with the virus writers.

>>As for So I clicked on the modification control for the scan itself. Here,
>>you can change the time of the daily scan or, if you choose, uncheck the
>>line that enables the scan, to disable it altogether, leaving it to be 
>>done
>>manually. I tabbed to OK to make the change permanent, and the dialogue
>>disappeared. Fine.

>>Then, I forget if it was right away or when I pressed Alt F 4 to exit the
>>Test Center, I got the inscrutable AVG Free Edition error message I'd seen
>>before, on the copy of the program I'd just cleanly uninstalled and then
>>replaced with this new one. Something bad happened, it says. And refers 
>>you
>>to a file in Documents and Settings/Admin/AVG7/ to see the particulars and
>>learn what the problem is. Or at least that's what I assumed the message
>>was
>>suggesting.

>>But no, I go into that folder, find the file, press Enter on it, and get
>>the
>>windows notification that Windows can't open the file and needs to know
>>with
>>what program it was created, and so forth.

>>Well, I don't know what to answer to that, if I should be having to do so
>>in
>>the first place. How am I to find out why AVG gave me an error message
>>after
>>I did something the interface allowed me to do? It's not as if I'd tried 
>>to
>>tweak something that can't be tweaked unless you're using the Pro version.
>>This was something that was, so far as I could tell, legitimate.

>>By the way, this "something bad happened" is the message I was getting 
>>when
>>I ran the scan manually in the copy of AVG I just replaced. The scan would
>>run, but then this error message would superimpose istle f on the results
>>Window. And I hadn't done anything more criminal than run the scan
>>manually.
>>And that was without having disabled the automatic scan, at that time.

>>anyway, I virtualized the filename and I'll paste it in here, below. If
>>anyone understands what's going on in this scenario and/or recognizes this
>>error filename, please advise. I really just want to use AVG Free Edition
>>without the automatic scan, and as far as I can tell from the interface, I
>>should be able to. I'm baffled.

>>Thanks to anyone who understands this and can offer advice.
>>Here's the error file:

>>Name Size Type Date Modified

>>avgwb.err 6 KB ERR File 9/11/2007 3:16


>>thanks very much.

>>_______________________________________________
>>gui-talk mailing list
>>gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>>http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk




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>-- 
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition.
>Version: 7.5.485 / Virus Database: 269.13.15/1002 - Release Date: 9/11/2007
>5:46 PM


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-- 
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.485 / Virus Database: 269.13.15/1002 - Release Date: 9/11/2007 
5:46 PM

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