Avira update blocked Windows applications

Antivirus firm Avira said it has fixed a problem that led several of its products to mistakenly block legitimate Windows applications during an Avira software update.

"This issue has been resolved. Your Avira products should now be functioning normally," the German company said in a note on its Web site. "We deeply regret any difficulties this has caused you. Thank you for your patience and understanding."

Shortly after the company began releasing Service Pack 0 for Avira Version 2012 yesterday, customers began complaining about problems running Windows, Office and Works, as well as a host of third-party applications including Google Talk and Documents to Go, according to ZDNet.

"We contacted all of our users to let them know about our fix to the ProActiv situation this morning," Travis Witteveen, chief operating officer of Avira, said in a statement to CNET. "The issue only arose on 32-bit Windows premium, suite and professional products, whom had ProActiv turned on (by default ProActiv is an opt-in feature, so the infected base was not the entire base). We do not know the exact number of those impacted, but we are confident we reacted immediately and communicated thoroughly."

The ProActiv feature in three Avira products, Avira Professional Security, Internet Security 2012, and Antivirus Premium 2012, was blocking the applications, Avira said. ProActiv is not included in free versions of the software so customers using that software were not affected.

The Avira site provides information for disabling ProActiv going forward and gives tips for manually updating the software if customers continue to have problems.

Avira isn't the only antivirus vendor to have a faulty update. It happened with McAfee in 2010, as well as AVG in 2008 and Symantec in 2007.