Table of Contents
Avast antivirus offers robust security to your system from all possible threats and viruses using its impactful set of shields. This article will help you to understand the perplexity of Avast behavior shield, launched for the first time in Avast 2017. If you have ever experienced issues related to the enabling and disabling of behavior shield while using Avast antivirus or the avast web shield turns itself off automatically, then you have landed on the correct page. This article can be a stop-point for all your searches to solve these errors. In this article, we will discuss possible reasons for the behavior shield’s uncertainty and suggest a few solutions to overcome it. Before jumping to the solutions lets us know about what is avast behavior shield, is avast behavior shield necessary, what is advanced web shield and the possible causes of disabled behavior shield of Avast Antivirus below.
What is Avast Behavior Shield?
Avast Behavior shield is an added feature in Avast Antivirus for protection. It basically examines any suspicious behavior going on in the PC which can be some poisonous code present in the computer. Based on the similarity to other known threats, Avast Behavior shield detects and blocks dubious files before they are added to the virus definitions database.
What is Advanced Web Shield?
An advanced web shield is an additional layer of Avast Antivirus also known as Avast Advanced Web Shield. The main purpose of this is to protect the integrity of the user. It works as a HTTP scanner. The Advanced web shield is mainly used for spyware and malware. Antivirus applications eliminates most of the viruses when it reaches the hard drive but these malicious software does the harm without even reaching to the hard drive and some antivirus are unable to detect them.
What are the possible causes of disabled behavior shield?
Depending on different scenarios while enabling behavior shield, we can divide causes into two broad categories.
1. If you can easily enable a behavior shield once you notice that it is turned off, then the following factor might be the reason for the error.
– Sufficient time was not given to Avast to initialize its processes and services when your system was switched on.
2. If the behavior shield is not enabled even after you manually turn it on, then the following factors might be the reason for the error.
-Avast antivirus might be corrupted, disabling its core functionalities, and needs repair.
-Avast antivirus needs an update.
-Incompetent hardware fails to collect behavior shield responses so Avast may disable it.
-Changes in the aswbIDSAgent service might disable the behavior shield.
-Other safety programs running on your system might have obstructed the functionality of Avast antivirus.
Possible solutions to fix the ‘Avast behavior shield disabled’ error.
Avast behavior shield probes all the programs running on your PC for suspicious behavior. It is enabled by default, but many users have experienced that avast behavior shield keeps turning off automatically. Based on the Avast forum discussion, we have summed up and enlisted six possible methods to resolve the ‘avast behavior shield disabled’ flaws.
1. Wait for Avast to initialize all its services.
Avast takes time to initialize and start its services. It is important to keep patience and allow Avast to take its time to start all its processes. If we act hastily, then some features of Avast fail to start and avast behavior shield keeps turning off automatically.
2. Repair Avast to resume Avast behavior shield’s standard functionality.
Avast can be repaired using Control Panel in Windows. Carefully follow the below-given steps to repair it.
- Search for Control Panel in the quick-access menu and open it.
2. Click on Programs and Features.
3. Search Avast and right-click on it, choose the Change option from the pop-up menu.
4. Choose the repair option.
5. Be patient! It will take a couple of minutes to complete the repair procedure. Reboot your system after the repair is done. Open Avast and check if the avast advanced web shield is off. Try the next solution if still the avast web shield is off.
3. Update to get the patch of Avast behavior shield.
Many users faced problems related to avast advanced web shield in the Avast 2017. Avast programmers took a step and diagnosed flaws in behavior shield and released an updated version of Avast fixing all bugs related to behavior shield. There is a possibility that your system runs an old version of Avast, and a simple update can fix all issues such as avast behavior shield disabled or avast behavior shield keeps turning off. Steps to update Avast in Windows 10 is as follows:
- Right-click on the Avast icon from the system tray present on the right side of the Windows taskbar.
- Hover on Update. The pop-up menu will show you two updating options:
a.) Update for engine and virus.
b.) Update program.
- For the best result, update both.
- Most of the users experienced that updating antivirus helped to fix the bug. Check if the behavior shield has turned on. If still, is disabled or the avast behavior shield keeps turning off then you have to reinstall Avast in your system.
4. Reinstall Avast to resolve behavior shield issues.
There is a possibility that other programs running on your system are influencing Avast and hampering its functionality and the avast behavior shield keeps turning off automatically. To recover a corrupted Avast version on your system, you must first uninstall it entirely and then perform a clean re-installation to enable all shields of Avast antivirus.
Please follow all the below-given steps carefully to reinstall Avast in Windows10 successfully.
Follow the below-given steps to uninstall Avast antivirus entirely from your system.
- Control Panel-> Programs and features -> Avast Free Antivirus -> Uninstall.
- Download the executable file of the Avast uninstall utility tool from this link and follow the steps given to uninstall Avast from your system entirely.
Steps to install Avast on Windows 10
- Download free Avast antivirus setup files from Avast official website.
- Run the Avast installer and follow the steps to install it.
- Restart your system after successful installation to check if the behavior shield is enabled and works appropriately.
5. Check if Aswidsagenta.exe is running.
Aswidsagenta.exe is the component of the Avast behavior shield. It is the service that continuously checks for malware, trojans, and viruses on your system by probing all the programs running on your PC. If for some reason, this service is stopped, the behavior shield will also be disabled and you will get avast behavior shield disabled error. Find out how you can check and change the status of the aswbIDSAgent Service.
- Press Windows + R key to open the run dialogue box and type services.msc command.
- Search aswbIDSAgent Service and right-click on it and choose properties.
- In the start-up type section, select the automatic option and click on the start button if it has already stopped.
Note: Before updating properties of service, make sure that service is stopped.
- Now check if you can enable the behavior shield of Avast.
6. Competent hardware can resolve the error of the Avast behavior shield.
CPU utilization of Avast is high because of processes running in the background to secure your system from threats. Your PC should also be competent to enjoy all benefits of Avast. If your hard disk drive read/write functionality is working slow, it will fail to collect the responses of the behavior shield. Avast may disable the behavior shield due to no response from it. In such cases changing HDD to SSD will resolve the issue.
Wrapping Up
Avast tried to resolve behavior shield error by providing patches in the updated version. Most of the time, updating Avast software can bring a behavior shield to its standard functionality. If it still doesn’t resolve your problem, you can try the other five methods described in this article. Remember, once turned off, the avast behavior shield wont turn on automatically. Hope this article provided you with the solution of advanced web shield is off error and also don’t forget to apprise us if these solutions worked for you to fix the Avast behavior shield bug.