Avira is fixing a recent update that caused PCs to lock up for users of its antivirus software. Last week, users complained about their PCs locking up after updating to the latest version of Avira. “I tried disabling all background apps until only Avira was left,” a user complained on Reddit, sparking a thread of similar complaints. “[Two] other people I know had the same issue (both have Avira). Fixed it by going into safe startup and uninstalling Avira.”
The only way to solve the issue was to uninstall the Avira antivirus program after booting to your PC, according to affected users. Heise.de reported that Avira’s owner, NortonLifeLock (renamed Gen Digital), acknowledged the problem and is rolling out a fix for the bug. The company allegedly blamed the issue on its firewall and not the antivirus software itself.
Although Avira is traditionally considered one of the better antivirus programs, experiencing lockups is no joke. If you suffer from the lockup bug, Windows Defender will automatically take over until the fix is pushed to your machine. Beginning in 2019, the two leading antivirus groups put Defender’s antimalware capabilities at the same level as paid services, so letting Defender guard your PC in the short term is a viable option.
