Windows 10 April 2018 Update and Avast
Image Courtesy: Microsoft.com

Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) isn’t free of all the bugs, and the new version of the operating system hasĀ ended up breaking machines or brought some compatibility issues. Avast recently acknowledged a compatibility issue with Windows 10 version 1803 and their antivirus solution that was bricking some computers.

Avast engineer earlier this week confirmed thatĀ the Microsoft has started blocking Windows 10 April 2018 Update installation on systems running Avast antivirus software.

Yesterday late night, Vik from Avast team has also revealed that an element of the Windows 10 April 2018 Update is incompatible with the Avast Behavior Shield which is causing the update to fail and brick PCs in some cases.

The company also claims that it’s not an Avast-specific issue and the problem could affect other software as well.

“In cooperation with Microsoft we have identified an element of the latest Windows 10 1803 update that is incompatible with the Avast Behavior Shield, causing the aforementioned update to fail in some instances (related to a timing issue, Internet connectivity issue, etc). Luckily, we have found a way to prevent the problem and are now automatically pushing a VPS update to all customers which makes sure that the problem doesn’t happen,” Vik, Global Moderator, Avast said in a post on their forum.

It is also worth noting that only “small subset of Avast customers” are affected, and the company has also detailed a workaround.

First and foremost, the recovery process requires anĀ 8GB USB drive and a spare computer. On your spare computer, create a bootable USB drive by downloading Media Creation Tool from here. Follow the on-screen instructions and create a bootable drive with Windows 10 64-bit. To recover the broken PC, do the following:

  • If your PC is at the blue screen, choose the keyboard language, and select ‘use another operating system’ option.
  • Choose the second option named “Windows 10 on volumeĀ X” and the computer will boot to the desktop (after sign-in screen if any).
  • Right-click any blank area on the taskbar and open Task Manager.
  • In Task Manager, click More details -> File -> Run new task and check the box “Create this task with administrative privileges”.
  • Click “Browse” and navigate to a USB drive.
  • Select “setup.exe” and follow the steps to “upgrade” Windows.
  • Follow the on-screen instructions and your PC will upgrade to Windows 10 version 1803.

“In the meantime, we continue to investigate this issue which appears to affect only a small subset of our customers.Ā BTW at this stage, we know it’s not an Avast-specific issue as the problem affects other software as well,” he added.

About The Author

Mayank Parmar

Mayank Parmar is Windows Latest's owner, Editor-in-Chief and entrepreneur. Mayank has been in tech journalism for over seven years and has written on various topics, but he is mostly known for his well-researched work on Microsoft's Windows. His articles and research works have been referred to by CNN, Business Insiders, Forbes, Fortune, CBS Interactive, Microsoft and many others over the years.