Bitdefender Control Panel
Aide Broeckel
Running a Win 7 (64) system and had bitdefender running fine for several months on several computers. Recently, bitdefender would not go active upon start-up on several computers... On one computer, I uninstalled bitdefender and bitdefender agent from control panel and reinstalled, without a problem.
On another computer, I uninstalled bitdefender and bitdefender agent from control panel, but when I tried to reinstall, the reinstall would download a 320MB file, then unpack files for install, then give an error message that I was protected and bitdefender is already installed. From Control Panel uninstall screen, it appears that bitdefender agent reinstalls, but that bitdefender does not.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling several times, with reboots, with the same error message. I tried the manual uninstall download/links from bitdefender website, but that doesn't clear whatever is preventing the reinstall. There appears to be no way of getting a new install.
Tried talking with tech support, but no assistance there. Was told my ticket would be escalated, but never received any follow-up emails. Very strange...but unless there's a quick fix, I'm moving back to ESET or AVAST...such a shame. Seems like recent updates are buggy and unstable on several machines.
I originally used the control panel uninstall. After I couldn't uninstall, I've tried using the uninstall tool multiple times but it won't find whatever remnants of BD must be still out there.
/index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="212852" href="/index.php?/profile/212852-sergiu-c/" rel="">@Sergiu C. Is the uninstall tool that you emailed RRZ a little more thorough than the ones we download from the below links? Do those link uninstall tools leave remnants as a aide in helping with a re-install of Bitdefender in case someone is doing a total removal, and then doing a fresh re-install of BD from Central for varied reasons?
Thanks for the reply, Sergiu, I appreciate it. Next time I have to do a uninstall, for whatever reason, I'll first try using the uninstall tool in normal mode, take a look around and see if anything is leftover (Program Data). If so, I'l try running it in Safe Mode, and if anything is still leftover, I'll contact support and send them any log file they may need
I have exactly the same problem & it's driving me nuts, not to mention making me very circumspect about renewing my Internet Security 2017 (n.b. french version) that I bought June 2017. I would really appreciate any help that Sergiu C. could provide. If he would be kind enough to contact me I will try to provide a historic & logs then. It would fill a page if I did it now. I've already tried to contact french support several times and have never received a reply.
In any case, we'd need a support tool log ( ) to be able to start investigating, and a summary of what steps you've taken so far would also be useful. You can open a new ticket by sending an email at bi...@bitdefender.com and attach the log there.
Thank you SO much, it's the 1st time I've had any kind of response from anyone & this saga dates back to late February!. I've tried several times to attach a summary to various (France) support log tickets (which unfortunately I've systematically deleted) & every time I got a message 'entit trop long'.
I'll plan this out later today, but the major problem is that I've reinstalled Windows (3 times at least!) from the (Vista) recovery partition & the Sony Vista - Windows7 upgrade DVD, run the BD uninstall tool, & searched for/deleted all BitDefender registry keys with Regedit so I don't think any traces are left. I only have a failed BD installation log when I tried to re-install it 2 days ago. I've also installed Avast in the interim to avoid being unprotected, but probably what I'll do is uninstall it (& my firewall just in case), try once more to re-install BD Internet Security to obtain a fresh (failed at 93%) installation log - probably not before tonight tho'. It's Easter & I respect people's Public Holiday.
If I'm understanding correctly, you are installing on Windows 7 (please make sure you have Service Pack 1 and Internet Explorer 11 installed), and the installation has failed at 93% in the past as well.
As it happens I DO run Firefox, with a master Password, I will disable it! I confirm that I am running Windows 7 with SP1, fully updated. I ran BD Uninstall tool several times, plus Revo Uninstaller, & CCleaner, as well as sifting through the registry looking for BD registry keys.
My BitDefender Central page still shows 'you are protected' (in french), that I've used up my abonnements (licences?)& that I need to buy another. Notwithstanding, I still have the installer with which I tried 2 days ago, I'll run it again late tonight - in english this time (after re-running BD-Uninstall tool) & will take screen shots of any messages plus will save all logs.
I've been up most of the night trying to sort this. I'm no longer using Firefox, switched to Chrome. Ran BD Uninstall Tool. Removed device, but It STILL hangs at 93% when I reinstall. However, BD Agent installs & db updates start running. I'll catch up with you later. I need to get some sleep, & then will run some malware scans as I'm beginning to suspect an infection.
It's possible, considering that you could not disable the Firefox master password, that some files were left from it even after you uninstalled it. Could you send us a a support tool log at bi...@bitdefender.com please?
I'm seriously thinking about doing a clean system install. It's a big hassle, but if I re-format my system partition I'll be sure that there are no hidden BD files causing this hang at 93%. When I first reinstalled my system 59 days ago I did it with the Vista) recovery partition & the Sony Vista - Windows7 upgrade DVD, but I did not reformat the partition. I'd go ahead right now, but last time it took 5 days to get all the Windows Updates, & 4 days for the SP1 update to arrive ! If I decide to go for it, I'll use my own Vista recovery DVD's (despite the Sony bloatware) & the Sony Vista - Windows7 upgrade DVD.
I've just discovered that my System Recovery folder contains 30 GB of restore points. I've wiped it now but I'm wondering if there weren't any BD files lurking in there that the BD Uninstall Tool missed ?
If I go ahead with this plan will my Activation Code Key still be valid ? Also as I originally bought BD Internet Security 2017 (on 20/06/2017), which was then upgraded to BD IS 2018, as I still have the original installation file, should I use that ?
Files in the restore points should not interfere with the installation, and to delete them, I'd recommend using the Windows disk cleanup feature ( -to-delete-all-system-restore-points-and-previous-versions-of-files-in-windows-7 )
Regarding the activation code, it can only be used once, when you first activate the subscription. Afterwards, you can re-install an unlimited amount of times from your Bitdefender Central account which holds the details of your subscription. The latest version of Bitdefender will be installed, currently Bitdefender 2018.
Thanks for the link. I had already deleted all the restore points from the System Properties/System Protection folder. Despite the fact that it's a PITA, I've decided I will go for the clean install/reformat of my C:\ partition option, cause it's the only method that 99.99% guarantees success. I won't however do it before the end of next week at the earliest.
- I no longer have a "Second Admin" account on my login screen. (Purpose: to allow login if my primary account was in accessible.) I'm assuming that's because I no longer have the rights to CREATE Admin accounts.
Bitdefender Free can be easily uninstalled from the control panel. I do not know what effect macrium restore has on Bitdefender, but it is not recommended to use this to get rid of the program. It's unlikely for the rest of the issues to have anything to do with the antivirus, in my opinion.
6) Open registry editor through run command (windows icon + R) and then type regedit. Once registry editor opens, click on edit -> find, make sure to tick mark match whole strings only. Type bitdefender in search box and click find next. If any file or folder under name of bitdefender is found, delete it. Continue searching the registry and deleting until the search will report no registry keys found.
Once your respective bitdefender product is installed, a bitdefender dialogue box will open where you will need to login with your registered bitdefender online central details and after a successful login, your product will be synchronized with your online bitdefender central account. Henceforth, your product will get registered & activated with online bitdefender central automatically.
If the generated logs are larger in size, you can upload the logs to google drive or we.tl (7days link validity for free users) or ask the support team to provide you with the online link & password of bitdefender cloud where you can upload the logs and share the upload link with the support team.
I am moving from Trend Micro over to Atera' s BitDefender and was wondering if anyone had a 'best practices' recommended settings to configure on top of what you get by default and customer specific exclusions.
With Trend, they had a fairly intensive guide of recommended settings to apply and/or configure. The BD best practices sections of their guides don't seem to cover everything.
Looking through the BD control panel, it seemed like a few things that should be turned on were not, such as Ransomware mitigation, hyper detect, scheduled scans as well as the email reporting for infections.
I think I did OK, but the control panel feels a bit confusing and non-intuitive to me and wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything I should be looking at.