Comodo won't shut down

Comodo Internet Security - CIS Firewall Help - CIS
41

Well, I tried two things and nothing worked so I think I will just remove the firewall. Such a pity, Kim Komando had such praise for this firewall a couple years back and I was glad to abandon the resource hoarding Zone Alarm, but now I’m going to try something different, I guess.

The first thing I did was turn off the firewall in Windows. No change, and still I couldn’t right-click on the firewall icon in the task bar. Plus, as always, it wouldn’t launch from the start menu. So I rebooted and nothing changed.

After that I uninstalled the firewall and then ran a utility I saved onto an external hard drive called: CIS Cleanup Tool and that didn’t work because I don’t think it was intended for the current Comodo version. I know the removal tool worked for the version it was intended whenever that was. After everything was uninstalled I ran Ccleaner and then reinstalled Comodo, which installed successfully. However, I was back to square one. I have to end program task the firewall at reboot or shut off and I cannot right click on the firewall icon. Other computers that I maintain sometimes won’t shut down or reboot unless we turn the power off so I avoid using those and just tested on this one computer which will shut down after some time.

42

Still no problems since downgrading to Version 4.1.

43

Oh dear, I spoke too soon :slight_smile: Problem seems to appear 75% of the time.

A question that needs to be answered by Comodo.

Do you consider this a problem for enough users to bring out a fix? Do we just have to be patient or have we got think about either downgrading to v4.1 (future support?) or using another product?

44

Add me to the list, also! I’ve been following this thread for some time, and I hope the developers are not going to ignore this problem as they did Threatcast. Threatcast is gone and the direction Comodo has taken with CIS absent that component is fine. But, even though there were reports for more than a year about Threatcast, if I recall correctly, the user base was kept in the dark.

First, I want to make it perfectly clear that although this post began as a complaint, I want to commend the development team and top management for taking what was a very good product and, if it were not for this bug, developing a superlative product with an A+ rating! Please don’t ignore this problem, since I believe it is affecting a far greater number of users than have posted here. I’m just such an example and did not respond although this problem first appeared on my system over a week ago .

I’ve tried every permutation that I could think of to resolve or work around this problem, including those of other posters to this thread, but to no avail. I thought Startup Delayer (v2.5 Build 138) suggested by Pema was a successful workaround, since I suspect the problem resides in contention over resource allocation during system startup. However, although I delayed startup of the usual suspects, the problem is intermittent and continues to return.

Again, much praise to the direction that you have taken with Comodo (CIS) and please, keep your user base current on the status of this problem, even if a solution takes some time. If you want additional details regarding the configuration of my system and what I’ve tried to remedy this problem, please let me know.

Thanks,

whp

Comodo 5.0.163652.1142
XP SP3 latest updates
AVG Antivirus (free version)
AVG Version: 10.0.1153
Virus DB: 424/3251

45

An update and possibly an answer/solution:
My setup is and appears to be the most common for all of us experiencing this problem: XP SP3/ CIS 5 / AVG 11

I previously tried out Startup Delayer and thought that this was the solution,
BUT a couple days later the same symptoms appeared:
1 - No right - or left - click responds of the taskbar icon - which meant no access to the GUI.
2- CIS not responding at computer shutdown. I had to click “End Now” and wait a few minutes for the shut down to proceed.
3- I had to shut down and reboot the computer twice for the CIS click commands and the access to the GUI to work.
Then all would work great until suddenly the R or L click access to the GUI would not work anymore and/or I’d had to reboot.

Playing with all the different Configuration options in CIS did not make a difference.
I still believe that CIS is the best firewall out there (for techies and semi techies - but not for grandma or the average PC user) and my experience with CIS 5 is that it is the version with the least system resource demands when it runs as intended.
I have been using AVG for years and found that AVG 2011 is the best, fastest and least resource hungry version so far.

Two very good free programs: BUT do they play well together on WinXP (SP3)?

I finally decided to completely uninstall AVG 2011,
(Revo Uninstaller “moderate” setting - don’t reboot when the AVG uninstaller asks you to! but delete all the Bold entries Revo Uninstaller shows you),
and give Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) a try.

(I highly recommend to create a complete disc image of the operating system partition before making big changes like that. I use MacriumReflect free)

The result: My system is running perfect with even less CPU demands than before.
I rebooted numerous times and tried all kinds of challenges to see if the CIS problem would re-appear.
All systems run perfect with CIS set to “Proactive Security”, Sandbox enabled, Firewall “safe mode”, Defense + “Clean PC mode”.
My conclusion is that the problem was between CIS 5 and AVG 2011.
My solution: CIS 5 with MSE runs great with Win XP SP3.

For info on MSE check this out:

By Fred Langa

“After half a year of real-life testing, Microsoft’s Security Essentials anti-malware application is batting 1.000.”
http://windowssecrets.com/2010/09/16/05-Security-Essentials-test-drive-month-6/#lplus0Langalist%20Plus,%20September%2016,%202010

I do have a paid subscription to “Windows Secrets” (I highly recommend it) and the full article is very informative.

I hope some of you will find this working for you as well.

46

One of my fellow mods thinks there may be compatibility problems between the latest AVG and CIS. I think your finding may be proof of that.

47

I have noticed that nearly every fault, issue, or compatability problem seem to have XP SP3. I really think SP3 is the common factor, I don’t notice the same issues being discussed so often with XP SP2. Just my thoughts. Kind regards

48

Well O.K. most if not all configurations with this issue are:
XP SP3/ CIS 5 / AVG 11(or previous AVG version).
My current setup is running perfect - as good as it ever has been - and it is:
XP SP3/ CIS 5 / MSE - see my post from this morning.

I am an AVG supporter because it has served me well until the CIS 5 and AVG 2011 updates.
Having to choose between going back to CIS 4 (which I found more CPU hungry than CIS 5) or giving up AVG, I decided that CIS is more important to me.

Now I’m really pleased how it all works.
My start-up, which had been quite O.K for Win XP, is now markedly faster after the AVG to MSE switch. (I did not expect this to happen)

I think it would be fair and prudent to issue a clear alert and caution about this CIS 5 and AVG compatibility issue on Windows XP SP3 systems on the Comodo CIS download site.
I like to use my PC for work and not spend a lot of time fixing basic setup and security issues.
60% of PC users are still on Win XP and Comodo is taking a hit on it’s reputation if this issue is simply ignored and left for techies and geeks to figure out.
Had I been on Win 7 and encountered similar issues, I’d have given up on Comodo and switched to Win 7 firewall with custom tweaking and maybe Threatfire added to my setup.

49

Hello,

I have the same problem as well.

XP-Pro, SP3
CIS 5+ (Firewall only)
AVG 2011

I have one additional observation that may be helpful to the developers - I have found that by ending the process cmdagent.exe, Comodo appears to resume functioning normally.

cmdagent.exe is supposed to be non-critical, needless to say however, I am terribly uncomfortable w/the idea of shutting down anything related to the firewall. It’s justifiable paranoia.

My favorite feature of AVG is the option to automatically shut down the computer following a scan. I use this every night … unfortunately my personal confuser has been hanging on shut down as described in this thread.

Best of luck to all and I hope this leads to a speedy resolution!

50

cmdagent.exe is critical if this is disabled you will be unprotected. Kind regards

51

Well, that figures. I was leery of the site that indicated that it was a ‘non-critical’ process. 88)

At least we know where the problem lies.

52

Depending on the site that said it is not critical . Some sites show what is critical for the OS to work properly only (These sites should specify this clearer), cmdagent.exe is not critical for the OS to work properly, but it is the main protecting agent or component of CIS so disabling this will disable CIS. Note cfp.exe is for the GUI. Cmdagent.exe is the active protection. Kind regards.

53

I’m running Microsoft Windows XP Professional Ver 2002 Service Pack 3 and only after I upgraded to “Free Avg 2011” that I too had the same problem with Comodo menu not opening when right-clicking it from the taskbar and it also not closing when shutting down my computer. I finally realized after a few days of shutting my computer down and restarting it, that when the taskbar icons were not hidden, that my Comodo worked and closed correctly. Why? I’m not sure, but only after un-checking “Hide inactive icons” under the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” My Comodo problem was then resolved.

Hope this helps others.

54

I can add that this also worked for me. Lovely how something so simple fixes this.

55

I always keep all the system tray icons visible and still had the shutdown problem. What version of CIS are you using?(dropped back to v4 myself) I noticed a new version release on 11th Nov, anyone found it any better?

One other problem I found when using V5 is with dialogue boxes freezing in Poser 8- it uses some native code but also features of IE8 and Flash

56

I daily click the “Check For Updates” under the Comodo Firewall “More” tab and let it update

from there. My current version is 5.0.163652.1142

57

I’m another one of those people having the same problem with the same background as the other posters. I would like to know if a solution has been reach for this problem by the makers of comodo :-\

58

Ok, I think I have this sorted out. Here we go. Anywhere antivirus and firewall software is mentioned in this post, it is always the free versions I am referring to.

As I mentioned before, I am using Windows XP SP3, and was using AVG 9.0 with Comodo 5.0. With this combination I was frequently getting the two errors (Errors) discussed in this thread. The one where Comodo won’t close on shutdown and the other where Comodo won’t respond to mouse click to open it in the System Tray.

AVG put incompatibility messages into its installers for its newer versions but Comodo did not. Details follow:

I installed AVG 7.0 a while back.
At that time I was running Zone Alarm (version not recorded).
On 2008/01/14, uninstalled Zone Alarm (too bloated and said it did not support networks with free version.).
On 2008/01/14, I installed Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.
On 2009/03/15, I installed AVG 8.5.
On 2009/11/23, I installed AVG 9.0.
On 2010/09/05, I installed Comodo Firewall 4.1.
Up to this point, there were no Errors, nor were there any incompatibility messages from either AVG or Comodo.
On 2010/10/14, I installed Comodo Internet Security 5.0, firewall only.
After this time, the Errors began.

:: --------------------------------------------------------------------

So to test this, I uninstalled both AVG 9.0 and Comodo 5.0.
I then re-installed Comodo Firewall 4.1.
I then re-installed AVG 9.0. AVG 9.0 showed conflict messages during the installation as follows:

Potentially incompatible software
Some potentially incompatible software is currently installed on your computer. In order to continue the installation, please remove the following applications: Comodo AntiVirus

Note: Removal of these applications is strongly recommended, especially to improve AVG performance and to avoid any unnecessary conflicts.

Click the Uninstall software button to close setup and launch Add/Remove Programs dialog.

Button1> Skip (not recommended), Button2> Uninstall software >>

If “Skip” button pressed, warning message pops up saying:

Warning, Keeping any potentially incompatible applications may result in several software conflicts or performance loss. Do you really want to proceed? Yes No.

I selected “Yes”, but did not notice any of the Errors.

:: --------------------------------------------------------------------

So for the next test, I uninstalled AVG 9.0,
I left Comodo Firewall 4.1 installed, and installed AVG 2011. AVG 2011 showed conflict message during the installation as follows:

AVG 2011 Installer
Conflicting product detected
We have detected a conflicting application on your computer. The installation cannot be performed as long as this application persists on your computer.
Conflicting application: Comodo AntiVirus

Please uninstall the conflicting application first before you continue with the installation.

I cancelled this AVG installation.

:: --------------------------------------------------------------------

I then uninstalled Comodo 4.1 again, then installed Comodo 5.0 again, then installed Avast 5. Everything works great now.

:: --------------------------------------------------------------------

In conclusion, AVG knew about the potential conflict between AVG 9.0 and Comodo 4.1, but since Comodo 4.1 was installed after AVG 9.0 in the original dated installations above, and Comodo did not flag the potential conflict with AVG 9.0 during it’s installation, I was unaware of any potential conflict. It didn’t matter though, because everything worked fine.

AVG 2011 did not even want to install on top Comodo 4.1.

Installing Comodo 5.0 after AVG 9.0 causes the Errors.

I did not test installing Comodo 5.0 after AVG 2011 since others in this thread have reported the Errors.

Comodo should add incompatibility messages to its 5.0 installer when using Windows XP SP3, to advise of conflict with AVG 9.0 and AVG 2011. If this had been done by Comodo before releasing 5.0, it would have avoided the many days of time wasted over the past few weeks, putting up with Errors and trouble shooting. This has been a huge inconvenience.

59

How about Comodo just fixs the compatibility problem?

I am really surprised that, after all this time and all these forum reports, Comodo has not responded!

60

OK now for my 2 cents worth.
I have 4 computers 3 XP SP3 and 1 Windows 7. All 3 XP machines have this problem and it has become very anoying.
Having a dig around I found that if I go to your C:\RECYCLER directory (it is a hidden directory so you may need to make it visable first (tools → options). You will see a number of hidden directories with strange names. As an administrator you need to delete all files and directories including these hidden ones (I’m assuming they are the recycle bin for other users on the machine). Once this has been done your computer should now shut down nicely. The problem may return if files are deleted under other ID’s and you will have to delete these files again.