Unviewaable Scan Logs

When I upgraded from BDIS 2008 to 2009 late last year, I lost the ability to view the scan logs. This apparently is caused by some sort of conflict with the logs and Window's Data Execution Prevention feature. BitDefender's remedy is the standard uninstall and reinistall, which gave the standard result of nothing. One link on the internet had a comment in some context not necessarily tied to this suggesting the offending programs need to be made Data Execution Prevention friendly.

I did find a workaround today. If you can find the log file, you can right click on it and choose the "Open with" option (Notice this is different from the "Open" option) and choose to open it in Notepad. You may have to dig a bit to find Notepad. This will open the log in text format and while a bit cryptic, you can get most of the information from it.

On my computer, running XP, the log files are found by going to the Control Panel, Folder Options, View, and making sure the box next to "View hidden files and folders" is checked (remember to undo any changes when you are done), then using Explorer (Windows key +e) find the following folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BitDefender\Desktop\Profiles\Logs

In that folder will be a folder for each type of scan, such as "deep_scan" so open the relevant folder and you will find the scan logs, such as 1241370557_1_02.xml

Interestingly, using XP's Find feature and searching for *.xml will not find these files so if the scan logs are not as I have shown above, they may be tricky to find. Probably the interent or this forum can help find where they are hidden. I don't know if BitDefender Customer Service would know where they are.

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csalgau

Dear user,

Have you sent a bug report on this to our Customer Support?

If not, please do so. Afterwards please provide the ticket number.

This could be quite a problem.

Thank you.

exumwalker

Dear user,

Have you sent a bug report on this to our Customer Support?

If not, please do so. Afterwards please provide the ticket number.

This could be quite a problem.

Thank you.

When you say report this as a bug, do you mean to BitDefender or on this forum. It was reported to BitDefender in Tickets #2008112610000658 and #200902051006764. In searching for the Ticket numbers and rereading old emails, I need to correct one point in my earlier post. This problem rose its ugly head with my BDIS 2008 and the remedy suggested when I had 2008 was to upgrade (free) to 2009, which I did but had the same problem with 2009. I initiated a new ticket explaining the problem again, the response I got was how to click on History to view the logs. Well, the problem wasn’t “how to view the scan logs,” but that “scan logs won’t display because the Data Execution Prevention feature won’t let them display." I reexplained that to Customer Support and was now told to reinstall IE 7 or 8 (I have 7). I checked online and found BitDefender often has users reinstall everyone else’s programs and I couldn’t find a single instance where that solved a problem so I decided to live with it. At some point they also provided me with a link to their Knowledge Base, probably early on, but I had already tried that and found it was not well done. I first selected “Technical Support” as the department I wanted, then had to select a category, none of which had anything to do with inability to view scan logs. I chose “Install and configure,” then "BitDefender Internet Security" as the product and "2009" as the version and that was all it asked. It then offered me as solutions: “Creating identity rules,” “Upgrading to BDIS 2009," “What to do when the installation fails on Windows home server,” and “Asking for assistance.” Only the last option offered any hope, but clicking on that brought up a screen where without even knowing what my problem is, they want me to download programs to start harvesting info from my computer. I realized at that point BitDefender and I were not even remotely on the same wave length so I gave up. We have a radio show here in the States where the hosts joke about “decisions unencumbered by the thought process,” and this was a classic example. So, I decided this was something I just had to live with.

As to if I have sent a bug report to “our Customer Support?” I wasn’t sure if this forum has a place for bugs to be reported so I searched for that, finding nothing. I saw choices like “Malware City,” “Unices Blog,” “Malware City Blog,” “Calendar,” “Members,” “Search,” and “Help.” Most of those are not even intuitive. I have no idea what Malware City or Unices are. Perhaps this was in reference to whether I had reported this as a bug to BitDefender. I went back to the BitDefender site and find nowhere a place to report bugs. But then how do I know if this is a bug? There may be nothing wrong with BDIS and I have a problem with my computer. I presume BitDefender can figure out when something is a bug by the contacts made for techincal support, and if they are interested, from forums like this, or from the internet. That is where I found others had the same problem with BDIS so it must be a bug, and as one interent site implied, the program isn't Data Execution Prevention (DEC) friendly. And, as with so many things in Windows, deactivating DEC does nothing, it continues to run.

Please excuse my rambling but this gets so frustrating. Can you imagine were we would be if our cars ran like our computers!!!

unknown

Please try the following in this case: go to the Control Panel, then to System, Advanced, for Performance click on Settings and then select DEP -> in that window check the option "Turn on DEP for all program and services except those I select" and Add as an exception the files - "bdagent.exe" "uiscan.exe" and "seccenter.exe" from C:\Program Files\BitDefender\BitDefender 2009.

Now restart the PC and try to see if you can open the logs.

Tell us if it makes any difference.

exumwalker

Diana

Thanks for the idea. Unfortunatly it didn't work. Where normally when I click to view a scan log, my desktop icons in the background disappear then reappear. This time they did that, but a box came up entitled "Data Execution Prevention - Microsoft Windows" and said, "To help protect your computer, Windows has closed this program:" and the program was "Winbdows Explorer." There was an option to change settings so I clicked on it and a box came up givng me the option to disable DEP, saying "Disabling Data Execution Prevention for a componet of Windows may expose yur system to unauthorized access."

I clicked to do it, and the DEP box from the Control Panel came up with Windows Explorer listed with a check in the box next to it. I clicked okay and a box came up saying Windows Explorer had to close. There were some other boxes that flashed when I first tried to view the log.

Anyway, I rebooted and tried again to view a scan log but things were just like always, icons disappear and reappear and the box to run or save reappears and clicking on run just repeats the whole process.

I reset my DEP setting to its original setting (the top one) and rebooted again, so hopefully I am back to where I was.

Sigh . . . (Thanks again for putting on your thinking cap.)

unknown

Hello Exum Walker,

Please tell me, have you ever tried to see if by disabling DEP on the system this issue is still occurring?

Also, please try the following concerning this issue:

---> Go to the windows Start button, then to Run - once you have that window opened type in "sfc /scannow" then press OK; the wizard that comes up is going to ask you for a Windows Installation CD and when it has finished running you will need to restart the system.

Please let me know if there were are changes after performing these actions.

Thank you,

exumwalker

Hello Exum Walker,

Please tell me, have you ever tried to see if by disabling DEP on the system this issue is still occurring?

Also, please try the following concerning this issue:

---> Go to the windows Start button, then to Run - once you have that window opened type in "sfc /scannow" then press OK; the wizard that comes up is going to ask you for a Windows Installation CD and when it has finished running you will need to restart the system.

Please let me know if there were are changes after performing these actions.

Thank you,

There doesn't appear to be any readily available way of turning off DEP. I found something in the internet on editing one of the files used in booting up, and what to do if doing that happens to make your computer unbootable. I use my computer for my work and can't afford to do things like that.

As to running sfc /scannow, a window came up with a bunch of options, none of which was anything I wanted to do, The default was Install and I don't want to mess up my computer by installing over an exiting installation, and loose all my updates. But, while I was pondering that, a box came up saying "Files that are required for Windows to run properly must be copied to the DLL Cache." I clicked on "continue" and the box would go away then come right back. I clicked continue again and the process repeated. I finally clicked on cancel and the process repeated. I finally pressed the power button, shutting down improperly just to regain control of my computer.

I use my computer about 18 hours a day and run a registry cleaner and speed up programs weekly and with the exception of the problem with BitDefender, it works great. Unless someone knows what the problem is and has a solution, I really don't want to experiment. When my subscription runs out, I plan to switch to Zone Alarm so that should solve the problem.

Thanks.

exumwalker

Diana -

I did get sfc /scannow to run and nothing changed.

Thanks.

unknown

Hello Exum Walker,

We would like to explore a few other scenarios in order to get to the cause of the issue you have reported. I have created a new support ticket on this case - Ticket ID 200905061008151 - and sent some troubleshooting steps. Please be so kind as to reply to that message when you have the time.

Thank you!

exumwalker

Hello Exum Walker,

We would like to explore a few other scenarios in order to get to the cause of the issue you have reported. I have created a new support ticket on this case - Ticket ID 200905061008151 - and sent some troubleshooting steps. Please be so kind as to reply to that message when you have the time.

Thank you!

I'll try to get to that in a day or two but I am swamped with projects with deadlines, plus I have a NEW BitDefender problem. The little red circle icon that appears in my systray has disappeared and I find no settings for it in the BitDefender settings so I am not even sure BitDefender is working right. I tried restoring my computer back one day for everytime I boot up, I check to make sure BitDefender is running but that didn't help.

exumwalker

Icon is back. Restored to another day back.

unknown

Hello Exum Walker,

You can reply to that e-mail with the reports whenever you wish and have the time.

Concerning the BitDefender icon, please go to Start - Run - type in "services.msc" and look for "Terminal Services". Please set it to Started and for "Startup" set it to Automatic.

exumwalker

Diana,

Were you able to figure anything out with the logs and screens I sent you on May 11th and 12th?

Exum