No way to temporarily turn off yet?

This has been asked before (see /index.php?/topic/76896-no-way-to-turn-off/&tab=comments#comment-274637" rel="">this thread from a year ago) but there still doesn't appear to be a way of temporarily disabling Bitdefender to aid troubleshooting.

I'm trying to help someone create an AutoHotkey (AHK) ****** to automatically configure their installation of Windows 10 whenever they do a clean install. They are using Bitdefender 2019 so I've installed the 30-day trial of Bitdefender 2019 to carry out testing.

I've run into an immediate problem whereby any AHK ****** which calls a PowerShell cmdlet no longer works.

For example, to 'get' the state of SMB I can enter the following in a PowerShell commandline window (either standard or elevated) and the contents are piped to the Windows clipboard:

Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB1Protocol | clip

I can test by pasting into Notepad.

However, if I wrap the exact same PowerShell cmdlet in AHK then the ****** doesn't write to the clipboard irrespective of whether I run it as standard or elevated:

psScript =

(

Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB1Protocol | clip

)

Run PowerShell.exe -Command %psScript%,, hide

I've disabled as much as I can within the Bitdefender control panel but to no avail... yet the same 'PowerShell cmdlet wrapped in AHK' ****** ran perfectly before Bitdefender was installed (and continues to run on other Win 10 devices without Bitdender installed).

My conclusion is that Bitdefender is preventing access to the Windows clipboard if the output is piped from PowerShell yet has no problem allowing the piping from PowerShell itself.

To troubleshoot I would normally just temporarily disable any AV... but Bitdefender doesn't appear to allow for that.

Any suggestions?

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joyrider3774

what if you compile AHK ****** to exe(cuteable) and add exe(cuteable) location as well as the binary itselve to every exception list you can find in bitdefender ? Like advanced thread defense, antivirus, etc.

Actually it might not be bitdefender related, i just copied your ******, compiled the ****** to exe and ran the executeable and i get


EnableSMB1Protocol
------------------
             False

as a result in the clipboard. I did all this while bitdefender antivrus 2019 was installed and it seems to work fine without adding anything to exclusion lists. I test this on windows 10 home edition. i did not run the compiled ****** with elevated rights just double clicked.

also i think you can get that value from windows registry as well or at least it saved there maybe if you use reg.exe to read / modify the value in windows registry instead of powershell it works ? i think location is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters and value is SMB1 if it does not exists (= default) it is enabled if dword value is 0 it is disabeld if dword value is 1 it is enabled.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2696547/how-to-detect-enable-and-disable-smbv1-smbv2-and-smbv3-in-windows-and

but it's only a suggestion / workaround and not sure if it would work. and as explained before i did not seem to have problems running the ahk ****** on my pc while bitdefender is installed / active

Are you certain your problem is bitdefender related as it seems to have worked fine on my pc.

My installed version of bitdefender is 23.0.9.25

RickC

2 hours ago, joyrider3774 said:

Are you certain your problem is bitdefender related as it seems to have worked fine on my pc.

Thank you... your reply made me think more about what was happening.

As a test I updated my test device from Win 10 Home 1709 to 1803 (without Bitdefender) and my scripts worked... and then they hung again with Bitdefender installed. I was distracted by a phone call and, when I came back several minutes later, I noticed that the last ****** had completed successfully. So, just to be thorough, I reverted to Win 10 1709 prior to the installation of Bitdefender... and my 'PS-wrapped-in-AHK' scripts worked. Next I reverted to Win 10 1709 after I installed Bitdefender and my 'PS-wrapped-in-AHK' scripts hung again... so I waited... and minutes later the ****** completed successfully.

It turns out that 100% CPU usage is to blame... something which it hadn't occurred to me to check. Everything is fine before Bitdefender is installed but the installation of Bitdefender is enough to tip my test device over the edge and slow 'PS-wrapped-in-AHK' scripts to a point where they appear to have hung... but are really just waiting for enough CPU cycles to service them. The main culprit appears to be the 'Bitdefender Update Downloader' (which remains at 50% of the 100% CPU usage for a long time), closely followed by 'Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry'. It's a guess but I assume the installation of Bitdefender kicks off Microsoft testing of the BItdefender components then reporting back.

So, thank you for your post. It made me experiment further and I'll have to wait some more to see if CPU usage drops to a more reasonable figure over the next few hours so I can test again.

PS - My original point remains... it would be really helpful to have a means to temporarily disable Bitdefender completely for the purposes of troubleshooting.

Edit: I waited several hours before posting this and CPU usage has now dropped to ~7-12% and my 'PS-wrapped-in-AHK' scripts are all working fine (albeit more slowly than prior to the installation of Bitdefender).

joyrider3774

no problem, maybe there is a way using "Process, Priority, %PID%, high ;makes it highg priority" to set your powershell process running at a higher priority than normal. you only need to find a way to get hold of the processid after you start your powershell ******. I'm not sure if it'll help but worth a try

edit: seems you can do it inside the powershell ****** itselve as well : https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/change-powershell-******-process-priority.77/ unless it's the auto hotkey ****** itsevel having problems starting the powershell ******

and i also think an option to temporary disable all protection should be added

greeny187

That's the only missing option for this software. I really needs this option as I need to test some software. The only choice I have is to do a safe mode.

Bill_k

8 hours ago, greeny187 said:

That's the only missing option for this software. I really needs this option as I need to test some software. The only choice I have is to do a safe mode.

You might be better off making this request for new functionality in the /index.php?/forum/544-feature-request/" rel="">Feature Request forum.