So... Avast, Win7 x64, and vc redistributables...

[Krusty]

I've got a computer that runs Avast free version on it. I had an older version where I updated the definitions only, not the software itself. I don't 100% lock it down because I expect to be able to use it for various personal and gaming related tasks. So I clean it up and keep it relatively trim, but I don't get paranoid.

I mostly kept the old Avast free software with new definitions because it added some popups and a bit of interface bloat that I disliked, but the quality of the AV protection is still good. So a little while ago I accidentally told it to update the software and it did, but I didn't want to try ripping it out to go back to the old one. With Avast that can be a pain.

However, apparently the new version of Avast (the one it updated to) royally fubars some systems' VC+ redistributables and couple with a change or two MS did with how those were handled (so I have read) it hoses the DLLs. Some are missing and can't be used by a number of programs. You get missing DLL errors trying to run things from various people up to and including iTunes (yes, I know, iTunes). I have tried everything possible including the MS KB2999226 hotfix. Nothing works. I ripped out Avast and reinstalled the older version but the damage is done. The MS website no longer has the 2015 VC redist installer (apparently that's the main culprit for most of the stuff I've tried to run that gave me errors). I couldn't even try installing older VCs because they said they weren't the newest version. I uninstalled the 2017, 2016, 2015, then reinstalled the 2015, but it won't take now.

The KB patch says it's not applicable to my computer but I don't have it installed and it clearly is applicable. I have gone in circles for a day trying to research this one and find a solution. There isn't one that has worked so far. I manually downloaded a x86 and x64 for the first missing DLL and put them in system32 and syswow64, but then the next DLL was missing and I've been down this road before. I replace one and it'll say the next is missing. I need to restore the entire pack.

Speaking of: I don't want to reformat. I don't have a clean ghost on this. I don't want to repair and then lose a bunch of program associations, which has happened sometimes in the past. I don't have a restore point because I 1) don't trust MS restore and 2) keep those pared down to reduce HDD storage waste, 3) don't know exactly when the DLLs were hosed so can't back track to a proper pre-hosed savepoint. I'm looking for wisdom or help (or links to the above) on how to fix in-place.

[Hungry]

 I uninstalled the 2017, 2016, 2015, then reinstalled the 2015, but it won't take now.

Could be a million or so registry entry's still associated with the programs that you don't want, did you try something like CC Cleaner to clean out the registry after you uninstalled what you didn't want and before you tried reinstalling what you do want?

Good luck, you may need to reinstall 7 and start from scratch

[Bizman]

What Hungry said.

But wait! You might still have an old enough Restore Point saved. That would be the first thing to try, and the easiest. However, if you've done a lot of installs they may have created so many new restore points your old ones have been wiped off.

As for Avast, there's quite a lot you can do to tame it. The first thing is to do a Custom installation. Basically you'd only need the "Minimal" protection. I prefer to add e-mail (if you use a dedicated mail program) and browser protection. After the installation, setting some programs in the Exclusions lists may help, too. Avast has been finding false positives every now and then as the con side of their attempts to find unknown viruses.

[Krusty]

I didn't try cc cleaner for the vc redist uninstall. Didn't think of that.

No good restore points, sadly. I don't think I had a good one before the many attempts to reinstall and uninstall of the various years of vc dists, but I just checked and MS made a new one for each until it "bumped out" my earlier ones so now my list of backups is entirely from the other day.

 

[Bizman]

This one looks promising, but I have no experience about it so read the entire thread before doing anything: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=393405

[Krusty]

Sadly, I gave that a crack and my hopes were dashed.

[Denniss]

http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk/static/StaticDownloadLinks-cpp-x86-glb.txt
http://trac.wsusoffline.net/browser/trunk/static/StaticDownloadLinks-cpp-x64-glb.txt

Contains links for the most recent cpp versions, just ignore anything from the comma on (use to rename files after download)
Note cpp 2015 is replaced by the 2017 version

what exactly are the files missing for you ?
Remember some programs look for the x86 version even if you have an x64 OS and the x64 version installed.

[Krusty]

First it was api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll, and I got a replacement for x86 and x64 and loaded that into the appropriate directories. As soon as I did that it started popping up missing api-ms-win-core-timezone-l1-1-0.dll and I've been down this road before. There could be a dozen missing and if I find them piecemeal it will just waste a lot of time.

Apparently it might be related to the whole re-alignment of the 2015 files and Avast's newer software stopping the appropriate DLLs from being created/copied/installed. Highly irritating because it's been going on for many months by other people's troubles, and no sign of any fix that works from MS.

[Denniss]

Searched my Win7 x64 system and I have both files, version number 10.0.10586.788 indicates it's a Cpp 2010 fileset (first 12KiB, second 16 Kib; Avast files are actually larger) or universal crt. Current fileset is dated April 17 2017, Avast fileset August 17 2016, original install version November 19 2015
Avast just installs an outdated version of it although tagged as Avast version (dumb programming especially by antivir companies as the old versions may have security problems).
The updates files may have been provided by one of 3 security updates: kb4014565, 4015546, 4014661

[Bizman]

---
Avast just installs an outdated version of it although tagged as Avast version (dumb programming especially by antivir companies as the old versions may have security problems).---

I've installed most of the antivirus programs available, both paid and free. As far as I can remember, none of them has been up to date despite having downloaded the newest version. For virus definitions that's understandable, they can get updated several times a day. However, they seem to update every module or whatever after the installation. My best guess is that it's a way to double check for corrupted packages.

[Krusty]

I went the painful slow route, search online for x32 and x64 DLLs as each one came up. On the 3rd or 4th one it stopped working. I suspect I only have the x32 version of it and maybe it doesn't like when I copy that to my x64 system folder. I put the file there but the latest popup error says it still is missing.

What a mess.

Deniss, Avast wasn't replacing the DLLs. It was preventing them from being installed or something similar. The files were missing entirely, not the wrong version. And it was deeply rooted because even when I shut down avast or booted in safe mode it didn't install them like it should. I think some of that blame is on Microsoft's idiotic repackaging efforts with the vcc sets and basically screwing the pooch.