My problem started a few days ago when Edge suddenly decided not to connect to the internet at all. This was right after the latest Windows update (a batch Net Framework update if I remember correctly) and I thought that was the problem. Tried rolling the update back. No use. Reinstalled the update, and no change at all as expected.
As a temporary solution, I downloaded and started using Chrome, which worked perfectly all along the same day I installed it. But the next day, the same thing happened. Impossible to connect to any website. Basically I would get a "The connection was reset" error immediately without any attempt to load the page. The same thing that happened with Edge.
I should probably note at this point that Firefox, my primary browser, was working flawlessly all along. This made me think that Kaspersky might have somehow ended up restricting Edge. A weird idea, but I went ahead and checked. To my surprise and also not surprisingly at the same time, there was no restriction in the application controls. I even manually looked it up among the listed applications in Kaspersky. It was allowed along with its numerous extensions/companion apps like webview etc.
I still decided to shut down Kaspersky and try that way as a desperate attempt. But what do you know? The moment I shut down Kaspersky, I could easily use both Edge and Chrome. This is to say, Kaspersky was soft-blocking both browsers. To be 100% sure, I tried both of them multiple times when Kaspersky was on and off.
In the end, I had to uninstall Kaspersky Total Security altogether for 2 reasons: My license already had 17 days or so left and I definitely needed a second Chrome-based browser to be open on one side.
I am sorry that I don't have screenshots or files. I tried to describe the process as thoroughly as possible, but I resolved it by uninstalling, as I already stated above. The reason I started this topic is to make the issue known and addressed. Kaspersky has been my irreplacable antivirus for years with no alternative. This little incident was a real punch in the gut though. I hope it gets resolved.
