Google and Kaspersky seem associated

[Tribal Cash]

For the last week I've been trying to update Cloudflare WARP but get a message "xxx.tmp is not a valid Win32 something". Til this week it always updated fine.

This morning I saw a warning on Kaspersky and it said Resolve with some choices. "C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache\Cache_Data\f_005f4c" was a legitimate program that could be used maliciously" or something.

I decided to delete it. Then Google started going haywire and I totally uninstalled Chrome, including user data, and reinstalled it.

When it was reinstalled all the Kaspersky Antivirus links were whited out but the Kaspersky VPN and Password manager had proper icons still.

Chrome even after reinstall does not work as before. It takes 100% cpu for a long time then after closing about 30 tabs in task manager and still 100% cpu after closing for a long time.

Another oddity, after a scan Kaspersky had searched the "windows.old" folder and said it couldn't search some common folders like documents, pictures etc because they were password protected. I've never password protected any of the folders.

It looks like another clean install unless I can figure out how to get Chrome back to normal, but I am concerned about why Chrome which I distinctly do not trust has some connection to the Kaspersky icons and causes them to disappear when Chrome is uninstalled.

[Tribal Cash]

Chrome works and Cloudflare has updated now which is great, but no matter what I do the Kaspersky Total Security icons everywhere are white squares still. Even in the Windows 'all apps' window, and the usual trick of unpinning then repinning the app at the bottom of the screen has no effect. Kaspersky is a white square when it is pinned, then unpinned it has the normal green pentagon image then pin it and it again becomes a blank white square.

The effect that Chrome has on Kaspersky has me concerned.

[Schulte]

Hello @Tribal Cash,

it is possible that the icon cache has been corrupted.

The most simple way would be the following:
Open the 'Run' window (Windows key + 'R').
Paste 'ie4uinit -show' (without quotes) and click 'OK'. The icons will flicker briefly, with luck the missing ones will be restored.

Spoiler

If it doesn't work, you probably have to clear the icon cache manually.

[Tribal Cash]

TLDR Just going to leave Kaspersky without an icon and wait to see if it fixes itself but I am uncomfortable with the fact that only the Kaspersky icon disappeared after uninstalling Google Chrome and reinstalling it. I understand all antivirus companies are closely connected to Google, but Kaspersky should be less so, in my opinion.

 

"ie4uinit -show" did not do it, so went to step 2 and followed the instructions at https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/deleting-the-iconcachedb-file/1f47e9ea-21d1-4c5a-9985-3d076bfd6606

The first suggestion "

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the following folder:
   C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
2. In the Explorer folder, you will see a lot of files with the iconcache name. Delete all of them."

does not work, it says those files are in use and cannot be deleted, so went to second

"

1. Open elevated Command Prompt. (Win+X > Command Prompt (Admin))
2. Type the following command, and then press Enter:
   cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer attrib –h iconcache_*.db del iconcache_*.db start explorer"

tried that exact command with the correct user profile and many variations of the command and it did not work.

So then found https://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-icon-clear-thumbnail-cache-windows-10

"

If you find that you are unable to delete these files, do the following.

First, close all open programs. Next, open Task Manager, look for the process Windows Explorer, right-click on it and select End process. Next, from the File menu > select Run new task. Type cmd.exe, check the Create this task with administrative privileges box and press Enter."

"

Now type the following commands one after the other and hit Enter:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer attrib –h iconcache_*.db del iconcache_*.db start explorer

 

This will rebuild your icon cache in Windows 11/10.

If you want to delete and clear the Thumbnail cache, you will have to follow the same procedure as mentioned above, but finally, use these commands:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer 
attrib –h 
thumbcache_*.db 
del thumbcache_*.db 
start explorer

 

which has a suggestion if no other options work, so it looks like that is necessary, but that's a little too complicated so I will leave Kaspersky without an icon.

TLDR Just going to leave Kaspersky without an icon and wait to see if it fixes itself but I am uncomfortable with the fact that only the Kaspersky icon disappeared after uninstalling Google Chrome and reinstalling it. I understand all antivirus companies are closely connected to Google, but Kaspersky should be less so, in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tribal Cash]

Was hoping the cache would refresh by itself eventually, but after a week Kaspersky is still the only program that does not have an icon.

Also the main 'Kaspersky Total Security' icon reappears when it is unpinned then disappears again when pinned.

[Schulte]

Hello @Tribal Cash,

can you please right click on the KTS shortcut and check its properties?

In the properties window you should see the option 'Other icon' (or similar). Click on it.
Is 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Kaspersky Lab\Kaspersky 21.3\avpui.exe' displayed in the next window above?

(The following picture is from a German Win7. Maybe it will help you anyway).
 

Spoiler

 

[Tribal Cash]

That worked. Clicking on properties then 'change icon' it says 'can't find' etc but when that popup is closed there is the option to change the icon to anything.

The bottom icon is fixed now, but out of curiosity I will leave the two desktop icons as white squares to see if they ever fix themselves.

I'm still concerned about why Google has inordinate power over other programs like Kaspersky.

It is a trivial issue compared to the 'public key cryptography' scam which gives a government complete access to everything, but it is still uncomfortable.

I would 'mark as solution' your comment but that option is not anywhere on your comment, as it sometimes is on other comments.

Thanks

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Tribal Cash
spelling

[Tribal Cash]

Okay sorry, but one more new oddity then I drop the matter.

Now there is an icon, but a different icon for when the program is pinned vs not pinned, but more interestingly when I right click on either icon the context menu still has the blank white square.

[Schulte]

Hello @Tribal Cash,

unfortunately I can't explain what exactly happened. I am too little Windows/Chrome expert for that.

I only have a suspicion:
Usually the icons are set up by a program once during the installation and the further management is handed over to Windows.
When uninstalling Chrome, which no longer worked correctly, an error seems to have occurred and the uninstall process passed incorrect data to the Windows Registry. Since the Kaspersky AddOn was also registered in Chrome, this error could have occurred regarding the Kaspersky icons. Windows reacted, but restored wrong links to the icon. Chrome negatively affected Windows here in my opinion, but did not change the KTS. That is not possible (for Chrome).
The error message refers to an icon of the Kaspersky installer, the same is the case with the 'unpinned icon'.

I suspect that the problem will be solved only with an un-/reinstallation of KTS, all the rest is time consuming and requires a lot of expertise.

But nice to see it working again, at least partially.