Error message: "Login process has failed to create the security options dialog"

It's generally NOT a good idea to have more than one AV product running at the same time. Each wants to have complete control over the filesystem, and each gets in the way of the others. To make matters worse, in recent times, the simpler AV apps have become security "suites", often including firewall, email, and real-time file scanning -- sometimes installing these by default without telling folks.



This has further been complicated by new security rules in Vista that further muddy the waters with elevations rights, different user classes, not running as Admin by default, UAC, etc.



Getting one AV "suite" to behave well is a challenge; running several at the same time is asking for trouble.



Plus .. if this is going to get into a discussion of AV products, we should move this thread to the Security forum.

I have had avast before but did not like the clunky interface. I will get it again. Do you have threat fire installed with it?

I have the premium home edition SP1,HP m8100n, AMD 2.80 with 2924 MB.

Thanks for your help.

Hi folks,



great thread. I experienced the very same problem and it drove me crazy! You know, being at work, knowing your machine at home doesn't work properly, thinking about solutions all the time... :w00t:



My systems specs: C2D 8400, GTS8800, 4GB RAM, ASUS P5B Deluxe (Intel 965P), ICH8R Southbridge, 500 W PSU Seasonic, Vista x64.



Situation / Problems

My Problems began somewhen between 2008-05-01 and 2008-05-19. Don't know what I did, but it was no software install though. It started with games, (CS:S and Supreme Commander), causing a complete freeze. Alt+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Del took me to a blackscreen first and after minutes (!) left me with the error message "failure - security options: Login process has failed to create the security options dialog". During all the time I had control over the mouse, it was movable, but keystrokes had absolutely no effects so I couldn't do anything about it.



Only way out was a hard reset, means: power off, power on. Soft-resetz didn't work out. Lateron, it happened more oftenly and right away from the desktop, mostly 3-5 times a day and oftenly 3-5 minutes after booting. It seemed to me to occur randomly while using different tools such as firefox, itunes, mediaplayer, outlook, word, excel...



Countermeasures taken:

What came to my mind was a defective hard drive, because the activity led was deep red all the time with no single flicker. So I changed my HDD and cloned it onto another drive - with no effect at all, same error.



I disabled -one by one-:



* the vista indexing services,

* uninstalled my "lookeen"-Tool (which is an outlook-indexing addon),

* disabled the defrag service,

* disabled the sidebar

* uninstalled Acronis TrueImage due to bootloader modifications it has made to vista and due to volume handling errors --> Disabling all Acronis Services via msconfig.exe seems to do the job, too, for some ppl (1,2)

* restored the MBR via FIXMBR C:; FIXBOOT C:; BOOTCFG /rebuild

* uninstalled NVIDIA ForceWare / Rollback to 169.x-Versions (last WHQL from 12/2007)

* NVIDA ForceWare related Tools (in my case: RivaTuner 2.09)

* uninstalled X-Fi Drivers / reinstalled new 2.18 beta drivers

* rebuilt the WMI-Repsoitory

* Uninstalled the Apple Bonjour Tool



All with absolutely no effect on the matter.



Possible culprits

Afterwards I used the windows protocols to identify the culprit. I ended up with



* BitDefender 2008 AntiVirus (bdfsfltr.sys caused errors continously)

* Java 1.6.0 Update 6 (java.exe oftenly hung itself up and smoothly changed into "our" error)

* Windows Defender (which is a crappy tool all the way from head to toes anyways)

* Comodo Firewall Pro (which caused several kernel log entries)





After reading this thread, it seems to be the AV-solution, no matter which product you're using.



Possible solutions

What I'll do next:



1) deactivate Windows defender, this sh** tool which I would love to cut out of vista and stick it into some M$ managing a**. (sorry for offensive wording )



2) I'll stress test the system and see if our error occurs again.



3) If error does NOT occur anymore, I'll reinstall the tools mentioned above one by one to see if one of them causes the failure.



See you all, m8s, hope thi

To disable windows defender: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...bf0dc1033.mspx



To disable sidebar: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...ebar-in-vista/



You should now have sidebar and defender disabled. No ill effects!

I just started having the same problem & error message this morning. After reading this thread, I've uninstalled Avast!. Avast updated this morning when I first booted, so that may have been the culprit. The system seems to be back to normal now.



Is there any AV that hasn't had this problem? I sure don't want to run without one!



Peter

Bad News



I have experienced the error after all, having all the tools uninstalled and all the services disabled. I'm out of options now.



And YES, I disabled Windows Defender as said above...



Ideas anyone?!

Petero:



Recommend using ESET NOD 32 AV. Have not had any problems with it.



Palamedes:



Did you disable Windows Defender?

@petero



Are you sure about your AVS being the culprit? I doubt that, cause I tried everything I've found out there.



For some reason, uninstalling Acronis TrueImage 10 or disabling ALL of its Services via msconfig.exe had the best results which means: still the freezes, but much less frequently (after disabling the Acronis Services: 1-2 times a week, before 3-4 Times a day.)



I HATE software I have to betatest myself... :unsure:

Make sure that windows defender isn't set to load with start up items still in msconfig. Ive noticed that when it disabled, it still starts up at log on but with the extension '-quiet' so you don't see it. Just uncheck the exe in msconfig to stop it for good.

I see strange things happen here. I just supposed what you did - that disabling Windows Defender in services is not enough at all. So I unchecked the boxes within msconfig.exe.



My machine ran for 8 hours today without a single flaw! As this was a success compared to everything before, I reinstalled all the apps mentioned above. then, shortly before midnight...THE HDD LED OF DEATH again! I just was browsing a website, it didn't load completely and *bang*, there it was again.



Last tool i reinstalled was Java x32 Version 6.0 Update 6. The last application running was Firefox (with Java enabled), maybe THAT is the culprit??!