When installing Avast Antivirus, you may receive an error message 'The Base Filtering Engine (BFE) is not running', and the Avast Setup wizard is unable to complete the installation until the Windows BFE service is restored and running.

The BFE service controls the operation of the Windows Filtering Platform. This service is essential for the operation of many firewall products, including the Firewall embedded in Avast Antivirus.

This issue may be a result of active malware which has disabled, terminated, or removed the Windows BFE service to prevent detection. It may also result from changes made to your system files or registry from a PC tune up software.

To resolve this problem, you need to restore and start the BFE service.

Instructions

Ensure that the Windows Base Filtering Engine service is running by following these steps:

1. Simultaneously press the Win and R keys on your keyboard to run the Windows Services console, then type services.msc in the field and click OK. The Services console appears.
2. Locate Base Filtering Engine in the Windows Services console, and check the Status column. The status needs to display the text Running before you can continue installing Avast. If the status is blank, it means the service is not running.
3. Right-click Base Filtering Engine in the list and select Start to enable the BFE service. If the BFE service does not start, select a method below and use the instructions in the relevant article:
   • Repair the BFE Service by using Windows Firewall Diagnostics:
     • Automatically diagnose and fix problems with Windows Firewall
   • Remove malware that may be blocking the BFE service by using Avast Rescue Disk:
     • Creating and using Rescue Disk in Avast Antivirus
4. Go back to the Avast Antivirus setup and click Retry to continue the installation or use the following links to install Avast Antivirus from the beginning:
   • Latest versions of Avast Antivirus:
     • Avast Premium Security | Avast Free Antivirus
   

Further recommendations

When you have successfully installed Avast on your PC, it is recommended to use these additional steps:

• Run a Boot-time Scan to check for any malware that may try to disable the BFE service again. For more details, read the following article:
  • Running a Boot-time Scan in Avast Antivirus
• Run Software Updater to ensure vulnerable applications are up to date. Certain applications, such as Adobe Flash Player, may be out of date and malware can exploit security vulnerabilities in the out of date version. For more details, read the following article:
  • Software Updater - Getting Started
• Ensure that there is no other third-party antivirus software installed, including expired or trial versions. Having more than one security product on your system can lead to conflicts such as false positive detections. For more details, read the following article:
  • Uninstalling other antivirus software

• Consider uninstalling any PC tune up software. Such applications can make changes to your critical system files or Windows registry which may interfere with services such as BFE. For more details, read one of the following Microsoft articles according to your version of Windows:
  • Windows 10 | Windows 8 | Windows 7

Updated on: 6/2/22