Phantom account gone after windows 10 update.

[Dlanor 3]

After the November 2019 Windows 10 update the existing Phantom account on my computer was suddenly gone. I now get the message of ESET Internet Security that I need to recreated it. When checking the latest updates that were installed on my PC on Nov. 13 I noticed that it included: the cumulative update for Windows 10 version 1903 for x64 systems (KB4524570) and the installation of the Windows program for the removal of malicious software (KB890830). Is that the cause of the disappearance of the Phantom account? If so, how to avoid that this happens again? If these updates were not the cause, then why did it disappear? Thanks.

[Marcos 3,030]

This is a known issue of v13. It's been tracked as a bug and already resolved internally so a fix will be included in the next release of v13.

[WingsAhoy 3]

Why not release an intermediate patch now? All four of my Windows 10 computers with EIS are having the problem. In the mean time, I have no theft protection. Theft protection I paid for, as a key feature of EIS.

[streeterg 3]

Have to agree with the need for a priority patch. My personal laptop moves between two locations on a weekly basis. Anti-theft is one of the significant features of the product which has been rendered inoperable by the v13 upgrade. As a 30+ year veteran professional IT developer (include a period as a licenced IT security evaluator for GCHQ) I find it remarkable that such an obvious defect was missed during testing.

Edited November 24 by streeterg

[BeanSlappers 9]

8 hours ago, Marcos said:

This is a known issue of v13. It's been tracked as a bug and already resolved internally so a fix will be included in the next release of v13.

How far away is this release Marcos?

[Clark T 3]

I made not the November 2019 Windows 10 update, yet. I wait and see if any problems happen with the November 2019 Windows 10 update.

Is a "Phantom account" the Windows 10 guest account?

[peteyt 114]

On 11/16/2019 at 10:29 AM, Clark T said:

I made not the November 2019 Windows 10 update, yet. I wait and see if any problems happen with the November 2019 Windows 10 update.

Is a "Phantom account" the Windows 10 guest account?

No the phantom account is part of eset Anti Theft - if you mark a device e.g as missing only the phantom account will work and possibly (although I'm unsure of this) if someone logs in it may help to detect their location.

As someone who uses eset on their PC mainly (do not currently own a laptop) it is not something I have used

Edited November 18 by peteyt

[Clark T 3]

Thanks for the info @peteyt.

[Dlanor 3]

@Marcos thanks for the clarification that it will be solved with the next update V13, but as asked by @BeanSlappers, any indication when this might happen?

Will there also be communication that this issue is fixed? So users know when to setup again a new Phantom Account? I do want to avoid that I am too early and have to do it again

Thanks.

[WingsAhoy 3]

6 hours ago, Dlanor said:

Will there also be communication that this issue is fixed? So users know when to setup again a new Phantom Account? I do want to avoid that I am too early and have to do it again

I don't think we need to recreate the phantom account. It never went away. It's disabled in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> [phantom account name]. Don't bother enabling it yet. It will automatically become disabled again in as little as a few minutes and anti-theft will be disabled again.

[Dlanor 3]

Well, not in my version of Windows 10... I will just wait for the white smoke comes out of the chimney.

[WingsAhoy 3]

I think it's been fixed. A small product update got installed a few days ago without having to reboot. On three of my computers, I had to delete the disabled Windows anti-theft account, reboot, go into the anti-theft web interface and create the Windows anti-theft account again (using the same account name as prior). It's been two days and no problem with anti-theft since.

[BeanSlappers 9]

On 11/18/2019 at 12:09 PM, WingsAhoy said:

I don't think we need to recreate the phantom account. It never went away. It's disabled in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Local Users and Groups -> Users -> [phantom account name]. Don't bother enabling it yet. It will automatically become disabled again in as little as a few minutes and anti-theft will be disabled again.

I don't have that at all in windows 10 like the phantom account showing there, i have just checked, yet it says its working on the eset website, and I have even reset it many times.

[BeanSlappers 9]

1 hour ago, WingsAhoy said:

I think it's been fixed. A small product update got installed a few days ago without having to reboot. On three of my computers, I had to delete the disabled Windows anti-theft account, reboot, go into the anti-theft web interface and create the Windows anti-theft account again (using the same account name as prior). It's been two days and no problem with anti-theft since.

Not for me it hasn't been.

[BeanSlappers 9]

Ok I just tried something and it worked.

 

I went to https://my.eset.com a clicked on anti theft.

 

Then I clicked on my computer name and then went to settings > Next to Phantom account, I clicked on Delete.

 

Then I re did the account, and now it shows up in my lusrmgr.msc (aka the local accounts.)

 

Mine is working perfectly, so i hope this helps someone.

[streeterg 3]

I've now managed to re-initialise the Anti-Theft functionality too. Waiting to see if the "not-optimized" messages no longer occur.

[BeanSlappers 9]

I had that annoying message 3 times after doing it.

[streeterg 3]

Seems to be working ok atm for me. Several reboots and device relocation and still marked as optimized with no warning messages

[Marcos 3,030]

There will be a hotfix release of v13 by the beginning of Dec which will also address the issue with Anti-Theft.

[BeanSlappers 9]

5 hours ago, Marcos said:

There will be a hotfix release of v13 by the beginning of Dec which will also address the issue with Anti-Theft.

Thank you Marcos.

[streeterg 3]

On 11/25/2019 at 3:03 PM, streeterg said:

Seems to be working ok atm for me. Several reboots and device relocation and still marked as optimized with no warning messages

Just thrown the optimization message again after working ok for most of the week. Guess we need to wait for the patch and hope this addresses the issue.

[BeanSlappers 9]

49 minutes ago, streeterg said:

Just thrown the optimization message again after working ok for most of the week. Guess we need to wait for the patch and hope this addresses the issue.

Have you tried my suggestion?

[streeterg 3]

Yes - this was after deleting the device from Anti-Theft and removing the phantom account in Windows to reset the conditions. Given the patch Marcos refers to has not been released yet then I didn't expect it to work

[streeterg 3]

I have just received the 13.0.24.0 update to ESET IS. Does this include a fix for the Anti-Theft optimization error issue?

[Marcos 3,030]

2 minutes ago, streeterg said:

I have just received the 13.0.24.0 update to ESET IS. Does this include a fix for the Anti-Theft optimization error issue?

Yes, the bug was fixed in this version.