Can't Uninstall and Reinstall Avast Anti-Virus

[UnquietDad]

Issue with Avast anti-virus today in Windows XP. In the toolbar it has an X on the icon. When I open the Avast User Interface, it is saying it is UNSECURED, and I have the message that is "has been stopped or is in an inconsistent state."

My first thought was to uninstall and reinstall Avast. However, my Add/Remove Programs is not working - it just doesn't populate the list.

I tried downloading the new version of Avast and the setup gave me the option of uninstalling the old one. Fine, so I clicked on that. But I got a message that the uninstalling process could not be completed.

I have reached the limits of my ability. Any thoughts?

The machine has gone and got itself into a knot, which with Windows really isn't that hard to a thing to achieve.

What error do you get when trying the uninstall through the new version of Avast?

You can't remove a virus program using Add/Remove programs - if it was that easy to do, a virus could just remove it.

You need to put "Avast removal tool" into google and find a proper removal tool - probably on Avast's own website. Then you can reinstall it, or maybe use a different free antivirus program like AVG, if you have had problems with Avast.

Also before you do anything it might be worth going to the website of malwarebytes anti-malware and running the online scan (it shouldn't install anything) just to check that nothing nasty has got in first of all.

"You can't remove a virus program using Add/Remove programs - if it was that easy to do, a virus could just remove it.'

All the Add/Remove programs thing is is a series of hooks in the registry that point to the actual uninstaller used to remove the file. Certainly the AV stuff I used to use back when I worried about my own Windows boxes had an uninstaller and were registered in the Add/Remove programs area.

That Add/Remove isn't working at all and the new install of Avast can't remove the old version makes me think that something very dodgy is going on, or Windows is in a real mess, which again is quite possible.

So the suggestion of checking for malware is a very good one.

Yup Avast should appear in the Add/Remove Programs area....

support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=11

Which is totally what you expect. Any virus worth it's salt wouldn't bother with that part of the registry and would go hunting for the actual uninstallers themselves, not registering yourself in the Add/Remove bit of the registry is no real protection at all.

I just googled "Remove Avast Antivirus" and it came up with this page which has a removal tool on it - stating that sometimes removing via Add/Remove programs is not enough.

www.avast.com/uninstall-utility

I know that it wouldn't be much protection to not appear in Add/Remove Programs, but what I meant was, it's not going to be as simple to remove as another program e.g. Microsoft Word. This is a security feature, I believe, although I will admit I'm not an expert (used to live with a computer technician)

Thanks for all that. I did some digging myself earlier and removed it with Uninstall Tool. Replaced with a clean version and it seems to be doing OK.

Makes sense about add/remove - I was worried that it wouldn't populate the list at all though.

It "should" be as simple as removing any other program and that's certainly Avast's intent. The clean up tool may exist as some viruses or dodgy software might kill/mangle enough bits of Avast so that it will no longer work but leave enough of it behind so that it's hard to remove.

Windows is a nightmare when it comes to installing and uninstalling things. Things get sprayed everywhere and the registry can easily become out of sync with what's actually going on on the computer. So it's not hard for a malware author to twist the process so that the whole thing falls apart, which is great as your left with a non functioning but non replaceable anti-virus system.

Actually in all honesty it's not hard for normal activities and time to make installing and uninstalling stuff go wrong.

Is Add/Remove now working?

I would certainly check for Malware using the link above or something like AdAware.

While it's quite possible for Windows to get into this sort of knot all by itself it's certainly something that malware people might want to cause.

Yes, add/remove now working, thanks. I will do the online malware check too.