Avast corrupted after restoring system prior to update from 4.8 to 5

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello.
Yesterday i updated Avast to v5 on one of my clients computers (system is Windows XP SP3) which had Avast 4.8 Pro
I updated it downlading the Avast 5.0 setup file from avast.com
Everything went fine but due to an error on another application i had to restore the system to an earlier state. I chose the one that Avast 5 created before installing.

System restore went ok but neigther Avast 4.8 nor 5.0 icons appeared on the taskbar. I checked if Avast services were activated but none of them was, and trying to start them manually didn’t help.

I also tryed reinstalling Avast 5.0 this also didn’t help. Avast 5 says that the system is unsecure becuse Avast service is deactivated.

Tryed selecting another restore point, lets say a day before all this mess happened, but this also didn’t help because Windows says that the restore process couldn’t be finished.
Also tryed running aswclear.exe but it says that i have to disable Avast Protection (that funny, becuase Avast is supposedly not installed) or boot in safe mode

Is there any way to fix this without booting in safe mode?. This is because the computer is 30 miles away and i do all the maintenance remotely.

Any help is greatly apprecitated.
Thanks.

2

Yes, this will happen because Windows System Restore is NOT reliable. Not all the files are restored, not all the new files are removed.
I suggest an installation from the scratch:

  1. Download the latest version of avast! Uninstall Utility and save it.
  2. Download the latest avast! version and save it.
  3. Uninstall avast from Control Panel (if possible). If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after that.
  4. Run the avast! Uninstall Utility saved on 1. If, for any reason, you can’t run it, try booting in Safe Mode and doing it from there. Anyway, boot after you’ve run it.
  5. Install avast! using the setup saved on 2. Boot.
  6. Register your free copy or add the license key for Pro.
  7. Check and post the results.

Oh, I suggest Comodo Time Machine if you want a real system restore :wink: