It’s been a long couple of days trying to delete Avast for good. Two days ago I downloaded Avast because I haven’t had an AV for a couple of years. After dl of Avast I couldn’t use Y! messenger, so I decided to uninstall Avast. I had to do some work just to get that done, but after getting ASW Clear from Avast website and going to settings and deleting Avast from Add/Remove I finally deleted the cursed software, immediately all of my programs started opening up. I decided to restart my computer. Upon restart Avast reappeared and was in self defense mode. I cannot delete it now. I have attempted regedit, pocketkill, program file delete, attempted add/remove (Avast won’t allow me to open Add/Remove), etc. I have tried all I can think to try. Please help!
You’ve got bigger problems than not being able to delete Avast.
Quite a few of your symptoms match malware, but I guess you knew that.
To use the aswclear utility, when having been unable to correctly uninstall Avast from the control panel, you need to reboot into safe mode then run the utility.
Of course you might prefer to deal with your malware problems first, there’s a lot of help available here.
Up to you.
If you do, can you state your operating system, please (including service pack number), any security applications that are (or have ever been) installed, and RAM/CPU.
I am running Toshiba Satalite Windows XP Home Service Pack 3. I have used Norton and F-secure on this PC in the past.
Do you want to have a go at fixing this up, or do you just want to uninstall Avast and carry on?
I would like to fix it while deleting Avast. You will be my everlasting hero just for helping me get rid of Avast.
Right. The latter (deleting, or rather, uninstalling Avast) is easy. Just follow the directions above to run the Avast Uninstall Utility in safe mode, then reboot to normal.
The former (fix it) may not be so straightforward. Quite likely that the uninstall will give you back Y messenger; other problems will still remain.
So as to offer the best advice in that regard,some more questions:
-
What security do you intend to use once Avast is uninstalled?
-
Do you use a firewall, and if so, do you know which one?
-
Are there any security related icons showing in the system tray, which is at the bottom right of the screen, by the time?
-
Do you know how to open the taskmanager, and do you know how to open and check for running services?
-
Did you alter or delete any keys while using regedit?
I don’t actually know how to access “safe mode”.
-
What security do you intend to use once Avast is uninstalled? None, I have had bad luck with AV’s.
-
Do you use a firewall, and if so, do you know which one?Windows default.
-
Are there any security related icons showing in the system tray, which is at the bottom right of the screen, by the time?Yes, Avast…
-
Do you know how to open the taskmanager, and do you know how to open and check for running services?Yes to both.
-
Did you alter or delete any keys while using regedit?No.
See booting into safe mode http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml
The link posted above contains the info you need.
Once you’re in safe, run Aswclear.exe, reboot.
The Avast icon will be gone.
Fixing the computer.
The answer you gave here
None, I have had bad luck with AV’s.while apparently saying nothing reveals much.
There could be many reasons for your bad luck, it’s necessary to be somewhat methodical when going through any likely fix. Without a lot of information, the fixes I suggest are nothing more than good guesses at solving problems in an orderly fashion.
Without an active AV on your computer, if you connect to the net, and even with the firewall on, it’s not “if” it’s “when” you will get malware.
I suggest:
-Download the Norton Removal Tool here: (under “downloads” with the animated chevrons) http://majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html and run it. It would be good to run this while you’re in safe mode, but not essential.
Reason: Norton usually does not uninstall cleanly. Some of the stuff it leaves behind can and does interfere with another AV installed later. This fact alone could be the reason for your bad luck.
-Download MBAM from here: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php, install it, update it, run a scan. It may prompt you to reboot to remove some malware found. If it does, reboot promptly. If you cannot install it, or cannot run it, let us know.
This is a very good on-demand antimalware scanner. The basic version is free, you only pay for it if you want resident (on access) protection. I would suggest not upgrading to the pay for version. Not right now.
Be interesting to know how many items it finds.
-Look in “services.msc” and advise if any of the following are present: (Possible f-secure remnants.)
F-Secure Anti-Virus 2006.lnk
F-Secure Anti-Virus 2006 (BackWeb Plug-in - 4476822)
FSGKHS
fsbwsys
F-Secure Anti-Virus Firewall Daemon (FSDFWD)
F-Secure Management Agent (FSMA)
I think this is unlikely, but if any are, stop each service in turn, and set them to not start (disable.)
If these steps have turned up anything “interesting”, you may want to revisit the idea of running without an AV. I’d certainly urge you to do so. If you choose not to, be ready to format and re-install your OS periodically, and never ever use it for banking, or storing private information.
Let us know how you get on.
I just looked in Services and there are no F-Secure operations. Thank you very much for the help. I will keep you posted on progress.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I got it! I have 4 malwares so far, it’s still scanning, but Avast is gone forever! Thank you SO much!
You should be very, very clear on one significant point: Avast did not cause the problems you have had.
It was almost certainly a combination of malware, the fact that another AV was previously installed that wouldn’t allow Avast to properly do its job, possibly even a corrupt installation package.
When the scan has finished, post the scan report, and let us know how things are running.
Also would like to know what browser you use.
They’re right… You’re in much big trouble if you uninstall Avast… I have tried AVG but it keeps on having problems that’s why I chose Avast (after a couple of researches, a good number of people said that Avast is the best)…
Having an AV is very important… Its the most important thing in the computer…
If you’re gonna successfully uninstall Avast and gonna have a virus in the future and that destroys your computer, don’t blame us that we didn’t warn you…
It’s your choice…