uninstalled spybot and rebooted
downloaded avastclear to desktop
downloaded avast Free
disconnected from internet
tried to uninstall avast from control panel (received error- see below)
ran avastclear in safe mode (selected avast free)
reinstalled avast free

same issue - side by side configuration error.

here is the error log from when i try to uninstall via control panel.

15:27:11Infoinstcont[5092,128]–
15:27:11Infoinstcont[5092,128]2014/01/25 15:27:11 START: Avast installer/updater
15:27:11Infoinstup[5092,128]Command: ‘“C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast\Setup\Instup.exe” /control_panel /instop:uninstall’
15:27:11Infoinstup[5092,128]CPU: Intel(R) Core™ i3-3120M CPU @ 2.50GHz,4
15:27:11Infoinstup[5092,128]OS: ver 6.3, build 9600, sp 0.0 x64
15:27:11Infoinstup[5092,128]Memory: 27% load. Phys:2947260/4070676K free, Page:4194303/4194303K free, Virt:4103172/4194176K free
15:27:11Infoinstup[5092,128]DISKs: C:\ - 638GB free / 689GB total
15:27:11Infoinstup[5092,128]Running module version: ‘9.0.2013.292’
15:27:11Infosimutex[5092,128]Checking for the mutex ownership.
15:27:11Infoguiwizard[5092,128]Setup gui was successfully started.
15:27:19Erroravast_connector[5092,128]Create: LoadLibraryEx(‘Aavm4h.dll’) has failed with code: 14001 (0x000036B1) [The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail.]
15:27:19Infoinstupcore[5092,128]Product uninstallation has started.

i am heading out soon and wont be available for most of the afternoon. i will try whatever else you suggest.