ok… dumb question. where do i find the ‘norton removal tool’? i have Norton Anti Theft and Norton Internet Security installed. Do i just use the control panel uninstall utility?
i actually downloaded the tool from the previous link above… it removed norton internet security- did not remove norton anti theft. i removed avast, rebooted and reinstalled avast. still have the same issue. >:( 
ugh
As it stands I cannot see why the system has this issue… I will check out TechNet for some pointers
Ye gods it is a nightmare in there, the number of programmes that suffer from this. They all seem to be related to dll’s within the winsxs folder being corrupted, or the related xml files having an error
If you google side by side configuration error (14001) you will see what I mean
I will trawl the responses to see if I can find one that fits with your error
OK lets try this
Disable Avast self protection module Setting > Troubleshooting
Then download the following file to C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/73555776/Aavm4h.dll
Allow the file to overwrite. This is a copy of the dll that works on my system
I cannot open Avast, so how do i disable the self protection module?
It is to do with the files in the winsxs folder, replacement of the dll is in the hope that the dll was corrupt. Otherwise there is one file somewhere within the winsxs folder that is corrupt. There is in excess of 14,000 files in my winsxs folder
i did replace the dll and did notice that the dll was just a bit larger (5kb) than the one i downloaded. i am not sure if that is because i may have had the latest version or not. Are we at the point where i need to consider having best buy do this? or should i have a bit more patience? if i pulled the files/file size from the winsxs folder on this laptop and my daughters and compared, the files, would that help identify a corrupt file?
Unfortunately no as in one instance the only error was a missing < in an XML file
With best buy, they will probably reformat the system or use another AV that does not use a common file from that folder
I figured those would be the only options. Wish I had a backup from day1 and it would save me the 15 hrs (and your help) that ive messed with this. Avast is my preferred av, so them putting another on the laptop is not an option. I guess I need to talk with them
OK call me a numpty you have windows 8 is that correct inasmuch as you have not installed 8.1 yet
I just checked. It is 8.1… I didn’t knowingly install it. I am assuming that it came that way
OK there is an option within windows 8 to refresh windows… I.e. replace all the windows files
This means though that any programmes that were not downloaded from the windows store will need to be re-installed. However, all personal files/data will be preserved
Let me just do a full check on that, I did it once myself before I got 8.1 as my playing around broke it 
If your PC isn’t performing as well as it once did, and you don’t know why, you can refresh your PC without deleting any of your personal files or changing your settings.Note
If you upgraded your PC from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 and your PC has a Windows 8 recovery partition, refreshing your PC will restore Windows 8. You’ll need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 after the refresh has finished.
Warning
Applications you’ve installed from websites and DVDs will be removed. Applications that came with your PC and apps you’ve installed from the Windows Store will be reinstalled. Windows puts a list of removed applications on your desktop after refreshing your PC.
Taken from the refresh details page
Ok… Completed refresh. Installed avast with no issues! Disabled norton that was put back on the PC during the refresh but will be removing it via the norton removal tool this week. Thanks for your help
Sorry that we could not find a simpler solution - I did notice though that the programmers at TechNet were calling that folder dllhell