Cannot purge Avast Free OR Clear Uninstaller from my computer

Avast Cleanup
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Installed the free version of Avast yesterday to do a malware scan (just to see if it caught anything my regular AV missed; Avast scan came up clear) and then promptly uninstalled it.

Kaspersky last night gave me a notification saying it had detected ‘incompatible software’ and listed Avast, but usually in such cases, there’s a checkbox next to it so you can tell it to uninstall it. That was missing in this case, and when I clicked the ‘remove manually’ button, it just took me to the Windows Apps and Features panel, which of course didn’t contain Avast because I’d already installed it.

Spent some time going through the computer files and deleting them all (including emptying the recycle bin) and restarting the computer, and a search of the entire PC for “avast” yields no results, but Kaspersky is still whining about Avast being there.

Tried using that Avast Clear Uninstaller and when I followed the instructions and tried to reboot to safe mode, I got stuck on the Welcome screen after entering my login password and hitting enter. Force restart gave me the option of starting with Win 10 (ie. normal restart) or the Avast clear, but clicking the latter just rebooted again and left me stuck at the welcome screen after I enter password.

Did a second attempt and got stuck on the boot up screen trying diagnose and repair the PC (which it also kept freezing on). Eventually restarted as normal (it wouldn’t let me restart in safe mode), but now even after deleting the Avast clear .exe and checking there’s nothing Avast related in the installed apps, when I turn on the computer, instead of just going to the windows login screen, it keeps asking which operating system I want to use, windows 10 or Avast Antivirus Clear Uninstall.

(Edit: I also went in and once again deleted all the Avast files from temp folders etc, and after checking Kaspersky now, it is no longer flagging the incompatible software, but the start-up/login problem remains)

Why is Avast trying to take over my computer startup? How can I purge this malware (because at this point it seems like Avast is malware) completely from my system?

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Following up on this in case anyone else has the same issue.

After a bit of faffing around that didn’t really achieve much, I went into opened up MS Config and the Boot Settings and saw that it listed two options: Windows 10 (as the default and current OS) and Avast Antivirus Clear Uninstall. I clicked on the Avast one and then clicked Delete, and it said that BitLocker Drive Encryption is enabled on my OS drive and that because the changes modify boot settings, it would enter recovery mode on the next boot and I would need to provide a BitLocker key or password.

I closed out of it and found the BitLocker key information using Method 6 here: BitLocker Recovery Key: How to Find It Fast (7 Methods) and then opened the Boot settings again, deleted the Avast option and restarted.

A minute or so later I turned it back on, and after the computer manufacturer logo screen, instead of going to a blue screen asking if I wanted to boot with Windows 10 or Avast, it just booted into Windows as normal. I opened a few files with no issues, then turned the computer off completely.

Turned it on a few minutes later and again it booted as it normally would have. Been using it for about 20 minutes now and have not been asked for a BitLocker recovery key. I’m hoping it’s not going to randomly ambush me at some point but it seems that the Avast boot issue at least is fixed.
Hopefully if anyone else runs into this problem, the procedure above will help (but make sure you’ve backed up your files and made sure you know the BitLocker key - if applicable - before you do it).