did uninstalling avast give me a virus?

General Topics
1

i had not fully uninstalled nortons when i downloaded avast. So i uninstalled avast. next thing i know everything has gone haywire. i opened the task mngr. and there is a program that opens like 100 times over and over and over, faster than i can close them. i did a search on my pc for the program and deleted it. i cant remember the name of the program. i have sense been using nortons 2004. its paid for so i might as well use it, my question is “what happened when i uninstalled avast” “why did it happen” and could u tell me the name of that program" it was ash- something im thinking ashbot or somthin like that is it safe to download avast again or will the same thing happen if i need to uninstall it?
os=windows ME it a dell computer and i use msn internet and msn explorer browser any ideas

2

sorry i forgot to mention im not very good w/computers still learning. the reason i am asking these question is because i really liked the avast antivirus till the ashbot thing. my sis-in-law gave me her old computer and it has files on it the need ashsimple to open but i am not sure about using avasts free antivirus again? is there a way to open these files or do i need avast?

3
i had not fully uninstalled nortons when i downloaded avast.
I guess you mean "when I installed Avast". Just downloading the Avast installation package will never do any harm.
So i uninstalled avast. next thing i know everything has gone haywire
You never should have installed Avast while NAV wasn't completely removed. This can give all kinds of problems.
could u tell me the name of that program
How can we tell you? It was on your system that this happend. None of us saw it.
is it safe to download avast again
Sure it is, but make sure that every trace of other av(s) is removed before installing.
my sis-in-law gave me her old computer and it has files on it the need ashsimple to open
ashSimple is the simple user interface of Avast. [b]No[/b] files need ashSimple to be present besides Avast itself if you want to open Avast in the simple user interface.
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And Uninstalling Avast! wouldnt of givin you a virus,(Or mabey a virus called win32.please.install.avast :smiley: :wink: )

5

what firewall have you got?

could it be that your had norton internet security 2004 (which includes a firewall) and by removing it you left your PC open to attacks from the net by worms?