Problem installing Avast-5 against Avast-4 (Windows Xp).

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello everyone!

I have a remote Windows Xp Sp3 pc. It was running Avast-4 for almost a year now. Some days ago I decided to update it to Avast version 5.

I downloaded the latest version from the internet. The installation completed successfully and asked for a system reboot. After the reboot I saw that the icon was marked with a red X indicating a problem. I opened up the gui and pressed fix the problem Nothing happened. I tried uninstalling and installing Avast-5 several times but it wouldn’t work.

After many tries I had a look at Program Files/Alwil Softaware/. There are two folders. Avast4 and Avast5. If Avast-5 was uninstalled I could delete the Avast5 folder. I can’t delete avast4 folder witch contains many files (dlls and executables). It complains about not having enough rights.

I believe that installing Avast-5 without unistalling Avast-4 caused a problem an left Avast-4 files (and probably registry keys) in the system. Maybe this is the reason that Avast-5 doesn’t work.

I downloaded the uninstall utility but it complains about The avast! self protection module. The thing is that I have unistalled Avast-5 and deleted its folder.

As I said it is a remote pc and I can’t access it physically for the time being. So I can’t boot it on safe mode.

Is there any “trick” to gain full access over the Program Files/Alwil Softaware/avast4 folder and permanently delete it? Is there any services (or registry keys) I should kill? I tried to take the ownership of the folder but there is no security tab on the properties.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&sd=tech

Thanks you very much for your time.

2

Is Avast 4 still operating on this computer? If so, turning off self defense can be found in “settings>troubleshooting”.
If not, (and I suspect it is not) it might be possible to open the add/remove programs list, and if Avast 4 is present, carry out a repair, to get it working again, then disable the self-defense, uninstall it, run the tool (won’t be necessary to enter safe mode for this, if Avast 4 uninstalled ok), then delete the folder (if still present-unlikely) reboot, and install 5.

If none of that is possible, I don’t know another trick, sorry.

3

No, Avast-4 isn’t still operating. And as far I can see there is no process related to it. On the add/remove program list there is no entry for Avast-4.

I also tried installing Avast-5 on Avast-4 folder (Program Files/Alwil Softaware/avast4/) but the operation couldn’t finish successfully.