Hello, I am hoping someone in this community forum can assist me. I have been unable to uninstall the Avast registry key. I have used the Avast cleaner tool in non safe mode and safe mode and it will not delete. I tried to manually delete it in Safe Mode and it won’t delete.
Avast’s Self Defence module may be preventing you from doing that.
Now I don’t know if you are intending to reinstall or not, if not don’t download the new off-line installation file.
The avast cleaner tool has to be downloaded and run from safe mode or as you found the self-defence module may prevent you doing it. Though I don’t know why it didn’t work if you did try from safe mode.
So I reinstalled Avast and then used the Avast Clear tool and ran it from safe mode and that key is still not deleted. I don’t know what the next steps would be.
Have you uninstalled Avast (and aren’t intending to reinstall Avast), and if so I don’t know if this would have any impact. As it should be overwritten.
Are you getting any errors on your system as a result of that being present ?
Is Windows throwing out any errors ?
DavidR, sorry for the confusion with my last message.
Avast has been uninstalled. I don’t plan to reinstall it at this point. The registry key is still there. It won’t delete. I am not getting any errors on my system and no errors from Windows - so I am thinking I should just leave it alone and ignore it. I am guessing its an empty folder.
I would concur, if it isn’t causing you any bother I would leave it there.
The one thing I would check is that Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection isn’t showing it. If you uninstall Avast Windows should default to Windows Defender or any other Antivirus you choose to replace it with.
Yes, the Defender shield has the green check mark, so its active. I have no issues with Avast in general, but just don’t want to pay for the premium version at this time. Thanks for your help with this.
If your happy falling back to defender, with its limited protection. I would have suggested dropping back to Avast Antivirus Free, which I have been using for over 21 years.
Also ensure that you have cancelled your payment mandate Avast Premium or that would automatically collected.
Thank you for the response. I may consider the free Avast One version, but I really can’t get a definitive answer why I should use the free version of Avast One over Defender and what the differences are regarding protection between the two.
I don’t use Avast One Free, you have to look at the components that are in Avast One Free. Nor have I used Defender as by the time that was introduced I had been using Avast for some time.
For one thing it has a limited use VPN not in Defender. It has more components than Avast Antivirus Free
Thank you for the article. I decided to go with Avast One Free. It has a lot of features for a free antivirus. Also, per a previous message, the paid antivirus I had that I let lapse was not Avast Premium, it was a different provider. I had briefly installed Avast Free, but didn’t like it…Avast One free, for me is more of what I am looking for in a free AV.