Why do I have two folders called Avast?

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I just notest that the tray icon was showing an exclamation mark and click on it to see what’s wrong.
Then I saw that there is a new program version(yet again,avast never tells me that there is a new version,just changes the tray icon)

So I installed(updated to)the new version and after the restart I wanted to see if that aswOfferTool was installed yet again(and it was)and I notest that I have two folders in C:\Program Files

One of them is called Avast(I choose that name and place the program inside,not in AVAST Software\Avast)
And the other is also called Avast but with big letters only(AVAST)

When I check the size of the folder,it says that it is empty 0 and when I try to open anything inside,windows says that it doesn’t exist what I’m trying to open
And I also can’t delete the AVAST folder(which I didn’t create)

Edit:
C:\Program Files\Avast
C:\Program Files\AVAST

2

10 days later,93 times viewed,newer program version was released and not a single response.

3

You shouldn’t have two folders there.

First, try running a repair and see if that fixed the issue.

If that doesn’t, then try deleting the empty folder in Safe Mode.

If that doesn’t work, then you’ll have to do a clean install.

I’d suggest doing a clean install and ensure that both folders are deleted via safe mode.

1.Download your version of avast!, the avastclear tool and save them to the desktop:

Avast Free Antivirus
Avast Pro Antivirus
Avast Internet Security
Avast Premier

Download Avast Clear Tool

  1. Uninstall Avast in Control panel [If you don’t have Avast in control Panel go to #3]
  2. Uninstall in safe mode using Avastclear. [Running Avastclear is normal mode will give a prompt to go into Safe Mode]
    Check : Once uninstalled check in device manager>view>show hidden devices if there is anything related to avast with a yellow triangle… if so, uninstall it and reboot.
  3. Install the version you downloaded.
  4. Reboot.

Free: If you have the Free version, register the product for free for a year from the avast! UI.
Paid: If you have a paid license, insert the license key/activation code after the reboot at stage 6.

4

Btw. the AVAST Software folder is created for a reason : Not only Avast is installed in there but by default the SZBrowser ( = SafeZone Browser ) as well.

Greetz, Red.

5

Alikhan I’m 99% sure that this will fix the problem my main question actually is why such folder exist and how is that possible if you can’t create two files\folders at the same location with the same name

When I try to delete the AVAST folder,windows says that I don’t have permissions to do that and when I try to delete any of the files inside,windows says that it can’t find the file.

Doing chkdisk don’t show anything abnormal

Rednose ok but I don’t use that

6

People are curious, I was too as I have never seen this on my systems in over 12 years of using avast. The difference in your folders is strange the correct path and case is I believe, C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast and that is what I have in both my systems. Your other folder is upper case for AVAST (different to normal), but that really shouldn’t matter as I don’t believe windows OS or explorer is case sensitive.

When trying to delete folders (outside of an uninstall are likely to get blocked by the avast self-defence module, you would have to disable that in the avastUI > Troubleshooting section.

That said I don’t believe it is wise to do that, but to follow the clean reinstall process.

EDIT: added attached image.

7

I uninstalled avast and enter in safe mode but the upper case AVAST was still there and I was still not able to delete it.
When I run the avast cleaner and set the installed folder to that folder(which was actually empty now),after the process was done and I restarted the pc,the folder was gone.

After that I installed avast again and everything was normal