Hello,
I am a new member. As you know Windows 7 support ends in a few weeks. I am going to install the free Avast security version. My question is do I just install it and let it run, or do I need to uninstall any portion of my W7 security software for best performance?
Thanks in advance.
Incidentally my father has been using free Avast on his Windows Vista PC for the past two years,Avast has protected him(as far as we know) despite his horrendous online security behaviour.
Regards
Rob
Be sure to get rid of all remnants of any prior installed AV(s)…!!
→ https://support.avast.com/article/11/
Some posts related to this already in the forums (may be hard to find).
Considering that Avast continued to support XP and Vista long after official support by MS ended, Avast program support continued until the end of 2018 (version 18.8…) and Virus Definition updates are still supported.
Though as far as I can recall there hasn’t been any official word on support for win7 support by Avast, I believe it will be some time after MS ceases support. Plus virus definitions support is likely to continue beyond that.
As an Avast user I can’t speak for Avast.
Asyn Thank you for advice.
You’re welcome.
How to Successfully Install Avast → http://goo.gl/VLXde
bob3160 Thank you.
My pleasure. Happy New Year. 
Hello,
I have Win xp and Avast installed on it and it works perfect. The problem is that you are not going to get Windows updates, but the virus protection will be continue working while the software can be installed.
I’m not worried about it because I haven’t had any problems. The biggest problem of having an obsolete windows is that there are programs that do not offer compatible versions, but for now Avast does.
juansann85 Thank you.
I am going to remove Microsoft Security Essentials using the add/remove function on my Windows 7 then install free avast. The reason I came on this forum was because originally I did a live chat with a Microsoft agent and they said I could just leave the MSE on and it would just cease to function, with Avast working over the top.
Having coming on this forum I know realise the best way to do it is to remove MSE first then install Avast, so they don’t compete. However I am unsure as to whether MSE once stopped and if left installed would continue to work or not?
In any case I am going to remove it next week and install Avast.
Thanks everyone.
@robuk,
You have no need to remove Microsoft security via Add/Remove. When installed, Avast will take over as primary AV service and override the Microsoft AV. Thats the way its supposed to work. If you for some reason you have to remove Avast, then Microsoft security will return to service to fill the gap. That way you will always have some protection.
rocksteady Thank you for your advice. I will try that, I can always remove MSE later if there is a clash.
There is an important thing to mention here and that is if the OP is using MSE now there is no guarantee of how long that itself is going to be supported for use on Win7 PCs.
MS have been been providing contradictory information about this but their initial response was that Win7 + MSE was not going to be supported beyond Win7’s EOL (End Of Life) date. Apparently they’ve since either changed their mind, been persuaded otherwise or that initial information was completely wrong, apparently. In short: everything is still very uncertain.
But from what happened with WinXP there are going to be no guarantees. MSE, or at least older versions, could be installed and accepted daily AV definitions updates automatically for several years after its EOL.
But at some point, mid-2016 I think, the MSE automatic AV definition updates stopped working. It would try to download them, stall at about 66%, retry and then simply stop and report MSE was not up to date. There was no warning from MS about this beforehand and no information provided by them as to why this was happening. That is typical of MS.
It was soon discovered that you could still manually update the definitions by going to MS downloads and getting the latest installer there. But mid-2018 that stopped working too. Again no MS warning or information provided.
However, a clever guy on another forum worked out a solution and provided an installer tool which worked for about 6 months until MS pulled the plug completely and made the definition updates incompatible with the older versions of MSE running on WinXP machines.
So how long MSE is still going to work with Win7 nobody knows at this point. You can be pretty certain MS are going to end support for it completely in the end and MSE users like the OP are not going to be able to return to it even if they do not get on with AVAST or whatever alternative they’ve tried.
My personal take on this is (likely differ from others):
I have an old win7 netbook, that I no longer use and I’m not sure how it was initially configured.
I also installed Avast immediately after I received it. So I can’t recall if it ever had any MS AV installed and the OPs comment:
I am going to remove Microsoft Security Essentials using the add/remove function on my Windows 7 then install free avast.
This leads me to believe that MSE didn’t come pre-installed as part of the win7 OS, or like Win10 you can’t uninstall the Windows Defender AV. If this is the case that MSE was installed by ‘robuk’ then I would recommend that he does uninstall it from the control panel.
I am assessing 0patch Pro to enable the prolonging of the usefulness of Windows 7. The idea of code micropatching seems sound and it will cost about £20 per device per year. I have been running 0patch Free without issues.
I would expect that Avast will continue to provide support for Windows 7 for at least as long as Windows 8.1 is maintained by Microsoft which ends support in April 2023.
I am sticking with Windows 7 because of Microsoft ‘telemetry’. 0patch is a good deal.
MSE does not come pre-installed with Win7, at least not the Pro 64bit edition.
I’ve done an install and reinstall of that version fairly recently and I had to download the MSE installer from MS.
Interesting information about how to uninstall it properly ^^ and that ^ post too. Thanks.
Thanks everyone.
Cluster-Lizard2014 Support for Windows 7 ends on Jan 14th. We had an email about it a last August.
Conflicting advice from different people. Some say leave MSE in some say take it out. I will have to see in the next few days whether of not its easy to uninstall or requires other methods as suggested by Bob.
I will let you know…
PS My MSE came with my W7 Professional legal copy in about 2010.
Update. I have just done a live chat with Microsoft (again). They say the MSE should stop working after I have installed Avast. MSE continues to work but will not receive updates any more.
I will let you know…
Maybe you had an email about Win7 EOL but as I opted out of the MS ‘Customer Experience’ telemetry gathering options I did not.
However I’ve been, like most Win7 users should have been, aware of the EOL date for years.
It is what, exactly, is and is not going to work after that date, in particular MSE that is of concern.
When they pulled MSE support for MSE on WinXP I was using it on a VM (Virtual Machine) the only purpose MSE is ideally suited too. It has a small footprint, won’t conflict with the parent PC’s AV or other security software and does a good enough protection job for if you just limit your browser/online use to the minimum. Perfect for WinXP on a VM after its EOL.
Unfortunately they did not recognise this continued usefulness so when, without warning, MS killed MSE with WinXP an alternative had to be found. I’ve not been happy with either of the solutions I’ve tried (AVAST and another lesser known AV) as both significantly slows down the VM (it uses a paltry max 1GB of dedicated RAM), particularly on boot. Both ‘solutions’ also added a far bigger footprint too which, when you’re using a relatively small SDD, adds to the problems.
TBH I do not want to go through that again with Win7. But we might not get any choice if MS decide to be ‘unhelpful’.