I installed Avast5 Free over Avast4.8 Free on a laptop running XP SP3, and found some strange registry entries via a registry cleaner. I uninstalled Avast5 and found many files/registry entries still there. I subsequently used the Avast Uninstall Utility to delete most of these. However, I also discovered that I could not access the registry folder HKLM\Software\ALWIL Software\Avast – nor could I delete it. The error message is “Cannot delete Avast: Error while deleting key.”
I tried to reinstall Avast5 thinking that the Avast! Self-defense Module might be to blame, but it failed with the last log entry to the effect “Cannot open HKLM\SW\ALWIL\Avast”.
Catch22: I haven't fully uninstalled it, nor can I reinstall it – because of no access to the Avast registry entry!
As Administrator, if I right click the Avast registry folder in Regedit/Regedt32/RegeditX, under Permissions there is a Security tab with no Group or User names, nor any ticks in the Permissions boxes: Full Control, Read, and Special Permissions. Clicking Advanced shows a Permissions tab with no Permission entries, an Auditing tab with no entries, an Owner tab showing Administrator as the Current owner of this item, and an Effective Permissions tab with no Group or User name and no ticks in the various boxes under Effective Permissions.
Incidentally, both regedit.exe and regedt32.exe appear to be Microsoft Registry Editor Version 5.1!
So, any ideas on how to delete/unprotect this redundant registry item that appears to be access-protected?