Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: Name User on June 16, 2005, 11:14:24 AM
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After patiently trying to get help getting with my Avast free edition to stop requiring constant def stamp loading by clicking the program update button and waiting for it to finally connect, I have decided to try and uninstall it and use another program.
I went to Add or Remove, clicked uninstall, rebooted, deleted the residual Alwil folder, searched the registry for other pieces to remove, most of which I got an error message with saying they could not be removed.
These parts include:
Asynchronous Virus Monitor
Standard Shield Support
Network Shield Support
LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
As you can imagine, this is very annoying for me to have these parts lingering, and not knowing how to remove them, or what conflicts they might cause with any other antivirus program when I install one.
Does Avast offer a special uninstall tool for their antivirus program? Should I reinstall Avast, then try to use Avast's uninstall utility rather than Add or Remove?
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Does Avast offer a special uninstall tool for their antivirus program?
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_uninstall_util.html
Should I reinstall Avast, then try to use Avast's uninstall utility rather than Add or Remove?
If the uninstall utility doesn't work, re-install avast and follow the directions given at the above link.
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I actually just did that, after doing a search for Avast uninstall utility.
I reinstalled Avast, used the default folder as always, downloaded the utility onto my desktop, clicked uninstall (it says remove in the instructions, which is wrong), rebooted after it said it had successfully uninstalled Avast 4 (including the registry).
It not only left the Awil folder in my Program Files folder, it left the same entries in the registry that were the problem mentioned above, which STILL WON'T manually remove from the registry.
It's bad enough that I went through a lot of aggravation with the constant def stamp downloading just to be able to get on the net, but now it won't even wipe off my drive? This !@#$%&* program acts more like a virus than a virus remover!
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I'm sorry that you're having problems with avast!, but this really isn't what usually happens. I have installed/uninstalled avast more than 10 times to try other AV's and never had any problems. Try removing Norton & Panda, then you'll see real trouble. I have uninstalled Panda a year ago, cleaned the registry, removed hidden Panda files and still security center recognizes 2 AV's & Firewalls on my system!
Now, try a decent registry cleaner & remove everything that has to do with avast. I recommend:
1. Go here: http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html#jv16 (http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/index.html#jv16)
2. Download JV16 (freeware)
3. Use the program's registry cleaner.
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I'd really say you should cool down a little.
What exactly were you trying to remove from the registry and what was the error message?
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Spyros
Thanks, I just DLed it, I'll let you know if it works. I also emailed Avast's support team about this.
Igor,
Sorry if you think I'm too upset about this, but I have been really quite patient about this. If you'd take a look at the two full pages my last thread involved, I think you'd see why I'm upset. It got to the point where nobody could tell me why I'm still having to constantly update the Avast program to get the def stamp to load before, and often during surf sessions, and now this uninstall problem.
Fortunately I can think rationally enough even when upset to try to find other possible solutions. My anger is often what leads me to the right decisions, not the wrong ones, which I much prefer to stumbling along for months succumbing to something that's not working right for me. I'm not implying it doesn't work well for you or others, but obviously it's not working for me, for whatever reason.
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It left the same entries in the registry that were the problem mentioned above, which STILL WON'T manually remove from the registry.
Calm down... this is a known problem with Windows Registry legacy keys.
You must delete one by one, from the bottom to the root key.
I mean, go to the values, one by one, delete it. When the key is empty you could delete it.
Take care working with your Registry and do not delete what you can't. Better is backing up the keys before.
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Spyros,
well I tried the jv16 Powertool, and at first I thought it was working to uninstall everything the registry would not, but all of the stuff I saw in the registry before is still there:
Asynchronous Virus Monitor
Standard Shield Support
Network Shield Support
LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
avast! Antivirus
avast Web Scanner
LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS_WEB_SCANNER
There's actually a few others in there too I think. If and when I finally get this out of my system for good, I will absolutely NEVER install any Avast products again, be there name followed by ! or * or whatever!
God forbid the only solution to be formatting, because they will most certainly get an earfull in the email that follows if that is the case.
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Name User, did you follow my suggestion?
Are you using any other antivirus in this machine?
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Hi.
Have you stopped and disabled the avast services in the Services Panel? Are you running XP? In this case, have you deactivated the System Restore? Tried to uninstall Avast in Safety Mode (hit F8 before the system start completely)?
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Tech,
The entries shown below are the only two entries I see under LEGACY, in the order I've listed them. They each have a 0000 subfolder. If what you say is correct, I should be able to delete the subfolder for LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER, then LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER, then the subfolder for LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS, then LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS, which I just tried, and none of them would remove.
LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER
It appears I'll have to wait for Avast's email response on this, as I'm striking out on this issue as well as the def stamp loading problem I had before.
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Name User, did you follow my suggestion?
Are you using any other antivirus in this machine?
Your suggestion being the advice to remove the LEGACY keys from the bottom up? I don't see that post now, but yes I tried that, and no I'm not using any other antivirus. AVG was the one I used prior to this, and I not only uninstalled it before installing Avast, I removed it completely from the registry.
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I'm afraid you keep on repeating the same, but still failing to provide any useful information.
So, I ask again: what exactly are you trying to remove from registry? What is the FULL path... and what is the exact message you get when you try?
Additionally, I really don't understand the hystery about a few registry keys. To me, it seems like there's something rather "strange" about your system that prevents the keys from being removed - but still, what is the problem in having a few keys left? You have thousands of useless keys and values in your registry since the moment you install the OS... why would you want to format it? ???
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I'm talking about deleting FIRST the values, see the example under LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER.
After the 'folder' is empty. Delete it.
It's not a problem of avast! It's a protection of Windows Registry Legacy drivers...
Delete the values, one by one, then delete the folder.
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Hi.
Have you stopped and disabled the avast services in the Services Panel? Are you running XP? In this case, have you deactivated the System Restore? Tried to uninstall Avast in Safety Mode (hit F8 before the system start completely)?
What you are saying here seems to echo what some have said, at least in the sense of deactivating the Avast services, which I think you mean before uninstalling?
I don't know what you mean by uninstalling in safety mode and hitting F8 though, or what System Restore has to do with it.
Maybe the tech guys at Avast when they answer my email can put it in easier to understand terms. I've only been using a PC for about 4 yrs now.
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I'm talking about deleting FIRST the values, see the example under LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER.
After the folder is empty. Delete it.
It's not a problem of avast! It's a protection of Windows Registry Legacy drivers...
Delete the values, one by one, then delete the folder.
OK Tech, what exactly do you mean by example under LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER? Are you saying to delete the LEGACY keys last, and what folder are you referring to?
Also, some are saying to deactivate the Avast services, is this something I should do before uninstalling?
I know you guys know a lot about this, but you're trying to explain it to someone that has only been using PC for 4 years, only a couple of those years have I even tried to do any registry stuff, mostly this last year in fact.
It seems to me though, if someone offers a free program for the general public to try, they ought to have a better uninstall utility for it, so you don't have to be an entry level programmer just to uninstall it.
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Well, I got a response from Avast's so called tech support via email, and although I specifically said both Add or Remove and the Avast uninstall utility left me with registry entries that could not be removed, they guy says he's sorry their uninstall utility leaves some registry keys behind, and to manually delete them!
Clearly they don't have a clue how to offer tech support, let alone read a tech request from someone that tries to explain things in simple terms. I'm wondering at this point if he or anyone there even knows anything about the LEGACY built in removal protection that has been talked about here.
I have tried to remove values from these keys before removing the key itself, and still no luck.
The jv16 powertool registry finding tool shows no Alwil or Avast entries after using it to find, then delete entries under those searches, and still they show up in the regedit.
I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE AVAST!!!
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OK, let's try to ask for the third time:
What is the full path you are trying to delete and what exactly is the error you get?
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I'm about to get to that Igor, but first I have to go back into the regedit and extensively search for one at a time and write down all the Avast entries that won't delete, although after reading this guy's letter, you think they'd know all of them by heart by now! ::)
Meanwhile, I thought I'd show you this, just to give you an idea why I'm upset. This is the kind of thing that should be disclosed BEFORE talking up a product on it's download page. I never had this problem uninstalling AVG.
Dear (My name),
spam is an unsolicited bussines mail, but i understand why you are
angry. Strange thing is, that our cleaner:
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_cleaner.html does not clean all avast!
remains, as it is written to do it. Can you please precise, wich
registry entries are not removed by it? Anyway, please delete these
entries manually, and forgive us this failure.
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Best regards,
David Podracky - avast! support team
Are you noting the "as it is written to do it", and "failure" parts???
Although the guy sounds apologetic and sincere, I would have much rather that sincerity had come BEFORE I DLed the product, free or not.
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Honestly, right now you seem to be the only one (amongst milions of avast! users) having this problem - so you really cannot expect an "oracle" predicting your troubles.
But in general, I would say that if you cannot delete the registry keys "manually" (using regedit), you cannot expect the uninstaller to be able to delete them. If the operating system doesn't allow regedit to delete the keys, it won't allow it to the uninstaller either.
As I don't know the error message (when deleting the key), it's just a guess - but I'd say that you don't have enough user rights to remove the keys (are you logged on as administrator?), or you have some strange "monitor" installed that protects the keys (something like ProcessGuard, don't know).
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OK, let's try to ask for the third time:
What is the full path you are trying to delete and what exactly is the error you get?
I think NAME USER is exploring the depth of Legacy Driver Keys, which are located in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYTEM\ControllsetXXX\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYTEM\ControllsetXXX\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER
(XXX are numbers)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYTEM\CurrentControllset\Enum\Root\ LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYTEM\CurrentControllset\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER
…Well, I don't know if they are all but I think NAME USER needs to delete every single key scattered through a few places in registry. For they seem to be copying each other. :P
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Copying? Possibly on reboot - the "CurrentControlSet" tree is a map of one of the ControlSetXXX keys, and the other XXX is copied during the reboot (it holds the "Last known good configuraion"); they shouldn't "spread" in any other way.
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Here are all the keys. The only way I knew to copy and save them was to keep hitting F3 after typing in Avast in the Edit Find search, and copy each key, then paste them one by one into the letter to David. Here they are, none of their values will remove either, although my attempts have only been in going through the first round of them. By that I mean I did not realize the ControlSet changed about 3 times before finally coming to the last key that appears to be an applet, so I may have not actually started at the bottom as Tech suggested.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AAVMKER4\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_ASWMON2\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_ASWTDI\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AAVMKER4\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_ASWMON2\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_ASWTDI\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AAVMKER4\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_ASWMON2\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_ASWTDI\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_ANTIVIRUS\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_AVAST!_WEB_SCANNER\0000
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1220945662-1580436667-839522115-1004\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Regedit
It would be nice if they could make an uninstall utility that could just whoosh all these away, but that would be too easy now wouldn't it. ;D
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Honestly, right now you seem to be the only one (amongst milions of avast! users) having this problem - so you really cannot expect an "oracle" predicting your troubles.
But in general, I would say that if you cannot delete the registry keys "manually" (using regedit), you cannot expect the uninstaller to be able to delete them. If the operating system doesn't allow regedit to delete the keys, it won't allow it to the uninstaller either.
As I don't know the error message (when deleting the key), it's just a guess - but I'd say that you don't have enough user rights to remove the keys (are you logged on as administrator?), or you have some strange "monitor" installed that protects the keys (something like ProcessGuard, don't know).
What the !@#$%&*...? This post of yours is right under the one I showed this letter in, and your acting like it's MY fault?
"Dear (My name),
spam is an unsolicited bussines mail, but i understand why you are
angry. Strange thing is, that our cleaner:
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_cleaner.html does not clean all avast!
remains, as it is written to do it. Can you please precise, wich
registry entries are not removed by it? Anyway, please delete these
entries manually, and forgive us this failure.
--
Best regards,
David Podracky - avast! support team"
I don't know about you Igor, but I take this letter as meaning someone at AVAST screwed up in the way they made the uninstall utility, not me!
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I didn't say it's your fault - I was just suggesting possible reasons of the strange behavior on your machine. If regedit cannot delete a key on your machine, it's certainly strange - and it doesn't have anything to do with avast!.
I was also (OK, I admit it was very naive, seeing your attitude) expecting that you might possibly comment on the suggestions - i.e.: are you logged as administrator? Do you have any "registry protection tool" installed? What is the exact error regedit gives you?
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I might be wrong but I've thought that the CurrentControlSet\ENUM\Root (not mentioning the other ControlSet001,003 - as one of them is just another name for CurrentControlSet and the other one is the backup - last-known-good configuration) are generated dynamically from currently installed hardware (LEGACY and PNP) and drivers. The only key that should be manually edited in order to modify the ENUM\Root are in CurrentControlSet\Services. As you don't find any avast entries there (and that is also the only place where avast puts it's driver and service keys) it's properly uninstalled and the ENUM\Root key should be generated after the restart. If you don't find any traces of avast in either CurrentControlSet\Services and in System32\Drivers folder I believe it's all what can a well behaved program do for it's uninstallation.
You might consult your Windows Resource Kit registry guide, but I think that the ENUM\Root registry keys are not designed for manual editing.
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Ah, I didn't know that.
So, there actually wasn't any "problem" since the beginning and avast! was uninstalled correctly.
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Guys, you are SAINTS!!! ;D... Compliments for your patience eh eh eh... the next Pope will be surely one of the Alwil Team... ;D ;D ;D
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Well guys, I know this sounds odd, but for some reason, right after completing the letter to David, and the copying and posting of the same info above with all the keys that were left in the registry, I went back to regedit, did some more Edit>Find>Avast searches, hit F3 until I got to the last one, deleted it, and no more would show in any searches thereafter.
It's weird yeah I know, but I decided to go ahead and DL AVG, install it, update it, and run it's scan, which indicated no virus.
I still think Avast is probably more thorough, and if it hadn't been for the constant def stamp loading with program updates just to get on, and stay on the net, I would have stuck with it.
Sorry if I created a lot of tension over this, and if I offended anyone, I apologize, though as you can see in the letter David sent, all is not perfect with Avast either. ;)
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I might be wrong but I've thought that the CurrentControlSet\ENUM\Root (not mentioning the other ControlSet001,003 - as one of them is just another name for CurrentControlSet and the other one is the backup - last-known-good configuration) are generated dynamically from currently installed hardware (LEGACY and PNP) and drivers. The only key that should be manually edited in order to modify the ENUM\Root are in CurrentControlSet\Services. As you don't find any avast entries there (and that is also the only place where avast puts it's driver and service keys) it's properly uninstalled and the ENUM\Root key should be generated after the restart. If you don't find any traces of avast in either CurrentControlSet\Services and in System32\Drivers folder I believe it's all what can a well behaved program do for it's uninstallation.
I meant this in my previous post but lukor put it in much more plausible way. Anyway, I know almost nothing about registry and it was simply based on my intuition. Tech also seems to have been thinking in that way: it has been the problem with registry. In any case, lukor, you finished all of this with a single post.
Seems like every one is happy now. ;)
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I might be wrong but I've thought that the CurrentControlSet\ENUM\Root (not mentioning the other ControlSet001,003 - as one of them is just another name for CurrentControlSet and the other one is the backup - last-known-good configuration) are generated dynamically from currently installed hardware (LEGACY and PNP) and drivers. The only key that should be manually edited in order to modify the ENUM\Root are in CurrentControlSet\Services. As you don't find any avast entries there (and that is also the only place where avast puts it's driver and service keys) it's properly uninstalled and the ENUM\Root key should be generated after the restart. If you don't find any traces of avast in either CurrentControlSet\Services and in System32\Drivers folder I believe it's all what can a well behaved program do for it's uninstallation.
I meant this in my previous post but lukor put it in much more plausible way. Anyway, I know almost nothing about registry and it was simply based on my intuition. Tech also seems to have been thinking in that way: it has been the problem with registry. In any case, lukor, you finished all of this with a single post.
Seems like every one is happy now. ;)
Just may add that if "name user" insist on editing this key, it is necessary to adjust the rights for those particular entries. In winXP it's in regedit / Edit / permission. By default only SYSTEM is allowed to modify them. If you add all access rights then it is possible to delete the keys too.
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Yes, I think I learned how to do that once, as per instructions I received for removing something else a long time ago lukor.
So I just go to regedit>Edit> Permission? Under Permission for Administrators I see that Allow is checked for Full Control and Read. Under Advanced I see both SYSTEM and Administrators defined as Full Control, although SYSTEM is listed at the top and highlighted.
The text to the right saying "This key and subkeys" tends to indicate that you have to have the exact permission you want to use highlighted for each deletion, is that correct?
This is the way the settings were when I tried to delete the keys before, and could not remove them. I think Tech was right in saying they have to be removed in the right order.
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Yes, I think I learned how to do that once, as per instructions I received for removing something else a long time ago lukor.
So I just go to regedit>Edit> Permission? Under Permission for Administrators I see that Allow is checked for Full Control and Read. Under Advanced I see both SYSTEM and Administrators defined as Full Control, although SYSTEM is listed at the top and highlighted.
The text to the right saying "This key and subkeys" tends to indicate that you have to have the exact permission you want to use highlighted for each deletion, is that correct?
Polonus posted http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14363.0 about this. In short,
1. Open a command prompt (Start>Run>cmd) and type at HH:MM /interactive cmd.exe (HH:MM should be 2 minutes ahead of the current system time in 24H format).
2. At the time you typed above, the new svchost.exe command prompt will appear, through which you can run programs of your choice with SYSTEM account right. Type regedit to start registry editor on XP, of course.
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:o
Reformat and Reload.
It seems that the system may be having other issues too. And, many things can be fixed by editing the registry. But... if you have a good backup of the data, reinstalling the OS and all the applications is easy and quick.
Reformatting and Reinstalling would take care of any Avast issues as well as any other lingering issues. Of the people I know who are often adding and removing programs, they reinstall an a regular basis to keep things clean.
One way to judge effectiveness os a resolution is to measure how much time and effort was spent on this issue as compaired to how much time and effort reformatting and reinstalling would take.
That is just my 2 Euros. Your milage may vary.
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If you're running SP Pro you can go into safe mode by another method. Click Start>run and type msconfig. Then, click the Boot.INI tab and check Safeboot. You can do whatever you need then...click on avast icon (if available on desktop) and uninstall. To get back to normal mode, just click the Windows icon between the Ctrl button on keyboard and the Alt key and then type msconfig in 'Run' and it will take you back so you can uncheck the Safeboot box and hit ok and you'll be back into Normal mode. This is just one way beside the F8 tapping mentioned above. Both Windows XP Home and Pro work with the F8 mode. Just reboot and before it starts loading, continuously tap F8 and it will get you into Safe Mode. Hope I've explained this properly for you because I've been where you are and I've only had my own computer for 2 1/2 years.
.....UPDATE....
I guess I was behind the times! I didn't see page 3 :o
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Yes, I think I learned how to do that once, as per instructions I received for removing something else a long time ago lukor.
So I just go to regedit>Edit> Permission? Under Permission for Administrators I see that Allow is checked for Full Control and Read. Under Advanced I see both SYSTEM and Administrators defined as Full Control, although SYSTEM is listed at the top and highlighted.
The text to the right saying "This key and subkeys" tends to indicate that you have to have the exact permission you want to use highlighted for each deletion, is that correct?
Polonus posted http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14363.0 about this. In short,
1. Open a command prompt (Start>Run>cmd) and type at HH:MM /interactive cmd.exe (HH:MM should be 2 minutes ahead of the current system time in 24H format).
2. At the time you typed above, the new svchost.exe command prompt will appear, through which you can run programs of your choice with SYSTEM account right. Type regedit to start registry editor on XP, of course.
Still having problems, even though the other night no Avast showed up with regedit>Edit>Find>Avast searches after managing to delete one key.
I played with the permission settings in regedit, and managed to get it set so I could remove one more of the Avast entries, but the rest won't remove.
This has got to be the most annoying program I've ever seen. To make matters worse, I'm still having net connection problems sporadically.
I tried your suggested HH:MM trick, and all I got was the black command prompt screen flashing instantly.
I guess I'll just format and reinstall, I have a lot of videos I made I'd like to save to disc first though, but I don't know if I can figure out how to do that. All I have are regular CD-R discs, and I don't even know if they'll store video data.
The videos have all been hosted via either a free hosting service I use, or a friend though, so I don't know if I should really be worried about it, as I can probably recover them there if needed, just a lot of more annoying downloading that's all.
I'm thinking I should probably format before I get too much more installed on my system though, as right now there's not terribly too much to reinstall.
I really can't see how anyone could possibly put up with a program that first limits access to the net, then leaves crap all over the registry you can't even remove, not to mention the tech guy emailing me back offering nothing other than a feeble apology.
I'm swearing off Avast, or any Alwil products for good, and I thoroughly resent the so called advice given by the guy that recommended it in the first place.
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This has got to be the most annoying program I've ever seen. To make matters worse, I'm still having net connection problems sporadically.
We are talking about a few registry keys that:
1) are managed by windows and has nothing to do with ANY incorrect feature of avast! It is just how windows works
2) they are doing no harm, just wasting your time
3) eat no space, don't slow you computer any anything like that (if I disregard the disk space used to stored cached responses from this forum)
4) you have no idea why are you trying to remove them and how (e.g. why don't you show hidden devices in device manager a remove from there)
To sum up: There are thousands of tweaks you might do to your Windows installation. And thousands of registry keys that might even get read during the lifetime of your pc (e.g. what about all those Hungarian, Greek and Armenian code pages that gets analyzed on every process start). Perhaps you might put your effort to some of those.
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I played with the permission settings in regedit, and managed to get it set so I could remove one more of the Avast entries, but the rest won't remove.
OK, Name User, I think it's time to put it straight - you shouldn't mess up with things you don't understand. It will save you a lot of trouble and wasted time.
The keys you are referring to are not supposed to be removed, neither by the software, nor by the user. Period. They were not created by avast!, but rather by the operating system itself, as a kind of cache - and the operating system itself will remove them when the right time comes.
If you want to format and reinstall your system, you are free to do that, of course - but it doesn't have any sense.
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by Name User***I'm swearing off Avast, or any Alwil products for good***
by Name User***I really can't see how anyone could possibly put up with a program that first limits access to the net, then leaves crap all over the registry you can't even remove, not to mention the tech guy emailing me back offering nothing other than a feeble apology.***
How to Reformat a Hard Drive (http://www.google.com.au/search?num=15&hl=en&scoring=d&q=how+to+reformat+a+hard+drive+&btnG=Search&meta=)
Hope this helps
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I'm swearing off Avast, or any Alwil products for good, and I thoroughly resent the so called advice given by the guy that recommended it in the first place.
I'd listen to the experts rather than to myself…especially in this case. ;)
However, the choice is yours. Some people even say that formatting and reinstalling once in a while is rather recommendable in terms of security but, of course, please make sure of backing-up important files.
P.S. I recommend you to buy external HDD drive since they are quite inexpensive now. Even not for re-installing, it is always nice to have backups.