Hi. Please bear with me, as I'm not the most tech savvy person.
Yesterday, I received a copy of Windows 8 Pro (boxed) as a gift, of sorts. I installed it on my Alienware M14xR2. When I went to the desktop for the first time, the Free Trial of Avast 7 Internet Protection I had been using was informing me that my trial was over. This struck me as odd because I had only been using it for a few days. I tried to sign in to Avast and check my account, but nothing changed.
Eventually, I decided to go ahead and activate Windows Defender, for the time being, and uninstall Avast. The idea was to re-install Avast asap.
After uninstalling, I rebooted and my keyboard was frozen. I couldn't "swipe" away the opening Windows 8 screen, or click on anything.
This continued to happen, until Windows 8 "repaired" the computer by reverting back to a restore point. This "point" was just before I tried to uninstall Avast.
I tried to uninstall Avast again and the exact same thing happened. So, now....I'm not entirely sure what to do. Windows 8 seems to be working fine, but my the Avast icon that normally comforts me is covered by an enormous red X. And, I don't want to try and uninstall Avast again.
Also, I am unable to use any other, free, security suite. When I tried to download AVG, the download wouldn't install because Avast is still on my computer.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.