DESPERATELY NEED HELP UNINSTALLING AVAST!!!

[Name User]

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.

[Name User]

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!!!

[igor]

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?

[Name User]

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.
--
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.

[igor]

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).

[Umath]

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.

[igor]

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.

[Name User]

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.

[Name User]

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!

[igor]

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?

[lukor]

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.

[igor]

Ah, I didn't know that.
So, there actually wasn't any "problem" since the beginning and avast! was uninstalled correctly.

[kamulko]

Guys, you are SAINTS!!!  ... Compliments for your patience eh eh eh... the next Pope will be surely one of the Alwil Team... 

[Name User]

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.

[Umath]

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.