Thanks, bob3160 - that was quick! If the Mods can put out a shout to the uninstaller writers, the finishing post may be in sight.
Backups, well, all the data is OK, but I haven't needed to back the system up for years, and the last ones would have Avast on anyhow, assuming I can find which old HDD they're on. Generally I only make images before messing with something pretty major, so I can catch any problems that result. And, oh, boy, if I have to reinstall a clean XP at all, it'll be on a virtual machine, so I can keep a properly set up copy without really trying (like, "Click", done!). It takes me so long to set Windows up to my liking, going through it shutting all its doors (that I know about ...), turning off most of the "features", replacing the shell, getting all the scripts set up (etc., etc.) that once it's done (months or years later) the darn thing is part of me. That's why I'm going to beat my head against this repair until it works. (That, or cry.)
No, when the little registry tool didn't fix the problem, I restored the "BSOD" image I'd made beforehand, so the Repair installs were working with what the crash had left them. If I can't repair that condition, I've got a couple of other "unfixed" ones imaged as well now - the ones with "Can't Set Up in Safe Mode" failures. I always image at each step, which is why this unplanned upgrade without my go-ahead has given me such a problem.
If whatever is starting the uninstaller is in the registry, I'd assume that means there's a "run once" in there somewhere which I've never needed before.
Perhaps I'll be able to edit such an entry out with a different registry tool - I'll need to look through my boot discs and see what's there - if I know the exact "address" in registry geography. Editing registry files from Dos is not for the fainthearted, but hell, in for a penny. I've started this now and I'm in a
mean mood.
As I say, I d/l'ed the uninstaller mentioned on one of these posts, but hadn't had the chance to run it at all yet, so it shouldn't be that one; I'm assuming it's a "finalising" stage in the normal AV uninstall, set to "run once next boot" and in safe mode? If so, if I know what the instruction is and where in the registry it wants to be, I can write it back in place when the system's running again and finish off the darned uninstall. ("Pretty please?"
)
Yeah, "convoluted" is right, both for my dogged persistence and my writing about it. Mind you, as someone old enough to have built my first computer out of (mostly) small-scale chips way back when, I honestly find it not much short of a miracle that the huge, insanely complex systems that we use these days manage to work at all, never mind as reliably as they mostly do. Even my near-10-yr-old box has "giga-" in front of everything in it, but "just works".
Well ...
