Avast Free Version failing to install

[greg258]

Greetings all,

I woke up to the blue screen of death for a Windows 8 computer today. After trying to fix it, it was so sluggish that I opted for a complete reinstall of Windows.

I let Windows install its hundreds of updates and then tried to reinstall Avast Free

It seemed to be doing everything I'd expect, but suddenly just stopped installing and the installer window simply closed. There was no sign of Avast in the system tray. The program appears under the Uninstall or Change a program, but with a zero file size and no Avast logo.

I disabled Windows Defender, and restarted in Safe Mode.

I ran AvastClear, rebooted and tried downloading and installing again. Same problem.

So, I repeated the above and also deleted any stray mentions of Avast from the registry before rebooting and reinstalling.

There is no active antivirus program on the machine that could possibly interfere with an Avast installation.

The only customization I did during install was click off the option to install the Avast browser and make it my default.

Perhaps, that's required now to use the free version?  Otherwise, I am at a loss for an explanation or option to get it back on the machine.

Avast ran fine on the machine for years until the blue screen of death.

Anyone have a suggestion?  Thanks much!

[Asyn]

The only customization I did during install was click off the option to install the Avast browser and make it my default.
Perhaps, that's required now to use the free version?

Nope, it isn't.

1. Download Avast Free Antivirus: https://files.avast.com/iavs9x/avast_free_antivirus_setup_offline.exe
2. Follow instructions: https://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (Run this tool for all prior installed Avast versions..!!)
3. Reinstall Avast with the downloaded installer from point 1.
4. Reboot.

[greg258]

Thanks for the suggestion. I followed the directions, but with no luck. I spent the entire day reloading a fresh version of Windows 8, installing the updates, removing McAfee and disabling Windows Defender. Then I reran the uninstall utility just to make sure there weren't any stray commands before reinstalling a newly downloaded version of Avast Free.

The installer goes to 100 percent, then simply disappears with no error message and no evidence of installation having completed. Yet, the Avast Software directory is created and populated with 641 files and 16 folders.

Typically, I am the first person to blame user error. But, I suspect there is a serious problem with the latest version and its incompatibility with Windows 8.1. After all, if it will not install on a fresh install of Windows, what else could prevent Avast from completely installing?

[Asyn]

Strange, no problems here with same OS. You could try the latest beta: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=15

[bob3160]

Strange, no problems here with same OS. You could try the latest beta: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=15

Beta versions should only be used by those prepared to put up with the possible problems beta version can cause.
Beta's are not meant for the average computer user. IMHO

[greg258]

I spoke too soon. Microsoft had another 183 updates to install overnight. When the computer rebooted a little while ago, Avast was working well. So, it wasn't Avast's problem or user error, but Microsoft and the hundreds of updates it has to install when reloading its Windows platform.

[Asyn]

Thanks for the feedback.