Uninstallation problem

[philly12]

Hi, I uninstalled Avast! 4 through the aswclear utility, and it seemed to be totally gone, but when I look into Windows Security Center it reports that I have more than one Antivirus program on my computer.  Aol's active security monitor also reports that there are more than one Antivirus programs on my computer.  I am now running AntiVir's Antivirus program, and that should be the only one active.  I was wondering why I am recieving reports that there are more than one Antivirus program on my computer when Avast! should have been totally uninstalled.  Any help is appreciated. 

[DavidR]

The aswclear.exe is designed to be used if you have experienced any problem with the regular Add Remove programs Uninstall. Did you use add remove programs first and or experience a problem with the uninstall ?

Windows Security Center is notorious for not detecting your installed Anti-Virus program (just check the forums and you can see this. Is there any more information in the Windows Security Center AV section that might help ?

[Lisandro]

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=23457

Sometimes, Windows Security Center stop recognizing your antivirus or firewall... The fix could be fairly easy for the most part.

1. Go to control panel and open Administrative tools.
2. Click on services.
3. Go down to Windows Managament Instrumentation.
4. Stop this service. Stop Security Center service too.
    Let them to Automatically start.
5. Exit out of this area to your desktop.
6. Right click Start and choose Explore.
7. Go to c:\windows\system32\wbem\repository.
    Delete this subdirectory ONLY. Let the others there.
8. Exit back to your desktop and reboot your computer (maybe you need to boot twice).

This will rebuild the deleted folder and the database. Once restarted, Windows Security Center should show the correct info and antivirus and firewall should now be recoginized 

Other answers for XP Security Center not detecting antivirus or firewall program could be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883792.

[philly12]

Thanks tech, I did what u said and Windows Security Center says that only Antivir is working and up to date.  Thank you for your help. 

[Lisandro]

Thanks tech, I did what u said and Windows Security Center says that only Antivir is working and up to date.  Thank you for your help. 

Glad I could help...
Anyway, why did you prefer Antivir to avast? 

[philly12]

Well i switched to Antivir because i was having problems with Avast!  It was working fine, but one day the icons didnt appear in the taskbar.   The main program was still there, but the icons were missing.  I also dont think that the active scanning was on and when i looked at the taskbar, avast's updater was always on (as if it were stuck or something).  I read a post about activating the ashDisp.exe program, but when i searched for the file in the directory, it wasnt there.  I have many security programs running so i doubt that it is a result of spyware, trojans, viruses, or rootkits.  I read somewhere on the forum that avast has problems after a file system change, and i had just recently changed my D drive from FAT32 to NTFS.  This may have been the reason.  Anyway, I decided to not try to dig too deep into the issue and switch to Antivir which seems to be working so far.  I liked Avast! when I had it, I just wish it didnt stop working after I changed the file system. 

[philly12]

Okay, I figured out what was wrong after reading through other threads.  Changing my file system for the D drive was not the problem.  SUPERantispyware was.  I read that disabling the startup scanners might fix the Avast problem, and someone posted in another thread that SUPERantispyware was blocking ashDisp.exe from starting at bootup.  This caught my attention and I looked at the SUPERantispyware program, and sure enough the box that scans startup in the setting menu was marked (infact it is impossible to unmark it for some reason).

I quickly uninstalled SUPERantispyware (i still run spyware terminator, ad-aware, spybot, and a2) and i uninstalled Antivir.  I deleted all the left over folders and registry files and installed Avast! again from a previous download.  After updating Avast! , it is now working fine, and I am glad that I am able to go back to this wonderful program.

I saw that dissapearing icons was a hot topic for other threads so please tell people that SUPERantispyware can cause problems with Avast! by disabling crutial files at start up.  Thank You Tech.

[DavidR]

Had you started out by asking for help because the avast icon was missing, the problem that caused you to uninstall avast! then you would have been advised to look for programs that monitor start-up entries. Many of these programs don't advise you of a new start-up entry and just delete the entry rather than ask permission (or you didn't understand what ashDisp.exe was).

You don't have to uninstall Super-antispyware, now that you are aware of what it does, surely you can configure it to exclude/ignore ashDisp.exe or disable just the start-up check.

Glad that you have at least resolved your problem and are back with avast.

[Lisandro]

I read somewhere on the forum that avast has problems after a file system change, and i had just recently changed my D drive from FAT32 to NTFS
I just wish it didnt stop working after I changed the file system. 

Preceselly... you should uninstall avast, boot, change the file system, boot, install avast again.
This is necessary because both drivers and an antipiracy feature requires it.
So, if you did it before, you need to uninstall, clear with ashClear.exe tool and install again.
I've done the same and this procedure corrected avast installation 

You'll lose avast eh eh eh