Avast uninstalled, but Windows still says it there

[Matticus]

Hi there, i have been a loyal avast user since i really got into PCs as more than just something to go on msn on and do school work (a good few years now).
but after such a long time i fancied a change, so i thought i would try out some other free AVs, just for a little while.

So i uninstalled avast using "add or remove programs" it seemed to work fine, but after my reboot, i was expecting xp (sp2) to go nuts and start going crazy about me not having an AV, but nothing i went and checked security centre and it says avast it still protecting me.

So i downloaded and ran the avast uninstall utility just incase the other uninstall didnt work, and then again rebooted, but the same thing happened.

I thought maybe its just a bug and windows hasnt caught up yet with the fact avast isnt there.

so i have installed antivir PE thinking maybe this would sort out the problem. but now windows states that i have more than one anti virus and they are both up to date blah blah blah.

I have both times after i rebooted after attempting to uninstall avast that the boot was much slower, is windows looking for something that isnt there?

i went and manually deleted the avast folder in program files, are there any reg keys i need to kill, even though the uninstall utility says it got them.

oh yes and msconfig says no avast items in startup, and nothing to do with avast in task manager.

ive read a few posts after searching on here, the only people with the same or simalar problem seem to be using vista, and no fixes were found.

Thanks in advance for any help
Matt

[Lisandro]

If you have two antivirus at the same time in the same computer, avast uninstallation (and maybe installation) could be messed. Remove all and start again. Antivir is not compatible with avast.
A good registry cleaner will help too.

[DavidR]

This is a failing of the windows security center WMI reporting this has been seen many times in the forums, but usually not seeing avast, so the action to resolve that should resolve this too.

WSC doesn't detect avast! - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/help/wmi.mspx#EQKAC
Windows XP SP2, Start, Run, type cmd and click OK from the command prompt type 'rundll32 wbemupgd, RepairWMISetup' without the quotes and enter.

Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2

If you are running Windows XP, Service Pack 2 you can use a single command to detect and repair a corrupted WMI Repository. To do so, type the following from the command prompt (note that the parameter UpgradeRepository is case-sensitive and must be typed exactly as shown):

rundll32 wbemupgd, UpgradeRepository

Try the RepairWMISetup option first and if required try the UpgradeRepository option.

[Matticus]

Ok

so I tried those things that davidr said, the RepairWMISetup gives an error that theres missing entry, i tried many times incase i made a typo, but still the same, the UpgradeRepository seems to do something, as i dont get any errors, but nothing comes up to say its completed, but security centre still says they are both installed when on antivir is.
so i rebooted to see if it would do it then, no joy
so ive uninstalled antivir rebooted and ran the whole thing that davidr said again and rebooted. still no luck.
i have ran ccleaners reg clean up thing, as well as auslogics reg cleaner. but again nothing has changed.

i will now reboot and try to reinstall and then uninstall avast to see if this helps.

maybe fate is telling me not to get rid of avast 

thanks for the help guys

[Matticus]

PROBLEM SORTED
Well after messing with all that windows stuff and registry cleaning and rebooting etc.
All it needed was a reinstall and then an uninstall using add or remove programs, I am not sure what went wrong last time because I did nothing different, but now my problem is sorted.

BUT after I had installed avast, I realised how great it is, so I am going to reinstall it again soon anyway after a short period of testing some other free AVs.

Thanks again for your help.

Matt

[DavidR]

No problem, welcome to the forums even given the circumstances.

What went wrong was the WMI reporting of the windows security center, a well known issue.

I'm sure you will be back with avast before too long. Many others who tried avira just not as configurable as avast nor does it provide the same additional functions.