Cannot reboot after uninstalling Avast Free Antivirus

[thomas-buetow]

Hello,

I am dealing with a friend's computer right now taking care of some changes he told me. One would be to get rid of Avast Free Antivirus (uptodate version). It's not working out though. I tried both ways via Apps and Features in Windows 10 and also with Avast Clear (in safe mode). It's always the same. The uninstall goes through without errors and it tells me to reboot the system. Which I do and then it keeps loading and loading with the Windows circle (for hours) and nothing happens. The only way back for me is go to system repair and that gets me back to the state where the program was still installed. Actually the very first time I tried to uninstall, it did go through, but the consequence was that I could not go online anymore because there were no networks displayed. Also used system repair afterwards. But since then, I won't even get to the login screen when I reboot the way avast tells me to. Any ideas here? Thanks in advance. Pretty shocked by this because I have used Avast myself on my own computer for years and never had any issues or negative experiences. But how can it be that uninstalling a software keeps you from using the system altogether?

[r@vast]

Hi,

Perhaps there are some file corruption issues on the device.
Please try running the System File Checker tool: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system
Repair Avast Free Antivirus: https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Repair-Antivirus/
Do a Windows update:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-3c5ae7fc-9fb6-9af1-1984-b5e0412c556a
Then try to uninstall Avast Free Antivirus using the Avast Clear tool, please see: https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Uninstall-Antivirus/#idt_010

[thomas-buetow]

hello r@vast
thanks for the quick response. I went through these steps and there was a lot repaired apparently. I will keep it in mind for the future to take this cmd step more regularly.
However, it did not solve the key issue. I still cannot boot properly after uninstalling antivir in safe mode. Any other ideas?

[r@vast]

hello r@vast
thanks for the quick response. I went through these steps and there was a lot repaired apparently. I will keep it in mind for the future to take this cmd step more regularly.
However, it did not solve the key issue. I still cannot boot properly after uninstalling antivir in safe mode. Any other ideas?

Hi,

If I understand correctly, you managed to repair the disk but you were not able to uninstall Avast Antivirus?

[thomas-buetow]

Yes exactly. It's still the same. After uninstall I get asked to reboot and when I do it, I get to the point where it is loading, but it just keeps loading forever and I don't get to the screen where I put in my Windows login credentials.

[r@vast]

Hi,

How about when you uninstall via the control panel? Do you have any issues?
If so, please provide us with a support file id?
 To generate the support file, please see this link.
https://support.avast.com/en-ww/article/Submit-support-file

[thomas-buetow]

Thank you for your patience. Yes, it's the same issue when I uninstall via control panel.

The support file ID is QUBR5.

[Spec8472]

Hi Thomas,

can you please use registry editor (regedit.exe) and check following two registry keys for Avast filter presence? It should be done after Avast Free uninstallation, but before the reboot:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e96b-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}

Please check the UpperFilters values in both registry keys. There should be no filters with "asw" prefix.

Can you also generate a boot log if the computer is still not bootable after Avast Free uninstallation? You can use this guide to generate ntbtlog.txt file:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-enable-boot-log-windows-10

Thank you.

[thomas-buetow]

Hello Spec8472

I could do that yes. However, the last couple days I worked a bit with this computer and I have stuff on it that I don't wanna lose again if it jumps back x days in time. I do not really have any option to pick which day it goes to if system repair comes into play. If you can tell me if there is any way, so I can just go to this morning, it's all good, but if I go back a full week again, I really don't want to. In that case, I just leave the version on the computer for now I guess. And if there's ever other issues, then I try the uninstall.

[Spec8472]

Hello Thomas,

I understand your concerns. Can you please provide content of the "UpperFilters" value of the specified registry keys? It doesn't matter Avast is still installed.

Thank you