OK, I know this is an odd one, but it is what it is...
I'm in the U.S.A. I have a friend in Canada. Which means I can't just go over her home to help her with problems and have to try to help her over the phone.
She has a desktop system with Windows 7 64-bit. Unfortunately, it's been "worked on" by people who didn't know what they were doing, including a re-install of Windows from a disc that turned out to be counterfeit. As a result, while it still works, this computer is kind of FUBAR. To be fair, she bought the disc/package on eBay, thinking it would be a good backup and not realizing that she got ripped off.
Until recently, she had the free Avast installed. She had a problem and uninstalled it thinking she could just re-install it. However when she tries, it tells her that it needs Service Pack 1. So I had her download Service Pack 1. Unfortunately, that gets about halfway done and says there was an error and installation can't complete. The tool it recommends to help figure out why, wouldn't run.
So she is currently stuck with a Windows 7 installation that seemingly can't be updated to SP1. At least I don't know how to fix it. I'm not exactly a Windows expert, and in fact, my system is MUCH older than hers and still has XP on it.
She tried installing Comodo antivirus, but that didn't work either.
I don't know how great an idea it was, but for the time being, I sent her a copy of the last version of Avast that works on XP. It installed and appears to be working, although I'm not sure if it will be 100% functional on Win7.
So my two questions are;
1. Will the XP version work OK on Win7, or is there some reason it won't do its job properly?
2. Where can I find a version of Avast (free) that will install and run on Windows 7, WITHOUT needing Service Pack 1 to be installed?
It's not as if Avast even maintains a listing of program versions and their system requirements, let alone gives you a place to actually download them.
