Downloaded Avast, but it's not in my computer programs

[rleverhart]

We had Avast for the past year, expired, tried to reregister, didn't seem to work. Tried BitDefender, didn't like it, tried to get back on with Avast. Seemed to reregister last night, got license number and put it in. But then there was the red mark on the blue ball. Did what it said, except under programs there was no "repair" with add/remove programs.  I think my husband uninstalled it today as it is not there now. I deleted BitDefender, downloaded Avast again, got a license number, put it in, same thing. It wasn't in programs, so downloaded it again, still not there. Says it's there, got a license number, but still have the red mark and it's not working. Can someone please tell us what to do? Thank you.

[Styx]

I would uninstall BitDefender using this utility to be sure it is gone.

http://kb.bitdefender.com/KB333-en--How-to-uninstall-BitDefender.html

REBOOT

Use the Avast Uninstall Utility to uninstall Avast totally.

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html

REBOOT

Download and install the latest version of Avast.

[DavidR]

What version of BitDefender was it resident or free on-demand ?
How did you remove it ?
You mention deletion which is different to a proper add remove programs uninstall as it could leave drivers behind that could cause a conflict.

The reason I ask is the presence of or remnants of another AV on your system is a common reason for the red circle and bar over the avast icon.

If you can answer these questions, hopefully someone can pick-up on this as it is 1:40a.m. here and I'm about to call it a night. Looks like Styx is already on the case

[rleverhart]

It was free home use BitDefender and I did delete through add/remove programs, it's gone. I don't know about drivers, guess that is a possibility.You can't use more than one AV at a time? Or is that just with Avast you can't use another one? Thanks for the suggestions on what to do, I will try them.

[Sesame]

It was free home use BitDefender and I did delete through add/remove programs, it's gone. I don't know about drivers, guess that is a possibility.You can't use more than one AV at a time? Or is that just with Avast you can't use another one? Thanks for the suggestions on what to do, I will try them.

http://www.bitdefender.com/media/html/trialpay.html
Free version doesn't seem to have resident protection.  So, BitDefender doesn't seem to be related with the issue.

[Tarq57]

You can't use more than one AV at a time? Or is that just with Avast you can't use another one?

Generally, any combination of two (or more) AV's is bad news. Some people will argue otherwise, because they've got away with it for a time (read= been lucky) but they can and do interfere with each other.
The presence of another AV on a machine is, as said above, often a reason that Avast won't run correctly.
Did you try running the uninstaller and going through the procedure suggested above by Styx? Strongly recommend this.
What other security software is, or has been, installed on the computer?

[Lisandro]

You can't use more than one AV at a time?

Resident not, just one.

Or is that just with Avast you can't use another one?

It's not avast, generally all other.

You can use Bitdefender (not resident) or ClamWin (not resident) with avast. Also, advanced users can manage to use Avira with avast and, in Vista, AVG and avast. But it's not for general usage. Besides, there is more cons than any pros on this procedure.