Windows theme resets when I have Avast installed. Help!

[Evan1337]

I have Windows XP, Home Edition, Service Pack 3

Whenever i have Avast 4.8 Home edition installed, i always get my theme changed to "Windows Classic (modified)", which looks similar to the default Windows XP Theme (all blue and stuff). I hate this. When i change my theme to "Windows Classic" (not modified), i always get the blue modified theme when my computer restarts. Could it be that Avast set a restore point of its own or something. I checked the system restore tool and there's nothing there.

Why is this happening? It's so annoying. This doesn't happen when i don't have Avast installed. I wanted to change to Avira, but found out that it doesn't have a web shield, so Avast is my last hope.

Please help.

[.: L' arc :.]

Hi Evan1337 and welcome to the forums,

 Please take time to answer these questions:

1   What are your system specs?
2   Are you using any transformation pack?
3   Did you use any theme patcher (such as UxTheme Multipatcher or Windows Blinds)?
4   What are your previous/current antivirus?

[Evan1337]

Hi Evan1337 and welcome to the forums,

 Please take time to answer these questions:

1   What are your system specs?
2   Are you using any transformation pack?
3   Did you use any theme patcher (such as UxTheme Multipatcher or Windows Blinds)?
4   What are your previous/current antivirus?

1) Part of my dxdiag (doesn't let me post all, "exceeds 10000 characters,"). If you have a specific part of the dxdiag that you need to look at, tell me:

Code: [Select]

------------------
System Information
------------------
   Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090804-1435)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
       System Model: GA-MA770T-UD3P
               BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor,  MMX,  3DNow (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
             Memory: 3326MB RAM
          Page File: 452MB used, 4758MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

2) I don't know what transformation packets are. If you're talking about theme packets, then no.

3) No.

4) Before Avast, i used a combo of both Avast and Avira because avast is good blocker decent scanner, and avira good scanner horrible blocker (both free versions). I think the theme thing happened during that time too.  Anyway, a friend of mine advised me to choose only 1 antivirus. I chose Avast. Avira is unsafe because it lets the malicious stuff go into your computer before it kills it, so it makes me feel like my computer would be tainted. Avast actually blocks the bad stuff from coming in.

[Pondus]

4) Before Avast, i used a combo of both Avast and Avira because avast is good blocker decent scanner, and avira good scanner horrible blocker (both free versions). I think the theme thing happened during that time too.  Anyway, a friend of mine advised me to choose only 1 antivirus. I chose Avast. Avira is unsafe because it lets the malicious stuff go into your computer before it kills it, so it makes me feel like my computer would be tainted. Avast actually blocks the bad stuff from coming in.

Multiple Antivirus Apps on One PC?  http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/39904
Clash Of The Antivirus Apps  http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/2003/s1407/38s07/38s07.asp
Read reply Nr.2 from quietman7  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic260844.html#entry1448274

[Evan1337]

Thanks for the info, but all of that doesn't directly solve my problem. So what if having 2 antivirus softwares screwed up my comp, what do i do? How do i even know that this is a problem caused by having 2 antivirus softwares. I already uninstalled avira, and it's still happening.

Oh, and i once tried Avira ONLY and NO Avast. It worked out, the theme didn't screw up. Then, i tried Avast, and Theme screws up all the time.

Sorry, I'm bad at reading b/c i'm lazy, if you like posting huge chunks of text for me to read and interpret, i might get details wrong b/c i really don't feel like reading them all.

Please summarize them for me.

[YoKenny]

For the lazy:
Avira AntiVir Removal Tool
http://dlpro.antivir.com/package/removaltool/win32/en/removaltool-win32-en.exe

[Evan1337]

Did the Avira scan, nothing.

Code: [Select]

scan results:

scanned directories: 8619
scanned files: 91389
scanned streams: 103
scanned processes: 38
scanned modules: 403

infected files: 0
infected processes: 0

repaired/removed files: 0
renamed files: 0
terminated processes: 0

elapsed time for memory scan: 2.88 seconds
average memory scanner throughput: 54897.04 KB/s

elapsed time for file scan: 794.47 seconds
average file scanner throughput: 1038.56 KB/s

[Evan1337]

Help!

[Tarq57]

The tool linked to you was for a particular Avira virus remover, not the AV remover.
Get the Avira Registry cleaner.Direct Download.
No need to install. Extract to the desktop or  a folder of your choice. (there are a few files extracted, about 5 or 6 IIRC, .dll's etc, it needs all of them extracted to one location to run.)
Click on the umbrella.
Click on configuration. Remove the tick for H_KEY_Current User. (Just leaves HKLM ticked.)
Scan.
Select all non-Avast entries to be removed. (If there are any.)
Please post back.

[edit] Here (direct download) is another Avira uninstaller tool for you to try. No special directions, just extract all components to the desktop and run the .exe.