SOLVEDAvira can wait!
What solved the problem:
I was about to settle in for the long haul of having to reinstall the OS.
Just as a last try, tried installing v5 again. Again it showed the same error message.
Did a scan of full registry again for 'avast'.. This time there were 3-4 extra software entries for Alwil/Avast, besides the legacy ones. Removed them all. with Legacy keys not removable.
Just out of the blue, did a explorer search for 'avast' in my C drive.
To my surprise there were 4-5 _avast temp folders in each of my user profiles, along with a avast .ini file somewhere in the admin profile folder. I was not expecting this, considering that i had used the aswclear utility tool as advised.
Did a full computer search for 'avast' as a precaution.
Did a reboot and this time i set about doing a install with a hunch that things will work. And presto! v5 installed.
And it installed despite having made the Comodo firewall+HIPS ACTIVE, as i was browsing this forum!
A few take-home points for me:
- To do a full comp search for any remnant files of any program i uninstall
- Never to fully trust the uninstall utilities of software!
- Win XP SP2 makes no difference to avast v5 install
- Avast v5 can be installed even while having Comodo +HIPS on.