Installing Avast 4.8

[AZKID]

Hi Tarq

Sorry for the delay in getting back here but I have run into major troubles  My wife tried to run Avast's removal tool for ver 4.8 and it did not work   Unfortunately she did not run it in the SAFE MODE.
Then she removed:
1] AVAST_HOME_SETUP.EXE-17A43346.pf in Folder: C:\WINDOWS \Prefetch
2] AVAST_HOME_SETUP.EXE- 1F0E2CEA.pf in Folder: C:\WINDOWS \Prefetch
and instead of leaving them in the Recycle Bin .. she emptied the Recycle Bin !!!

Now my XP OS still boots and I get to the Desktop but it won't run ANY of my programs !!!
I tried running MBAM (Malwarebytes) but it won't run either. She tried the Restore option on XP and it seemed to have restored at first BUT I am still unable to run any of my programs.

I have never reinstalled an OS but I am thinking that may be my only option at this point (hoping NOT!)
HP did not provide me with a bootable disk on my 4 year old HP ... so right now I am not sure what to do
Any help/advice will really be greatly appreciated 
Thank you,

Rich

[Tarq57]

The tool only needs to be run in safe mode if Avast doesn't uninstall cleanly via add/remove programs.
Deleting prefetch files would do no harm. (So you can't blame your wife. Sorry.  )
That said nothing should really be deleted unless the user knows what it's for. Is it possible anything else was deleted?
This is starting to possibly sound more like a malware issue, or maybe a registry issue..I don't really know.
If no programs will run on it your options become a bit limited. Sorry, I have no experience with re-installing an OS on a HP machine without a disk. If you can borrow an XP Home installation disk, a repair install might be possible.

One thing I'd look at doing - if no-one else posts with more informed ideas - is to try a BART disk. This would need to be downloaded and burned using a clean and working computer.
Below are links to a couple.
Avira (Direct Download),

DrWeb (also have a look at the "how it works" link on that page)

[AZKID]

Thanks again Tarq for your quick reply and links. I will try to get my laptop up and running again ....possibly doing an OS repair or reinstall and will report back on this thread when I am hopefully up and running. It may take several days to get back here again..but I WILL !

Thanks again

Rich