Still not working. here are the steps I took.
1) downloaded the installer
2) Uninstalled Microsoft Security Essentials that I had put temporarily in place to replace AIS 7
3) Restarted in Safe Mode
4) Ran ASWClear.exe and removed non existent files.
5) restarted back to normal mode.
6) Installed AIS 7 from the downloaded installer.
7) Did not restart on prompt (otherwise the system will mess up and I can't apply the patch)
Started Avast to get to the UI, Turned off self-protection module.
9) Applied and replaced 64-bit patch to these directories [C:\windows\system32\drivers, C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Setup\INF, C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Setup\INF\x64]
10) Restarted Computer
11) problem occurs again where PID-4 "SYSTEM" rans at constant 30% CPU and most of the system process not loaded. Windows UI completely missing, Avast modules loaded into SYSTEM process but services and main program offline.
12) executed firefox using windows task manager.
13) posted this reply.