New to Avast

[AvastUser015]

I just started using Avast yesterday. I had been using MS Security Essentials. I thought I would check out Avast. I noticed that the Windows Defender Icon showed up in Systray to notify that the def. were out of date. I have Defender disabled since I was using MSE. I downloaded update to get rid of icon. Now, should I start using Defender again? I thought Avast protects against malware too. I also use MBAM free as scanner only. What should I do? Thanks. I hope to be a long time user. I am using Vista SP2 32 bit.

[iroc9555]

Welcome to Avast! forum.

A lot of Avast! users here tend to deactivate WD. Your are good only with Avast! and MBAM as a second on demand scanner.

[Quikfix]

As iroc9555 said, you are good with only one real-time scanner.  I highly recommend that you turn Windows Defender off, it might cause some compatibility  issues with avast!

[AvastUser015]

Ok Thanks...I noticed another problem. Avast seemed to disabled MS Security Center. It wont turn back on. I know this is Avast doing  it since everything was fine before installing Avast. Maybe I should try another AV or go back to MSE,

[iroc9555]

Use MSE procedure and remove tool to uninstall completely.

http://singularlabs.com/uninstallers/security-software/

Reboot and see if MS Security Center is back.

[AvastUser015]

I already uninstalled MSE completely. I did this before installing Avast.

[AvastUser015]

Update...after a lot of testing, installing, and uninstalling, I discovered the problem with the security center was revouninstaller and MS Security Essentials. I used Revo to uninstall MSE and it deleted registry keys related to the security center. Fortunately, I made an image of my hard drive before I made changes. I just restored the image and I did not allow Revo to delete the keys again. I then reinstalled Avast and everything is fine. Avast is running and security center is running and it recognizes Avast. I chose not to installed the additional plugins though, since I was not familiar with them.

I did have a couple of false positives though. I sent them to Avast for additional analysis.  I also uploaded them to virustotal and only 2 or 3 scanners reported a threat...that is why I believe they are false positives, but I did move them to the virus chest for now. I hope to really enjoy this program for years to come. I really like that Avast doesn't install a bunch of other utilities to try to get you to pay for them like AVG. Please don't start doing that.

[iroc9555]

...I discovered the problem with the security center was revouninstaller and MS Security Essentials. I used Revo to uninstall MSE and it deleted registry keys related to the security center.

I am glad you are back in business and Avast! is running well.

This is a good example why not to use RevoUninstaller for security programs.

[Lisandro]

This is a good example why not to use RevoUninstaller for security programs.

More than that... Even common programs that require a boot to uninstall could have problems with Revo.