Even though Avast is one of my favorite antivirus products, there have
been times when I've needed to uninstall or remove it. Corrupted virus
signatures have caused it not to update properly, or it wont start
properly and it needs to be reinstalled. Maybe corrupted
files are causing 100% CPU usage. These and other issues can cause you
to uninstall and reinstall your antivirus product.
Whatever the reason for needing to uninstall Avast, I've listed the
best procedure for doing this below:
Normal Uninstall
The first thing you want to try is to locate Avast in the Add/Remove
Control Panel and try to remove it from there. Follow these
instructions to accomplish this.
1) Click on Start, Control Panel
2) Open Add/Remove Programs
3) Find Avast in the Programs list and highlight it
4) Click Remove and follow the prompts to uninstall Avast
Using the Avast Uninstall Utility
If for some reason the normal uninstall does not work, you may have to
download Avast's own Uninstall Utility.
1) Click on the following link and download the Avast Uninstall Utility
to your desktop
http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclear.exe
2) Double-click on the file ASWCLEAR and run it
3) You should see the following screen
4) Click on the ellipsis and choose the folder where Avast is
installed. This folder is usually in the Program Files directory. Ex.
C:\Program Files\Avast
Be very careful which folder you choose since whatever folder is chosen
will be completely deleted from your computer.
5) Once the uninstall has completed, reboot your computer. You may then
try to reinstall it or another antivirus.
If for some reason the uninstall utility does not remove it, you may
have to reinstall a newer version of Avast to then proceed to uninstall
or you may have an issue where
multiple
antivirus programs are showing in the Windows Security Center.
Other Removal Instructions for Antivirus Programs
Uninstall Norton
Uninstall McAfee
Uninstall Avast
Uninstall AVG
Uninstall AntiVir
Uninstall Panda
Buy Anti-Virus Software
If you don't already have antivirus software loaded on your computer. You should download and install an antivirus product immediately. The popular commercial antivirus products like McAfee and Norton are ok, but there are also excellent free antivirus solutions available. Listed below are some of the popular free and commercial antivirus software products.