I can’t remove Avast, what should I do? How to completely remove Avast from your computer? Removal via official uninstaller

Now we will look at how to remove Avast so that after uninstalling the antivirus, there will be no traces left on the computer after uninstalling the program. Many users encounter problems when trying to remove antivirus from their desktop or laptop.

An antivirus installed on a computer is designed to protect the computer from malicious software. Antivirus software constantly monitors the state of your computer in order to prevent infection by viruses or protect against other threats.

Due to the specific nature of their work, antivirus programs are deeply integrated into the Windows operating system. Antiviruses have a self-defense function to prevent program removal or disable protection from malicious software. Therefore, the process of removing an antivirus does not always go smoothly; sometimes problems arise after uninstallation on a PC.

Quite often, after removing an antivirus, remnants of a deleted application remain in the operating system, for example, some module, protective screen, driver, etc. remained uninstalled. In this case, the remnants of the previous antivirus prevent the installation of another antivirus program on the computer, causing conflicts in the system. Therefore, the user needs to completely remove Avast antivirus from the computer.

Avast Antivirus is the world's most popular antivirus program. Avast gained its popularity thanks to the free version of the antivirus – Avast Free Antivirus, which has quite broad functionality. In the line of antiviruses from AVAST Software there are other versions of products for home use: Avast Pro Antivirus, Avast Internet Security, Avast Premier, Avast Ultimate.

Let's see how to completely remove Avast from a computer in the operating system Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7. The methods for removing an antivirus, depending on the version of the operating system, are practically the same.

In this article we will look at instructions on how to remove Avast from your computer using 2 methods:

  • removing Avast antivirus using the standard Windows operating system tool in the standard way
  • uninstalling Avast antivirus using the special avastclear utility

In the first case, the antivirus is uninstalled using the built-in Windows uninstaller. With this method, in some cases, traces of the antivirus remain in the operating system, so this is not the best option for uninstalling the application.

The second method uses a special utility, Avast Clear, to completely remove the application from your computer. Using the avastclear tool, you can not only uninstall Avast, but also remove the remnants of the antivirus remaining after its uninstallation (remove uninstalled Avast).

To remove antiviruses, it is better not to use specialized programs - uninstallers, because when they are used, errors may appear in the system after removing the antivirus.

Disabling Avast Self-Defense Module

Enter Avast antivirus settings, open the “Troubleshooting” section, uncheck the box next to “Enable Avast Self-Defense Module”, click on the “OK” button.

How to remove Avast from your computer using Windows (1 method)

Depending on the version of Windows operating system installed on your computer, go to Control Panel (Settings) to access a list of programs and applications.

Follow these steps:

  1. Select Avast antivirus from the list of installed programs, right-click on it, and select “Uninstall” from the context menu.
  2. In the warning window that opens, agree to remove the program.
  3. Then the Avast Installation Wizard window will open, in which you need to click on the “Uninstall” button.

  1. A message will appear in the next window indicating that you are trying to uninstall Avast. Confirm that you agree to delete the application, click on the “Yes” button.

  1. After completing the antivirus removal process, in the installation wizard window, click on the “Restart computer” button.

Avast Antivirus! removed from the computer. If there are uninstalled antivirus components left on the system, search for any remaining traces yourself. Read about it below.

Find and remove traces of Avast antivirus left after uninstalling the program

After completing the uninstallation of Avast antivirus, there may be uninstalled program components on the computer that have entries in the Windows registry. Before making changes to the registry, just in case, make a backup copy of the registry.

To search and remove traces of Avast in the registry, do the following:

  1. Press the "Win" + "R" keys.
  2. In the Run window, enter the command “regedit” (without quotes), and then click on the OK button.
  3. In the “Registry Editor” window that opens, go to the “Edit” menu and select “Find...” from the context menu.
  4. In the “Search” window, in the “Find” field, enter the expression: “avast” (without quotes), and then click on the “Find Next” button.
  • You can uncheck the boxes next to “parameter names” and “parameter values” to search only by the value “section names”.

  1. A registry key will open in the Registry Editor window, the name of which contains the expression “avast” (it will be highlighted). Right-click on the section and select “Delete”.

  1. Press the "F3" key to search for a new partition. In the same way, sequentially delete all found registry keys related to Avast antivirus.
  2. After completing the operation, restart your computer.

A similar search and removal of remaining sections and parameters in the registry can be carried out in the Reg Organizer program.

How to completely remove Avast using the avastclear utility (method 2)

The special tool Avast Clear (Avast Antivirus Clear) is designed to completely remove Avast antivirus from Windows. Download the utility from the official Avast website.

Run the "avastclear.exe" file on your computer.

Avast Antivirus Clear suggests running the tool in Windows Safe Mode. Agree, click on the “Yes” button.

In the next window, click on the “Yes” button. Before rebooting, close all running programs and save open documents.

After the system boots in safe mode, the Avast uninstaller window will open, in which you must select the installation directories and the installed version of the antivirus.

If you did not change anything when installing the antivirus on your computer, leave the program installation directory and the data installation directory unchanged.

Select the version of Avast antivirus installed on this computer.

Click on the "Delete" button.

After Avast uninstallation is complete, the utility will prompt you to restart your computer in order to remove the remaining program files from the disk. Click on the "Restart computer" button.

After loading Windows, Avast antivirus is completely removed from the computer. The user can install another antivirus on his PC or use the Microsoft antivirus built into the Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 8 operating system.

Conclusion

In the article, we looked at two ways to completely remove Avast: using the standard method using the Windows operating system and using the avastclear utility. If the antivirus is not completely removed from the computer, the remnants of the removed antivirus can be found and removed manually in the Registry Editor.

Users are not always satisfied with free antivirus software installed on computers, if only because of the limited capabilities of such programs. Typically, they contain only basic tools that do not provide comprehensive protection. It's worse when they miss threats or trigger false alarms. Unfortunately, Avast Free Antivirus is one such application. Read on to learn how to remove it correctly.

There is nothing particularly complicated in the proposed methods, however, during the process of uninstalling this package, you need to pay attention to some nuances.

Why do users abandon the free Avast antivirus?

This free package causes obvious distrust among many users. This is due not only to its limited capabilities to provide comprehensive protection of a computer system and personal user data. Even the unlimited nature of the tools influences the fact that users, after using this application for a little while, try to completely uninstall it.

The saddest thing is that this package can easily ignore suspicious threats that have the status of trusted applications, without even trying to analyze signatures. The second point, no less serious, is associated with false positives, when it is not possible to install even official software on a computer (at least without disabling the antivirus at least temporarily). But that's not all. As practice shows, after installing the package, already installed programs that were functioning without problems before may stop working on the system.

That's why many people try to switch to other packages. But if you install another package in parallel, the user will receive nothing but conflicts. As someone correctly noted, it’s like locking Stalin and Hitler in the same room (the older generation understands what we’re talking about). Thus, you need to clearly understand how to remove Avast Free Antivirus so that there is no trace of it. Incomplete or incorrect uninstallation can also provoke conflict situations.

How to remove Avast Free Antivirus from your computer using system tools

First, let's look at the simplest, although far from the best, uninstallation method. How to remove Avast Free Antivirus using the toolkit of any version of Windows? It's simple.

To do this, you can use your own antivirus uninstaller, which can be found through the Start menu, or use the Programs and Features section, which is located in the Control Panel.

In it, you just need to highlight the line with the name of the program and click on the delete button at the top. After this, the built-in uninstaller of the antivirus itself (and not the Windows uninstaller) will still work.

Please note: if removal in the standard version turns out to be impossible, you may first need to go into the program settings and disable self-defense. If this does not help, all actions will have to be performed in safe boot mode (F8 at startup, in Windows 10 - restart the system with special boot options - select reboot in the Start menu while simultaneously pressing the Shift key).

Checking registry keys

Be that as it may, this method does not allow you to completely get rid of the package, since the program keys remain in the registry. How can I remove Avast Free Antivirus from my computer so that these entries are gone? In this case, you need to call the appropriate editor (regedit in the Run console).

In it you need to use the built-in search engine, which is called either through the file menu or through the quick combination Ctrl + F, and then set the value “avast” (without quotes) as the criterion. The found keys, moving from one to another through the “Find Next” button or pressing the F3 key, must be deleted, and then a complete restart of the system.

To avoid cleaning the registry manually, you can use special utilities (even portable ones) like RegCleaner, which will search for incorrect or residual keys and delete them automatically.

How to completely remove Avast Free Antivirus using a special utility?

But there is a simpler method. The question of how to remove Avast Free Antivirus can be solved quite simply by using the special Avastcleaner utility, which can be downloaded directly from the official resource of the antivirus developer.

Everything is simple with it, too, however, it must be started EXCLUSIVELY in safe boot mode. It is enough to launch the program (it is presented in the form of a single executable EXE file, that is, it is portable), select the name of the installed version, activate the uninstallation start, wait for it to complete and reboot (at the end the program itself will offer to do this).

Removing antivirus using uninstaller applications

But for the question of how to remove Avast Free Antivirus, there is another similar solution that can be used not only to uninstall this particular package, but also for other programs, browser panels, system components, or even applets built into Windows that It cannot be removed by any other means.

Of course, we are talking about such powerful packages as iObit Uninstaller and Revo Uninstaller, not counting other similar programs. Let's use the iObit Uninstaller application as an example. The list of installed programs is almost identical to the similar list in the Windows Programs and Features section. As usual, you first need to find the antivirus in it and click the uninstall button, indicated by the trash can icon.

First, the built-in uninstaller of the antivirus package starts, and after standard removal you will need to use a powerful scan to search for residual components, among which files, registry entries and directories can be found.

At the end of the search, the application itself will completely mark all the elements. If this does not happen, you will have to choose them yourself (although it is unlikely that this will happen). Then, to completely clean the system, you will need to check the box next to the file destruction option and click on the delete button. You may receive a message stating that some items will be deleted when you restart. We agree and restart. Now we can definitely give a 100% guarantee that Avast has been completely removed from the system. Then you can install any other anti-virus package without fear of conflicts or incorrect operation.

Brief summary

As you can see, the question of how to remove Avast Free Antivirus is quite simple to solve. In order not to do unnecessary things, it is better to immediately download a special utility to remove the package or install special uninstallers. But the utility only removes the antivirus, and the uninstaller can be useful in other situations, so it’s better to give preference to it.

There are many Avast products for a computer or laptop: free antivirus 2015, Avast 7, Avast 8, secureline vpn, grimefighter, premier, safezone, alwil software 4.0, internet security.

Many people have the habit of seeing how it works on Windows 7, Windows 8 or XP, experimenting, and if they don’t like it, remove it.

It turns out that completely removing Avast antivirus from a computer or laptop on Windows 7 / Windows 8 is not so simple.

It is unlikely that you will be able to remove Avast antivirus software from your computer using the standard method through the control panel (programs and components section).

The same applies to the uninstaller.exe utility built into the root. What to do then? Below are 3 ways.

This article was written a long time ago, only recently, when I received questions: how to delete Avast if it is not deleted, I can’t delete Avast, what should I do? I changed it a little, or rather added a third option (previously there was no such option).

The first way to remove the Avast program

There is an excellent program called “revo uninstaller” for removing everything that is not needed on a computer or laptop. It correctly and completely removes not only programs, but also registry entries.

Even if you cannot destroy the Avast antivirus with it, I still recommend installing it and using it in the future.

As shown in the figure below, you just need to select the installed Avast antivirus (I have ECET installed) and click delete at the top - then the program will do everything on its own.

The Revo Unistaler program is free and in Russian, as well.

The second way to remove antivirus avast from a computer or laptop

The second method of destroying antivirus avast from a laptop/computer is more powerful, but not complete.

After using it, you will need to clean the registry, for example.

It consists of using the free “Unlocker” utility, which you can download (you will also find instructions there).

The essence of this option is that Unlocker deletes files that cannot be deleted. Therefore, I also recommend that you have this utility on hand.

The third method is the correct and complete removal of Avast antivirus in Windows 7 or Windows 8

This is the last option, recently completed. This is due to the fact that antivirus developers have recently become very strict in the process of removing their products.

Conventional methods no longer work. Therefore, if you currently have one of the latest versions of Avast, then use only this method - otherwise nothing will come of your idea.

In this method you will need a utility that removes Avast -

Using this option, you will quickly and completely remove all Avast products and erase any remaining residue in the registry.

By the way, special utilities are now needed for all anti-virus programs - on the one hand, this is good, viruses will not be able to carry out such an operation on their own.

On the other hand, it’s bad for many, because not everyone knows about this turn of events.

Yes, you almost forgot, and then turn it on again if it’s bothering you at the moment. Good luck.

One could, of course, mock that you are not careful, while installing programs you click “next”, “next”, but this is not your fault, that during the installation of software pitfalls arise and all sorts of crap is installed.

Today we’ll look at how to solve your problem with virus software, and I’ll tell you a quick way to completely remove Avast from your computer. Windows 7, 8 or 10 does not matter and in any case it will take you 3 minutes.

Video - Complete removal of Avast from your computer

As practice shows, the most impatient people prefer to watch video instructions, and here is one of them above in front of you.

Removing Avast in Windows 7

  1. Open the Start menu and click on Control Panel. Now find “Programs and Features” in the list.
  1. In the menu in front of you are all the programs that are installed on the computer. Select “Avast” among them, click on it once and click “delete” in the top menu.

  1. The program installer will open, in which at the very bottom there is an inconspicuous delete button. Click on it. After which, the antivirus program will try to convince you, but you continue what you started and don’t believe it.

  1. Ready! Next time, be more careful when installing software and games.

Uninstalling Avast in Windows 10

  1. Open “Start”, then “Settings”, then “System”.

  1. Find “Avast” in the list, click on it, and then click “delete”.

  1. Ready! Enjoy your computer without unnecessary software.

There are many more removal methods that other sites offer, but I think this is sufficient. You did not have to download additional software (absurd, to remove one program, you need to download and install another). I didn’t have to use a registry cleaner (a regular user shouldn’t even know what that is).

So, brevity is the sister of talent. Everything is quickly and easily removed from your PC.

Avast is one of the fairly good anti-virus programs, including the free software market. It is quite popular among people who own PCs. But sometimes difficulties happen to her too. For example, it is not easy to remove it from the computer without difficulty.


Uninstalling the entire antivirus sometimes fails. Therefore, we will try to tell you how to completely remove Avast from Windows 7, 8, 10. This is not easy to do, because some hidden files and registry entries are constantly saved. When downloading a new antivirus onto your computer, difficulties may arise due to the saving of such files. Avast antivirus program is one such utility that is difficult to remove using the usual method. Below we will tell you how to uninstall the entire software.

Removing Avast in the usual way

The first method is standard:

  • You need to open the Start menu.
  • Next, select Control Panel.
  • Uninstalling a program - in the View tab, switch to “Category”.
  • You need to find Avast in the list of programs, then select it and click “Delete/Change”.
  • After this, the antivirus program installation wizard opens. Here you should click on the “Delete” button. Action confirmation required.


While the program is being uninstalled, you can answer questions related to uninstallation. But this is not necessary. After uninstallation, the program will offer to restart the PC - to do this, you need to click on the “Restart computer” button.


After rebooting, you need to clear the registry by pressing the “Win” + “R” keys. The built-in Run utility will launch, in which you should write regedit. The Registry Editor will open.


Here you need to click “Edit” and select “Find Next” in the menu that appears.


You should uncheck the “Parameter Names” and “Parameter Values” sections.

In the “Find” menu, you need to enter Avast and click “Find Next.”


It is necessary to delete all folders that have the name Avast.


When deleting each folder that has the full or partial name of the Avast antivirus program, you must confirm the action. After this, the search will automatically switch to the next registry folder. So you need to delete all folders that contain the name Avast.


Then you should close the registry editor and you need to clean the computer, delete temporary files and fix the registry error. CCleaner is perfect for this.

It should be launched and tested. Remove every temporary file and clear the cache. In addition, in the “Registry” item, you need to run a scan and correct all found errors and vulnerabilities. After this, you should restart your computer.

How to uninstall Avast using the utility?

The second way to remove Avast antivirus from Windows 7 is to remove it using a special uninstall utility produced by Avast. You can get it on the company’s website; you need to install the utility and run it.


A message with a recommendation will appear in the window that opens. It says that it is recommended to select Windows 7 safe mode to run the program. But this is not a prerequisite. If you do not want to work in safe mode, you should cancel this action. Now you need to select the directory in which the antivirus program was installed. If this action cannot be performed by default, then you must select the folder manually.


Everything contained in the folder you select is deleted. Here you need to select the version of the installed antivirus program and click “Delete”. After this, you need to restart the computer. Next, you should open the registry editor and follow the steps presented at the beginning of the publication, delete all entries that contain the name Avast. After the antivirus program is removed, you need to clean your PC by removing temporary files and junk. Here you can also use the CCleaner utility. However, you can take another program.

After completing all these steps, you can install another antivirus program. There won't be any difficulties!