Free anti-virus software installed on computers does not always suit users, at least because of the limited capabilities of such programs. Usually they contain only basic tools that do not provide comprehensive protection. Worse, when they miss threats or act falsely. Unfortunately, one of these applications can be called Avast Free Antivirus. How to remove this antivirus? Read about it later.
There is nothing particularly complicated in the proposed methods, however, in the process of uninstalling this package, you need to pay attention to some nuances.
Why do users refuse the free antivirus Avast?
This free package for many users causes a clear distrust. This is due not only to its limited capabilities to provide comprehensive protection for a computer system and personal user data. Even the unlimited nature of the toolkit affects the fact that users, having used this application a little, 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 perform signature analysis. The second point, no less serious, is associated with false positives, when it is not even possible to install official software on a computer (at least without disabling the antivirus at least temporarily). But that is not all. As practice shows, after installing the package in the system, already installed programs may have stopped working without problems before.
Therefore, many are trying to switch to other packages. But after all, if you do not remove Avast and install another package in parallel, the user will get nothing but conflicts. As someone correctly noted, this is like closing in the same room of Stalin and Hitler (the older generation understands what it is about). Thus, you need to clearly understand how to remove the Avast Free Antivirus program so that there is no trace of it. Incomplete or incorrect uninstallation can also provoke the emergence of conflict situations.
How to remove Avast Free Antivirus from a computer using system tools
To begin, consider the simplest, although far from the best, method of uninstalling. How to remove Avast Free Antivirus using the tools of any version of Windows? Everything is simple.
To do this, you can use your own antivirus uninstaller, which can be found through the Start menu, or use the programs and components section located in the Control Panel.
In it, you just need to select the line with the name of the program and click on the delete button at the top. After that, the built-in tool for uninstalling the antivirus itself (and not the Windows uninstaller) will still work.
Please note: if the deletion in the standard version is not feasible, you may first need to enter the program settings and disable self-defense. If this does not help, all the actions will have to be performed in safe boot mode (F8 at startup, in Windows 10 - restarting the system with special boot options - selecting a restart in the Start menu while simultaneously pressing the Shift key).
Checking registry keys
Be that as it may, this method does not allow to completely get rid of the package, since the program keys remain in the registry. How to remove Avast Free Antivirus from my computer so that these entries are left? In this case, you need to call the appropriate editor (regedit in the Run console).
You need to use the built-in search system in it, which is called either through the file menu or through the quick combination Ctrl + F, and then set the criterion to “avast” (without the quotes). The keys found, moving from one to the other via the "Find Next" button or pressing the F3 key, must be deleted, and then a complete restart of the system is necessary.
To avoid manual cleaning of the registry, you can use special utilities (even portable ones) like RegCleaner, which will search for invalid or residual keys and delete them automatically.
How to completely remove Avast Free Antivirus with a special utility?
But there is a simpler method. The question of how to remove Avast Free Antivirus can be completely solved by using the special Avastcleaner utility, which can be downloaded directly from the official resource of the antivirus developer.
With her, too, everything is simple, however, her start must be done EXCLUSIVELY in safe boot mode. It is enough to start the program (it is presented in the form of one executable EXE file, that is, portable), select the name of the installed version from the drop-down list , activate the start of uninstallation, wait for its completion and reboot (at the finish the program 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 that are “wired” into Windows, which no other methods can be removed.
Of course, we are talking about such powerful packages as iObit Uninstaller and Revo Uninstaller, not counting other similar programs. We use the iObit Uninstaller application as an example. The list of installed programs is almost one in one repeats a similar list of programs and components of Windows. As usual, first you need to find an antivirus in it and click the uninstall button, indicated by the trash can icon.
First, the built-in uninstaller of the anti-virus package starts, and after the 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, they will have to be selected on their own (although it is unlikely that this will happen). Then, in order to completely clean the system, it will be necessary to check the box opposite the file destruction item and click on the delete button. A message may appear stating that some items will be deleted upon reboot. We agree and make a restart. Now, you can definitely give a 100% guarantee that Avast has been completely and completely removed from the system. Then you can install any other anti-virus package without fear of conflicts or its incorrect operation.
Brief summary
As you can see, the question of how to remove Avast Free Antivirus is solved quite simply. 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 is better to give preference to it.