How can I completely remove Avira Antivir

[Steveg722]

RE Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus

Hi,

This machine is running Windows 2000 Pro SP4.

First became aware of Avira browsing this website (use is proposed on Malware Removal - HijackThis Logs Pinned: I'm infected - What do I do now?) last month when working on another machine.

It may be a good app but I've run into a swamp so hoping someone can help me get out of it.

On 21Sep10, I had downloaded avira_antivir_personal_en.exe from download.com.

Last night, I decided to try a scan of this machine using Avira.

Ran the Setup app and Avira Antivir seemed to install without any apparent issues.

Soon after, I was browsing the manual and noticed something saying it was important to close all other programs before installing (which I had not done) to assure the program works properly.

Decided to goback and redo the install so tried Uninstalling using Add/Rem Progams (there was no Uninstall option in the Avira folder in Start Menu). That began OK but got a popup indicating Uninstall failed but it went away and the Uninstall routine indicated it had finished ok.

After reboot, found there were still many remnants left and found there were still some Avira related processes running.

Figured reinstalling again might clean everything up so ran Setup again this time with all Apps closed except WinExp but Setup had issues and after Reboot found parts of the installation seemed to be missing/incorrect.

Tried Uninstalling again using Add/Rem Programs.

It did remove Avira from Add/Rem Programs but it didn't remove a lot else (Program Files\Avira folders still have many files, Start Menu still showing Avira, 2 Avira related services were running, Avira item in Control Panel??, Avira item on right click menu, Avira Folders and contents under Documents and Settings, much Registry pollution re Avira, etc). What concerned me a bit was that the Avira Services were apparently still configured in the Registry to be in the Start-up Programs list and in the Services list, they could not be stopped.

Have browsed the web looking for solutions but didn't find anything simple I would have much confidence in at this point.

Avira website documentation was little help...says complete Uninstall is simple via Add/Rem Programs. Not true in my case.

How can I simply and reliably clean all remnants of Avira off this machine?

Thanks

SteveG

[Firefox]

Have a look RIGHT HERE and it will direct you to a place where you can get some uninstallers for this product.

[TonyKlein]

Avira offer a removal tool for leftover Registry keys and values:

http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-a...registrycleaner

Leftover folders shouldn't be hard to find through a File search

[Haider]

Hello Steveg722:

What are the chances that the installation file is corrupt. You should have download directly from http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal. Do you have any other security software that might be interfering? Should you have any other question(s) please post back using button

[Steveg722]

Hi,

Thanks for the tips you're offered so far....

@Firefox_FYI, RIGHT HERE link to http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?s...st&p=144502 didn't work for me.

"Board Message

Sorry, an error occurred. If you are unsure on how to use a feature, or don't know why you got this error message, try looking through the help files for more information.

The error returned was:

Sorry, the link that brought you to this page seems to be out of date or broken."

Hopefully this issue isn't due to any operator error on my part.

@TonyKlein_I had run across the avira_registry_cleaner_en.zip option last night but wasn't sure if it was a reliable tool. I have since downloaded it and will give it try later today and let you know what happens.

@Haider_good question re integrity of the 100921dl_avira_antivir_personal_en.exe file I had downloaded from downloads.com. For what its worth the file shows as 43057KB and as mentioned, the initial Setup routine last night seemed to result in a good install. IF I can first get everything clean (using removal tool Tony suggested), I might try reinstalling. IF I do so, I'll take your advice and download a Setup.exe directly from http://www.avira.com/en/free-download-avira-antivir-personal.

FYI, there were no active security application running on the machine when I was doing the installs/uninstalls.

Thanks again for your suggestions.... I'll post back to let you know how this all works out.

SteveG

[Haider]

Hello Steveg722:

Please go ahead and let us know the end result. Good luck. I would also apologize on behalf of Firefox the link is good and working, however, at this point you don't have access to it

[Firefox]

Steveg722 I am sorry I did not realize that you were not an Honorary member yet (it takes 50 forum posts before you can become one).

Anyway it is basically going to take you to THIS PAGE which is Wilders Security Forums where it gives you a list of uninstallers.....

[Steveg722]

RE Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay...but appears the Avira app has finally been uninstalled.

Ran the Registry Cleaner App downloaded from http://www.avira.com/en/support-download-a...registrycleaner then rebooted

No Avira processes running, Avira items in services are gone, and Avira item on context menu are gone.

I then manually deleted the folders and files under Program Files\Avira.

@Firefox_no problem me re the prior link and my not being honorary (at least here yet) but thanks for sharing the new one as that's a handy list (links to access Uninstaller.exe's for several popular malware scanning apps) for all of us dealing with these issues and apps to know about. Apparently its not uncommon for Uninstall via Add/Rem Progs for these apps to leave problematic remnants in place.

Great service everybody!

Thanks Very Much

SteveG

[noknojon]

Hi -

RA Products Uninstallers <--- has a good list of uninstallers for most A/V type programs , also toolbars etc. -

If all else fails I use Revo Uninstaller -

Thank You -

[Steveg722]

RE Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus

Hello again,

Sorry for the delay...

FYI, after successfully cleaning up Uninstallation of Avira with the Registry Cleaner app, I did rerun the Avira setup again (downloaded a fresh copy from Avira site...turned out it was the apparently the same file I had used prior from download.com). The installation of v10.0.0.567 and updating seemed to go smoothly. I've run several scans since and they seem to have run as intented.

@Nokojon_thanks for sharing the link to RA Products Uninstallers and the tip re Revo Uninstaller.

Thanks

SteveG

[Haider]

Hello Steveg722:

Glad to know that everything worked out. The best way to compare files is MD5 apparently they may look alike!