Windows freezes after login, won't open anything

[jessp]

Hello,

I installed avast last night, after doing so none of my Internet browsers would open any page, so today I decided to uninstall it. I clicked on it in the add/remove hardware section if my computers control panel, and the add/remove window froze. After 5 minutes I clicked the close button on it and selected end now when it wouldn't close as normal. It still wouldn't close, so I tried to restart my computer. It then told me another program needed to close (avp.exe I think?) so when that wouldn't close I again clicked end now. My computer restarted normally, but since then it won't load properly - windows loads, and i can get through the user login screen, but things then freeze - programs won't open (I click the icons eg for firefox but nothing happens) etc.. After I've attempted to open one thing I can't do anything else as the mouse won't let me click anything.

My computer is windows xp, sp3.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

[exile360]

Greetings

It sounds like you may have installed 1 antivirus too many (avp.exe is part of Kaspersky Antivirus). Please do the following, it should resolve the issue:

Download the Avast! Uninstall Utility from here and save it to your desktop but do not run it yet.

You should either print or save these instructions because in Safe Mode you don't have internet access.

Boot into Safe Mode:

• Restart your computer.
  
• When the machine first starts again it will generally list some equipment that is installed in your machine, amount of memory, hard drives installed etc. At this point you should gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with the Windows XP Advanced Options menu.
  
• Select the option for Safe Mode using the arrow keys.
  
• Then press Enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

You should then be presented with the Windows XP Login screen. Log in to Windows and when it prompts you about Safe Mode and asks if you'd like to continue click Yes.

Now, run aswclear.exe and reboot when it prompts you to do so, allowing your computer to start normally.

Please let me know if your PC is now working normally or not.

Thanks

[jessp]

Thanks for your extremely quick reply and help exile. I followed your steps and everything seems to be working properly now - thank you!

[exile360]

You're welcome

If you do wish to switch from Kaspersky to Avast! you may, but you'll need to remove Kaspersky first. The following instructions will show you how to do so, please disregard them if you do not wish to switch antivirus products:

• Download the latest version of Avast! Antivirus from here and save the file to your desktop but do not run it yet
  
• Download and run the Removal tool for Kaspersky Lab products from here
  
• Follow the onscreen instructions and reboot if prompted to do so
  
• Once that is complete, you may install Avast! Antivirus and update it so that you have the latest virus databases