Cleanly reinstall Avast Antivirus

From time to time, Avast Antivirus might need to be removed. This can be because an end customer no longer wishes it on their system or simply for remediation steps from troubleshooting. This knowledgebase was written to install it again but can be used for removing Avast entirely. Please note that there is no way to uninstall Avast Antivirus with a script by the vendor's design.

You can uninstall Avast Antivirus using two different methods:

• From the left side Nav Menu, select Antivirus

• Then Avast Antivirus

• Click on Deployment

• Select the Site

• Then the Number of Devices labelled Devices with Antivirus Installed

• Select the Devices and Uninstall

• Proceed to the Remove the remnants on each device procedure

• Either pull the policy from the Service or exclude devices in the policy

• Get onto the end device and uninstall locally from Add or Remove Programs

• Proceed to the Remove the remnants on each device procedure

  • Avast also has a clear tool that is available from their support website

• Reboot the device in safe mode

  • Not necessary, though recommended, if devices are problematic in removing files and folders

• Delete the following Directories:
  C:\Program Files\AVAST Software
C:\Program Files (x86)\AVAST Software
C:\ProgramData\AVAST Software

• Delete the following Registry Keys
  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\AVAST Software
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AVAST Software
Computer\HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Software\AVAST Software
Computer\HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\AVAST Software
  
  

• Reboot again to make sure it is cleared out

• If 60 minutes have transpired, apply the AV policy again. If not, wait 30 minutes to ensure the policy is cleared

• Push install back out through the Avast Antivirus dashboard in Barracuda RMM