Avira problem

[rvusa]

Have Avira free installed but, tiring of being bombarded with invitations to up grade to paid version I opted for a free trial. Since then I have random things go wrong. I downloaded Avast and then tried to get rid of Avira. When selected in 'add remove programs', all that happens on 'remove' is this caption:- Setup could not detirmine the file list or was not able to read it correctly [Error: 8].
Program is Avia Antivirus Premium 2012. XP 3
Any help please, but keep it simple!:O
D

[green granite]

Have a look here (http://www.themisteriosos.com/uninstall-avira-antivir-completely.htm) and choose the right one for you, otherwise you can use something like 'revo uninstaller'

[rvusa]

Thanks GG. I Revo'd it which solved most of the problem. Despite Avira not now showing on Revo nor in 'Programs, I still have an icon in the task bar which links to Avira stuff but, of course, you can't do anything once it gets there. For instance, right clicking on the icon gives me all the former options including 'Start Avira Antivirus 2012' . If I click that then the former screen appears but after that it won't go anywhere else. Any clues on getting rid of this?
D

[BOAC]

Start Avira Antivirus 2012?? Spooky. Have you looked under the bed?:)

[green granite]

Right click on the icon, select properties, and click on open file location then delete everything there (if you click on the first one. scroll down to the last one hold down shift and click it will select all of them or one of the menus may give you 'select all' option)

When you've done that right click on the icon and select delete.

Alternatively, Right click on the icon, select properties, make a note of the 'start in' location, open windows explorer and locate that folder and delete it,

After either, down load something like CC Cleaner and clean the registry.

[rvusa]

Hi, sorry to have to go on but, right clicking the icon doesn't give a 'properties' option. I ran CCleaner anyway which removed a mass of stuff but the problem is still here.
D

[Tarq57]

Try downloading the Avira Reg cleaner, available near the top right of the page here (http://www.avira.com/en/support-download) and see if that helps.

Go to program files in windows explorer, locate the folder for Avira (if present) and delete it.

Go to documents and settings>(your logon)>Application Data (you will need to show hidden files), find the folder for Avira, and delete it.

This sort of hunting down of files can go on for a while during what has become a manual uninstall. There may be stuff lurking all over the place.