Avira won't go away!

My Avira Premium license is due to expire, so I thought I'd try something new.
I uninstalled Avira, rebooted, but after I could not get any websites to load and the Avira directory and loads of files remained and would not delete.
I tried CCleaner, the Avira removal tools, system restore etc but no joy so had to format and reinstall Windows!

Anyone else had this problem or is it just me that it messes up

 

How far back did your restore point go? If you had disabled the drivers and services, you could've removed it all manually. Did you try running the installer again?

 

The restore point was about a week old. I tried to disable everything Avira but I could not find any thing running in processes.

 

As far as I know there is a tool (Avira Registry Cleaner?) which removes all the entries ...

 

Tried that.

 

Afaik it only removes registry entries.

 

I always rely upon Revo Uninstaller,it never lets me down.

 

Did you do as Espresso suggested? Many times reinstalling fixes messy uninstalls.

 

Format and reinstall operating system, that is what I would do in my opinion.

 

I concur.

FWIW I recently uninstalled Avira Premium v9 using add or remove programs and it uninstalled cleanly.

 

boot in safe mode,open registry and deletes all avira folders.
or use registry life [free] or ccleaner slim version.

 

CCleaner was used by the OP.

 

Safe mode - windows explorer delete all files then use regcleaner and delete all the keys still in safe mode.

I wouldn't recommend Avira to anyone because of the uninstall issues.

 

If you check Wilders for known issues with Avira you'll find that 95% of complaints are about time consuming updates with the free edition. I believe the OP had/has a problem with uninstalling, however, it is the first time for me to read about somebody having such a problem.

 

A google search found others who had the exact same problem.

 

I would be careful with that. I tried it in VBox. Deleting all fiels and all services manually resulted in having no internet connection anymore.
I had posted this manual deleting in safe mode before but deleted the post because its too risky.

 

Funny to see new folks here trying to tear Avira down. I see that AV competition is fierce..

Anyway, I'm glad the OP has "solved the problem"... the hard way

 

I didn't run into that since I already went through this although If you used the Avira registry clean up tool to find the right keys I'm would not be surprised you had that issue.

I had to do this on two different pc's because I was moving them to Panda Cloud. I tried uninstalling exactly as the Avira support site recommends which is to remove the files in SafeMode and used the Avira cleanup tool to search with Regcleaner - that came back with several registry keys belonging to Norton Security Scanner so I knew it couldn't be trusted and of the keys I was sure of none could be removed. The support page from Avira doesn't say anything about SafeMode for the registry keys removal but.....

This whole process involved a few WTF! moments.

I used the Panda install error zip file showing me what needed to be uninstalled along with Regcleaner in Safe Mode.

I have had Avira before and had no issue removing it so I don't know what was different this time. Something at the Avira end though because I put it on these pc's about the same time. That said I have never had to go to SafeMode to uninstall something I installed on purpose.

There are several posts in the Avira forum and elsewhere where users complain that nothing can remove the registry keys. I did search extensively before going that route which as you say can be dangerous waters.

It must happen frequently enough for Avira to recommend SafeMode removal when all else fails

http://www.avira.com/en/support/kbdetails.php?id=135