Avast Antivirus has a special self-protection mode that prevents malware from uninstalling Avast from your system. Unfortunately, that means you can’t uninstall it either.
If you still need to know how to uninstall Avast Antivirus, just follow the steps below to disable Avast’s self-protection features and uninstall the software.
How to Disable Avast’s Self-Defense Mode
To disable self-defense mode in Avast, you’ll need to go into a ‘hidden’ area of the Settings.
Open the Avast user interface and click Menu at the top of the user interface.
Select Settings from the drop-down menu that appears.
This will open a new settings window. Select General in the left navigation pane, then select Troubleshooting from the submenu.
Deselect Enable Self Defense to disable self-defense mode.
This will open a pop-up window asking you to confirm. Select OK to confirm changes.
At this point, the self-protection mode is disabled and you can close the settings window as well as the Avast user interface.
Complete the Avast Uninstall
Once Avast Self-Defense is disabled, you can uninstall Avast Antivirus.
Select the start menu and go to the control panel. Select the Control Panel application to open it.
In the control panel window, select Programs and
Features.
In the Programs and Features window, scroll down to the Avast Antivirus application and select it. Then select Uninstall to start the uninstall process.
This will open the Avast configuration screen, which has various options for customizing the Avast installation. The main options are Update, Repair, or Change. However, you will see an Uninstall button at the bottom of this window. Select this option to start Avast installation.
A confirmation window will ask if you really want to remove Avast. Click the Yes button.
This will start the process of uninstalling Avast. It may take a few minutes for the progress bar to complete as uninstalling will delete all Avast files distributed on your system.
When the installation is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer for the installation to complete. Click the Restart-Computer button to exit.
Restarting your computer will complete the uninstall process. Once done, Avast will be completely removed from your system.
Install New Antivirus Software
If you’ve removed Avast Antivirus so that you can install new antivirus software, there are lots of good free antivirus software options to choose from.
If you uninstall it to see if it affects other issues with your computer, you will need to download the latest version of Avast Antivirus and reinstall it on your system so that you are fully protected.