Avast Detected When I've Never Installed It

[madnessmaka]

Ok, I've been reading a lot of people talking about V5.00.5050 picking up Avast 6 and 8 because of remnants left over. However, mine's picking it up after I've never even installed an Avast product on this computer before. Needless to say, this both worries and perplexes me, and I'm thinking a dupe software might have installed registry keys there without my permission.

Any ideas?

[pompste]

You might want to go into your Regedit,if you`re running Windows, and check your software registry entries for anything Avast.If you do and find anything Avast,just delete it and see if that helps.

Be very careful if you go into Regedit and know exactly what you are doing since any mistakes made there could harm the operating system.

I`ve found many useless registry entries on my pc,using regedit, from programs uninstalled long ago.

CCleaner still picks up Avast 6 & 8 on my pc too even though I run Avast 2015. Since it is cleaning Avast,I just leave well enough alone since it`s not harming anything that I know of.

[Chim]

When you bought your computer, did you buy it absolutely brand new?  Are you the only owner of that computer ever?  Anyone else use that computer now?

 

If you bought that computer second hand, a previous owner could have installed various anti-viruses when they had it.  I've had various 2nd and 3rd hand computers and when I check deep into files, folders and registry entries, I find remnants of one or more anti-viruses still roaming around aside of the anti-virus that's currently installed.

[madnessmaka]

When you bought your computer, did you buy it absolutely brand new?  Are you the only owner of that computer ever?  Anyone else use that computer now?

 

If you bought that computer second hand, a previous owner could have installed various anti-viruses when they had it.  I've had various 2nd and 3rd hand computers and when I check deep into files, folders and registry entries, I find remnants of one or more anti-viruses still roaming around aside of the anti-virus that's currently installed.

I actually bought the computer parts new and put it together myself. It's my private computer (that's password locked) in my house, and the other person living here has her own computer.

[Nergal]

Maybe the motherboard came with an avast trial? None, the less if you think a dupe program may have messed with things you should go to a reputable malware-help-site there's a sticky in the security board which give some good ones

[slickr]

Maybe you've used other Avast programs apart from their antivirus? Their VPN, Grimefighter or password manager, they've had few more programs in the past as well.

 

Maybe a 3rd party installed some Avast traces, etc... You can just delete them, if Ccleaner found them and you don't have an active installation you can safely delete them.