Although I have been and still am a fan of the Avast! antivirus application (avast.com) I recently stumbled onto something interesting.
I have always used the free version of Avast and it has worked quite well. Since it is free you do get popups occasionally suggesting you try to better clean up your computer. If you click the link it takes you to the upgrade page. This is fine with me too since the paid version is good and they deserve pay for their application. I appreciate the great freeware version but if someone wishes to pay I say, go for it.
The paid versions of Avast run from approximately $35 to $50 annually. They also have other products available but those are the ones you should look at to replace the free version.
Now back to my story. Avast regularly offers popups which encourage you to try the Premium version. One day they had one that offered the Premium version for free for a specific period of time. I clicked it since they are a very reputable company. I thought it would be good to try the best product…especially for free.
When the time limit expired I thought it would go back to the free version; however, it did not. It basically said if I wanted to keep using it I had to pay my annual fee. Then it told me I was no longer protected and should re-up for the premium version. I went online to see what others thought and many had the same issue.
So I thought OK, this will be a pain but I will uninstall it and then reinstall the free version again. And make sure that the next time I get it running I WILL NOT try out the temporary premium version.
After I did that and the free new shiny version was running it still told me I had to upgrade. It kept the old information and, yes, wanted my money. I hated to have to go to another antivirus application so I kept looking for a fix.
I found a solution online and it was actually on the Avast site. I know that some of you have tried or will try the free premium version so here is the fix. It is called, "avastclear." This is a short link to get to the page, rd.dblclx.com/avastuninstaller. If you follow the instructions on the page all will be well. The final step is to restart your computer. I suggest after that you download the free version and happily reinstall it and live happily ever after.
There is really only one thing to do that you may be unused to per step 2 from Avast’s instructions; you must start in "Safe Mode." You may try to restart your computer and press F8 at the correct moment; however, I have an easier way. Hold down the Shift key and click Restart at the login screen or while in Windows while clicking the star button, Power and Restart. You will get a new screen when it starts. Choose the following menus on each screen as follows: Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Continue and finally choose "4."
Then find the downloaded "avastclear" and continue following the instructions from Avast.
Safe Mode startup screen
