Installing Anti-virus issue (Support round 2!)

[Tymon]

Round 2 for you geniuses!

When I was having my network problem earlier I thought it may be my antivirus (Avira AntiVir) causing it, so I tried to uninstall it.

What happened when trying to uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs was "This program may already be uninstalled. to remove it from the list, press yes"

Not thinking, I pressed yes.

Didn't do anything, so again not thinking, I deleted the /Avira directory in Program files, and deleted any trace of it from the registry.

Figured it was uninstalled and moved on.

Fast forward to now. I fixed my network problem, and want to reinstall the package. The issue now is that windows still thinks its installed, and so when trying to install it, it gives the error "It seems there is already an instance of Avira AntiVir installed on your computer, please remove this and reinstall"

Sure, no problem, IF IT WAS IN THE LIST

So basically I can't uninstall because of an error I made earlier, and can't reinstall because of my inability to uninstall.

Do you guys have any idea how to get windows to stop thinking it's still on my computer? This applies to other anti-virus programs too, because Security Center still thinks it's protecting me, therefore won't recognize Kaspersky when I installed it.

This is windows XP, by the way

 

[Acks]

I guess try to see if you can use the add/remove to reinstall. That, or it might be that it's truly not gone from the registry.

 

[Tymon]

the ghost of programs past?

lol, maybe. i'll try to find it tomorrow morning.

 

[Arctyrael]

Are you able to repair the install? Then really remove it? Otherwise, see if you can find a remover utility targetted for that antivirus program. I doubt something like Uninstaller! 2007 would find it, but you can try that too.

 

[Tymon]

bump, Uninstaller! 2008 didn't find anything.

 

[Arctyrael]

I know Norton's removal programs exist, what about ones specifically for your old AV package?

 

[Tymon]

fixed it by completely wiping my registry back to before I installed it the first time

 

[Arctyrael]

Innovative.