I have been using and recommending Avast security products even since I bought my first notebook almost a decade ago. I have used it in Windows Vista, 7, 8.1 and also in Windows 10. But a few days ago, something snapped after an update to Avast Antivirus was installed on my Windows 10 PC. The PC suddenly froze, displayed a BSOD (blue screen of death) and then went into an infinite reboot loop. It won’t even boot into the safe mode. Fortunately, I had a dual boot Windows PC (with options to boot either Windows 10 or Windows 7) and I easily fixed the problem.
If you also have run into a problem like this with Avast Antivirus, then here is how can fix the reboot loop:
- If you have a dual boot PC then boot into other version of Windows and delete or rename the C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\ folder located on the partition where Windows 10 is installed.
- If you do not have a dual boot PC, then you can use a bootable Windows 10 installation disk to boot from. When the Windows installation screen appears, click on Repair your computer, then select Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Command Prompt. And give the command to rename or delete the Avast installation folder – del “C:\Program Files\Avast Software\”.
- Once the Avast installation folder is gone, you can boot into Windows 10 without any problems. Now you have to remove any remaining Avast files from the PC. You can use the AvastClear utility to completely uninstall Avast Antivirus from your PC.
After you have removed Avast Antivirus and Windows 10 starts to work properly, you can wait a month or so for Avast to update their software and then try re-installing it again. In the meanwhile, you can try some other anti-virus solutions to keep yourself protected.