Uninstalling anti virus software on a computer system is sometimes not a trivial task as they tend to add components deep into the system to provide protection from various threats PC users face these days.
The need for anti virus software removal tools arises if the default removal process fails, for instance if the installation itself did not complete correctly.
This leads to a messed up computer system usually that could throw all kinds of errors at the user. It could also break other anti virus software either during installation or usage, for instance if the new program cannot be installed before the old one (or what is left of it) is removed first.
So-called anti virus removal tools have been created to remove traces of anti virus software effectively from the computer system without relying on the official uninstallation routine.
They run a series of processes that delete files, Registry settings and other parameters or options that have been installed by the antivirus software during installation.
Below is a collection of anti virus software removal tools that have been created by developers of said tools but also by third-parties.
First-party removal tools
- Avira Registry Cleaner
- Avast Removal Tool
- AVG Remover
- Bullguard Uninstall Tool
- Bitdefender Uninstallation Tool
- eScan Removal Tool
- ESET Uninstaller
- F-Secure Uninstallation Tool
- G Data AVCleaner
- K7 Uninstallation Tool
- Kaspersky Removal Tool
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Clean Uninstallation Tool
- McAfee Consumer Products Removal
- Microsoft One Care Uninstall Cleanup Tool
- Norton Removal Tool
- Norton Security Scan Removal
- Panda Anti Virus Uninstaller
- Panda Cloud Internet Protection uninstaller
- Trend Micro Titanium and older programs
- Zonealarm
Third-party removal tools
- Antivirus Remover
- AppRemover
- ESET AV Remover
Manual Removal Instructions
- Avira
- Comodo Internet Security
- Lavasoft
- Microsoft Security Essentials
- Sophos
- Spybot Search and Destroy
- SuperAntiSpyware
- Vipre Antivirus and Internet Security
- Webroot
Did we miss antivirus software uninstallation tools in the list? Let us know in the comments.
Update: The programs are regularly updated to keep up with the yearly new releases. It can happen that developers change the download urls of the programs when they release a new version. We try to keep up with the ever changing versions that get released. Some links may lead to pages that do not exist anymore. Please let us know about those in the comments so that we can fix them.
Update 2: We have updated a couple of links and added a few new ones to the list.