Over the past year I’ve been uninstalling AVG and replacing it with Microsoft Security Essentials. Free antivirus is always a shifting topic; it seems like they all stop the same viruses, and they all let the same ones get through (hello, FakeAntivirus scam program, is there anyone who can stop you from installing)? But I’ve settled for now on MSE; I like that it’s lightweight and the interface doesn’t get in your face or try to get you to upgrade.

As I’ve been uninstalling AVG, though, I’ve been running into the bug where an error pops up during the uninstall. It’s just a generic error message saying the program couldn’t be uninstalled, but when you go into View Details you see this:

Error: Connecting to item registry root HKCU (username) failed. Access is denied

I found the solution for this one in a few places, but the simplest writeup seems to be over at thejimgaudet.com. Basically, you need to go into the C:\Documents and Settings folder (this is on Windows XP obviously) and delete all the loose files in there. There are some .LOG files in there, one for each user, and the problem is caused by something that is cached in one of those files. Deleting the file clears out the problem, and then you can uninstall AVG.

Tags: antivirus, avg, windows xp

This entry was posted on April 10, 2011 at 5:23 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Errors Windows Windows XP by Scott Schrantz No Comments Yet