I recently received a laptop that had not been used in quite awhile and began to update it to my personal specs similar to what I use at my office, making sure that Windows is updated and getting the programs that I am familiar with (AVG, Malwarebytes, ARO, etc...) Windows is not showing any Anti-Virus on the system and repeatedly lets me know that there is not any installed. However during the installation of AVG I get a message saying:

"Setup has detected ewido anti-spyware or ewido anti-malware installed on your computer... You need to uninstall to proceed"

This is all fine and good until I try to find it... I have tried everything that I can think of to find and remove this program. I have searched the C: for ewido. I have checked add/remove programs for anything even resembling anti virus/malware/spyware. I found a little ewido update program and successfully uninstalled that, but can't find anything else.

I thought that maybe I could just download Ewido and learn that, but every download that I have found for it takes me to a download for AVG...

I am really frustrated and am hoping someone can help!

It would likely be located in C:\Program Files.
Also go to Start, Search, Files and Folders, be sure Advanced options to look in hidden files and folders, system folders and sub folders also have check marks in them.
Then type ewido in the search box and choose "C" drive and click search.
This will run a full search of the "C" drive for any files named Ewido. You need to open these to see what they are when found, there may be an Uninstall file there to use.
If you cannot find it that way you can also use Revo Uninstall Free to locate and Uninstall the program. It works quite well.

http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html?part=dl-6294459&subj=dl&tag=button

Thank you for the suggestions. I made sure that the hidden files and folders were checked. Nada. I looked in the C:\ program files folder. Nil. I downloaded, installed, and looked with Revo. No avail. I am rather frustrated as you might imagine. If you have any other ideas, I would love to hear them.

It would likely be located in C:\Program Files.
Also go to Start, Search, Files and Folders, be sure Advanced options to look in hidden files and folders, system folders and sub folders also have check marks in them.
Then type ewido in the search box and choose "C" drive and click search.
This will run a full search of the "C" drive for any files named Ewido. You need to open these to see what they are when found, there may be an Uninstall file there to use.
If you cannot find it that way you can also use Revo Uninstall Free to locate and Uninstall the program. It works quite well.

http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html?part=dl-6294459&subj=dl&tag=button

Download and run a system scan with HiJackThis, save the log and post it here.
http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10781312.html

EDIT: Additional Information

Just found this info. Ewido, which is now part of AVG so you would think that AVG would take care of this themselves with the install files but they don't, leaves a registry key on the computer, even if it is uninstalled.
Download and run this uninstaller and see if it makes a difference
http://www.avg.com/filedir/util/support/remove_ewido_en.exe

That said, may I further advise that you switch to a different anti-virus program? AVG doesn't get as high a ranking as either Avira or Avast.

Thank you very much for your help. I figured out that Ewido and AVG were linked somehow, but couldn't figure out what was going on with that. I ran the uninstall program and it worked perfectly. I appreciate your recommendations for the other programs too, but this is the program that the owner of the company wants on all of the machines, so I get to make sure that he gets what he wants. Thanks again!

Download and run a system scan with HiJackThis, save the log and post it here.
http://download.cnet.com/Trend-Micro-HijackThis/3000-8022_4-10781312.html

EDIT: Additional Information

Just found this info. Ewido, which is now part of AVG so you would think that AVG would take care of this themselves with the install files but they don't, leaves a registry key on the computer, even if it is uninstalled.
Download and run this uninstaller and see if it makes a difference
http://www.avg.com/filedir/util/support/remove_ewido_en.exe

That said, may I further advise that you switch to a different anti-virus program? AVG doesn't get as high a ranking as either Avira or Avast.

...but this is the program that the owner of the company wants on all of the machines, so I get to make sure that he gets what he wants.

Hey, you "gotta do what you gotta do". You might recommend he consider something else next time.

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