If you’ve installed Avast free antivirus on your computer, Avast self-defense module also comes installed with it and enabled by default. If you’re wondering what is this Avast self-module? And why is it for?, Here is the article that sheds light on these questions.
Its normal that malware and viruses try to delete antivirus or uninstall security programs without user consent, to prevent malware from removing Avast, security vendor has included Self-Defense module which prevents Avast uninstall and shows a dialog to the user if its uninstall is initiated, here user need to click “Yes” button to proceed uninstalling Antivirus or clicking on “No” will make no changes to the system and uninstall of Avast will be stopped.
What to do when instup.exe (Avast Antivirus installer) runs for longer time?
You can compare Avast SD module something similar to CAPTCHA on blogs as we need to type the answer to prove we are humans before posting the comment. Avast users here need to appreciate Avast for this security setting because we don’t find them included in other antiviruses at least for free Antivirus of Avira and AVG (Update: AVG also offers it).
Disabling Avast Self-Defense module
However if you don’t want to encounter this dialog before removing Avast, you can disable it here is how
1. Avast User interface > Settings > Troubleshooting> uncheck for “Enable Avast Self-defense module”
2. Click OK to save the changes.
For the following situations you need to disable it, otherwise you always need to keep it as enabled.
Fix Avast’s ‘HTMLayout.dll can not be loaded properly to Start GUI’ [Updated]
Fix Avast’s Error ‘Setup is already running. Please try to start the setup later.’
