2017-05-18

AVG caused Windows failed to Start on Windows 7

Not an invention but quicky on what to do if AVG Free, get what you pay for, causes your system to be unable to reboot.

In my case I had the following:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.
File: \windows\system32\drivers\avgVmm.sys
Status: 0xc0000098
Info: windows failed to load because a critical system driver is missing, or corrupt.

I found the file, so assuming the issue was corruption or something.
Anyway, the quick fix solution is to navigate to \windows\system32\drivers directory and delete all the avg*.sys files.

Then you should be able to reboot windows, uninstall AVG, and if you want your AVG Free back, reinstall it.

Here are some useful links.




Note:
You will probably need to boot from a cd or usb drive to get to a command prompt to delete the files. I used AVG Recover and went into the File Commander under utilities (or something like that, forgot the name).