Stopping a service

[silverback]

Not sure whether this posting should be here under Windows XP or Security and Backup.
Neighbour's PC contracted some malware (but he did nothing about it, even though it redirected his home page!), so yesterday, when he tried to download Avast, he didn't notice that it had been redirected to a malicious page and so, downloaded something pertaining to be Avast together with a whole pile of other software containing malware.
This stopped Avast from functioning properly - it errors saying that it can't access a DLL, but it is present in the Avast folder. I've managed to undo most of the malware courtesty of MalwareBytes Anti Malware and downloaded another copy of Avast. However, this won't install - it errors saying that it has "detected a corrupt version of Avast but the installer can't run because a service - aswSP - is currently running. Correct your PC and try again."
But I can't find this service. I've run services.msc and msconfig but can't see this service.
Can someone point me to what I need to do, please?
NOTES : On his PC, Avast does not appear in the Add/Remove Software part of Control Panel. There is no uninstall option on the Avast link in Start | All Programs. And neighbour has been running without System Restore enabled, so there are no checkpoints to revert to.

Thanks
Silverback

[HansV]

Try avast!'s Uninstall Utility:

Sometimes it´s not possible to uninstall avast! the standard way - using the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS in control panel. In this case, you can use our uninstallation utility avastclear

[silverback]

Try avast!'s Uninstall Utility:

Thanks, as usual. But just for info, how would I stop the offending service, please?

Thanks
Silverback

[HansV]

Hopefully, the Uninstall Utility will take care of that.

[Leif]

Thanks, as usual. But just for info, how would I stop the offending service, please?

Does Microsoft Windows XP - Start, stop, pause, resume, or restart a service help?

[HansV]

But that assumes that the service is listed in Services.msc. Silverback reported "But I can't find this service. I've run services.msc and msconfig but can't see this service"...

[Leif]

Sorry - you are right

Try List, start, stop Windows XP services with command line utility sc | Xinotes

[silverback]

Hopefully, the Uninstall Utility will take care of that.

It did, thanks. Heartfelt thanks from neighbour as his PC is now up and running with Avast protection.

Leif : Thanks for the heads up. Fortunately didn't need to use this route.

Many thanks
Silverback

[Claude]

Good to hear it's fixed, and, a bit late I know.

The easiest way to stop an active service in Windows XP is to activate the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Delete), select processes Tab, select the process you want to stop, but of course, you'd need to know which process.

I use Winpatrol Plus for such tasks because, as a registered user, you are able to identify an unknown process. There's a mobile version which I carry with me for onsite customer support visits.