After uninstalling avast and restarting the computer, have you surprised to notice a new and unknown process, Avast Overseer is still running in the task manager, you’re not alone. Overseer.exe is an issue that appears after you uninstall the Avast software. Overseer.exe is not essential for Windows. This happened to us also with the most recent Avast version that has UI failed to load issue on Windows 10, of course, Avast Software has fixed that, but this is something they need to look at: an Avast module or component keeps running and connects to the internet even after the uninstall of their antivirus solution.
What is Avast Overseer?
Avast Overseer is a support application developed by the Avast team to fix technical issues with their products. You’ll find this similar to Avast Emergency Update and it runs once a day to know Avast product is working properly or not and fixes the issues if it finds any.
For e.g. it checks to see Avast antivirus service is running, if it is not, initiates the repair, Overseer even fixes the broken Avast installations. The application has a small footprint, if Avast is working fine, it quits within seconds.
Avast Overseer is a scheduled task that runs from task scheduler on startup daily and according to Avast, it has its own release schedule and updates itself automatically. The application receives an updated definition file from Avast servers.
You can find this application in this location:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\AVAST Software\Overseer
Disable or remove Avast Overseer
Note: Disabling or deleting Overseer doesn’t affect Avast functionality, but you should know it comes back when you update Avast next time.
But coming to the current situation, you’ve uninstalled Avast and still seeing Avast Overseer running, here you can completely disable and remove it as it is no longer required for functioning of Windows Defender or other antivirus, here is how that can be done.
- Click on Start, search for task scheduler, click the best match or open Control Panel, search for task scheduler and launch it
- Once Task Scheduler opens, click on Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library>Avast Software
- Select Overseer, click Disable, and then Delete it after that.
Now visit C:\Program Files\Common Files\AVAST Software and delete the Overseer folder.
Done.
UPDATE: Similar to Avast, when you uninstall AVG, AVG Overseer will be left behind at C:\Program Files\Common Files\AVG\Overseer and runs as a scheduled task.
Like Avast, you can also deactivate or remove AVG Overseer scheduled task by visiting Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library > AVG.
After that, you can safely delete Overseer file by navigating to the path mentioned above.
Has that helped you?