Computer with Windows Vista trying to update AVG

I think I really made a mistake in trying to help my grandson with his computer. He had taken it in for some repairs before the warranty expired and when it came back it wouldn't connect to the internet. A technician suggested restoring it to the factory defaults but I couldn't figure out how to to that so I took it back to another old restore point.
The internet is connecting fine but he had AVG 7.5 and of course that has expired. When we tried to install the 9.0 version it says we have to remove the old one first but the system can't find it. It shows in the add/remove programs but it can't be removed.
How do we get rid of it?

Also, the HP Advisor stopped working and another error says "Runner file name (HP Connections.exe) lacks a '-' (the app id separator). What the heck does that mean?