I had Brave installed. At some point, some days ago (without doing anything) the .exe file (C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe) disappeared and it was no longer possible to start it. Uninstalling was not possible (missing file). Therefore I deleted the directories related to Brave in AppData and ProgramFiles. Afterwards, after several reboots, I decided to reinstall Brave through BraveBrowserSetup.exe but it was not possible for me (the gray initialization window appears, then after a few seconds it disappears and nothing more happens). I tried to repeat the installation disabling the firewall, but nothing. I tried disabling the antivirus but nothing. The only other protection I have should be Windows “core isolation,” but even temporarily disabling this option nothing happens. What I have noticed is that C:\Program Files (x86)\BraveSoftware\Update\BraveUpdate.exe tries to communicate with the Internet (because I get a firewall notification), but it gets deleted right after that (it shows up in the directory for a split second and disappears right away).
Since it was impossible to install Brave I deleted a couple of entries in the Windows registry that referred to Brave, but nothing changed. As a side notice in services.msc there is BraveElevationService disabled as it links to C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\133.1.75.178\elevation_service.exe that doesn’t exist anymore.
OS: Windows 10