AVG Antivirus 2011 is a rogue anti-spyware program from the same family as AVG 8. This computer infection is named and should not be confused with the legitimate anti-virus program called AVG Anti-virus. This rogue is promoted through web sites that pretend to be online anti-malware scanners, but are instead advertisements that when finished state your computer is infected. This fake scanner will then prompt you to download and install AVG Anti-Virus 2011 on to your computer in order to protect it. It should be noted that these fake online scanners are just an advertisement that have absolutely no way of knowing what is running on your computer. In fact they will show the same infection results to anyone who visits the page. Therefore, do not be concerned by what these online scanners show you.

 

AVG Antivirus 2011 screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 8 images you can view.

 

When AVG Anti-Virus 2011 is installed it will be configured to start automatically when Windows starts. Once started it will perform a scan on your computer and when finished state that it is infected with a variety of malware. If you attempt to use the program to remove any of the malware it finds, though, it will state that you first need to purchase the program before it will remove anything. This is a complete scam as the scan results are all fake and many of the listed files are actually legitimate files that if removed could cause problems for your computer. Therefore, do not manually remove any of the items it displays in its scan results.

While AVG Anti-Virus 2011 is running it will also display alerts and warnings that attempt to scare you into thinking your computer has a serious computer security problem. These alerts will state that personal information is being stolen, active malware has been found, or that you are using unlicensed software. The text of some of these alerts are:

Warning!
Once installed on your machine, NetPumper may start monitoring your web browsing habits, such as what pages you usually load and what search terms you usually type in the search page. NetPumper may also deliver excessive pop-up advertisements even when you are not browsing the Internet. NetPumper also an ability to slow down your computer performance by using your hard drive recourses in order to deliver advertisements on your computer screen.

Warning! Identity theft attempt detected!
Attacker IP: <random IP address>
Attack Target: Microsoft Corp. Keys
Description: Remote host tries to get access to your personal information.

AVG Antivirus 2011 will also attempt to protect itself by not allowing you to run various programs that may assist in removing it. When you attempt to run these types of programs, AVG Anti-Virus 2011 will terminate it and then state that the file is infected. The text of the infection alert is:

Warning! Active Virus Detected!
Threat Detected: Email-Worm.Zhelatin
Infected file: <random file name>
Action taken: Application Blocked
Description: Worm Email-Worm.Zhelatin.vy is virus-like malware with destructive code, and is able to mutate, replacing its own code by itself. This makes Email-Worm.Zhelatin.vy very dangerous, hard to find, and difficult to delete. Like most viruses, worm Email-Worm-Zhelatin.vy may spread to other computers by secretly emailing themselves to Internet users in your address book.

Just like the fake scan results, all of the above security alerts are fake and only being shown to scare you into purchasing the program.

Last, but not least, AVG Antivirus 2011 will hijack Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, or Safari so that a different program is launched the displays a security alert. The text of the alert is:

About Internet Explorer Emergency Mode
Your PC is infected with malicious software and browse couldn't be launched

You may use Internet Explorer in Emergency mode - internal service browser of Microsoft Windows system with limited usability.

Notice: Some sites refuse connection with Internet Explorer in Emergency Mode. In such case system warning page will be showed to you.

Just like the fake infection warnings, alerts, and scan results, these browser messages are all fake and your normal browsers will be restored when you follow the steps in the guide below.

Without a doubt, AVG Antivirus 2011 was created for one reason; to scare you into thinking your computer has a security problem so that you will then purchase the program. It goes without saying that you should not purchase this program, and if you already have, please contact your credit card company to dispute the charge because the program is a scam and a computer infection. Finally, to remove AVG Anti-Virus 2011 and any related malware, please you use the removal guide below.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View AVG Antivirus 2011 files.
View AVG Antivirus 2011 Registry Information.

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [AVG Antivirus 2011] C:\Program Files\AVG Antivirus 2011\avg.exe

 

Guide Updates:

01/28/11 - Initial guide creation.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for AVG Antivirus 2011 using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware:

 

1. Print out these instructions as we will need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
   
   
2. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking. To do this, turn your computer off and then back on and immediately when you see anything on the screen, start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Eventually you will be brought to a menu similar to the one below:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select Safe Mode with Networking and press Enter on your keyboard. If you are having trouble entering safe mode, then please use the following tutorial: How to start Windows in Safe Mode
   
   Windows will now boot into safe mode with networking and prompt you to login as a user. Please login as the same user you were previously logged in with in the normal Windows mode. Then proceed with the rest of the steps.
   
   
3. Now we must first end the processes that belong to AVG Antivirus 2011 and clean up some Registry settings so they do not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please download RKill to your desktop from the following link.
   
   RKill Download Link - (Download page will open in a new tab or browser window.)
   
   When at the download page, scroll down and click on the click on the link labeled eXplorer.exe download link. When you are prompted where to save it, please save it on your desktop.
   
   
4. Once it is downloaded, double-click on the eXplorer.exe icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with AVG Antivirus 2011 and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just a fake warning given by AVG Antivirus 2011 when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that rkill can terminate AVG Antivirus 2011 . So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions of RKill from the rkill download page. All of the files are renamed copies of RKill, which you can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new browser window or tab.
   
   Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.
   
   
5. Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
   
   Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)
   
   
6. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
7. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
8. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button.
   
   
9. MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for AVG Antivirus 2011 related files.
    
    
11. MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the AVG Anti-Virus 2011 removal process.
    
    
13. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
14. A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
    
    
15. When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
    
    
16. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    
    
17. As many rogues and other malware are installed through vulnerabilities found in out-dated and insecure programs, it is strongly suggested that you use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs on your computer. A tutorial on how to use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs can be found here:
    
    How to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Your computer should now be free of the AVG Anti-Virus 2011 program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.

If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:

Preparation Guide For Use Before Using Malware Removal Tools and Requesting Help

 

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Associated AVG Antivirus 2011 Files:

c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\AVG Antivirus 2011\
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\AVG Antivirus 2011\AVG Antivirus 2011.lnk
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\AVG Antivirus 2011\Uninstall.lnk
c:\Program Files\AVG Antivirus 2011\
c:\Program Files\AVG Antivirus 2011\avg.exe
c:\WINDOWS\system32\iesafemode.exe
%UserProfile%\Desktop\AVG Antivirus 2011.lnk
%Temp%\OQ4C92F6.exe

File Location Notes:

%UserProfile% refers to the current user's profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User> for Windows 2000/XP, C:\Users\<Current User> for Windows Vista/7/8, and c:\winnt\profiles\<Current User> for Windows NT.

%Temp% refers to the Windows Temp folder. By default, this is C:\Windows\Temp for Windows 95/98/ME, C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\<Current User>\LOCAL SETTINGS\Temp for Windows 2000/XP, and C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Local\Temp in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

 

Associated AVG Antivirus 2011 Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\A88246
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mon246
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\chrome.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\firefox.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\iexplore.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\opera.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\safari.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "AVG Antivirus 2011" = 'C:\Program Files\AVG Antivirus 2011\avg.exe'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform "WinNT-A8I 28.01.2011"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\chrome.exe "Debugger" = 'iesafemode.exe -sb'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\firefox.exe "Debugger" = 'iesafemode.exe -sb'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\iexplore.exe "Debugger" = 'iesafemode.exe -sb'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\opera.exe "Debugger" = 'iesafemode.exe -sb'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\safari.exe "Debugger" = 'iesafemode.exe -sb'

 

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BleepingComputer.com can not be held responsible for problems that may occur by using this information. If you would like help with any of these fixes, you can ask for malware removal assistance in our Virus, Trojan, Spyware, and Malware Removal Logs forum.

If you have any questions about this self-help guide then please post those questions in our Am I infected? What do I do? and someone will help you.