Remove AWM Antivirus (Uninstall Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on August 27, 2010 @ 12:12 PM · Views: 4,907
What this infection does:
AWM Antivirus is a rogue anti-virus program that is installed
on your computer by other Trojans. Once installed AWM Antivirus will be configured
to start automatically when Windows starts. Once started it will scan your computer
and state that there are numerous infections present. It will state, though,
that it will not remove any programs until you first purchase it. As all of
the infections it finds are fake, you should not attempt to delete any of the
files it states are infections.
AWM Antivirus screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 3 images you can view.
While AWM Antivirus is running it will also display messages that attempt to
make you think your computer has a serious computer infection. These messages
also imply that AWM Antivirus is being downloaded and installed by Microsoft
Windows in order to protect your computer. The text of these messages are:
Your computer is infected! Windows detected
spyware infection!
It is recommended to use special antispyware tools to prevent dataloss. Windows
will now download and install the most up-to-date antispyware for you.
System warning!
Intercepting programs that may compromise your privacy and harm your system
have been detected on your PC. It's highly recommended you scan your PC right
now.
Just like the san results, these infection alerts are all fake and should be
ignored.
As you can see, AWM Antivirus was developed to scare you into thinking that
you are infected so that you will then purchase the program. Please do not purchase
this program, and if you already have, please contact your credit card company
and dispute the charges. To remove the AWM Antivirus please use the removal
guide below.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View AWM Antivirus files.
View AWM Antivirus Registry Information.
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [awm] %AppData%\AWM\AWM.exe
Guide Updates:
08/24/10 - Initial guide creation.
Automated Removal Instructions for AWM Antivirus using Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
- Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is
open later in the fix.
- It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow
you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then
you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer
and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files
via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.
- Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to
AWM Antivirus
so that it does 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, click on the Download Now button
labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted
where to save it, please save it on your desktop.
- Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe
icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with
AWM Antivirus
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
AWM Antivirus
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
AWM Antivirus
. 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.
- Now you should 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)
- Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including
this one.
- Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe.
This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
- 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. If MalwareBytes' prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
- 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.
- 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
AWM Antivirus
related files.
- 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.
- 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
AWM Antivirus
removal process.
- You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should
click on the Show Results button.
- 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.
- 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.
- You can now exit the MBAM program.
- 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
AWM Antivirus
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
Associated AWM Antivirus Files:
%AppData%\AWM\
%AppData%\AWM\AWM.exe
%UserProfile%\Desktop\AWM Antivirus.lnk
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, and c:\winnt\profiles\<Current User> for Windows NT.
%AppData% refers to the current users Application Data folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>\Application Data for Windows 2000/XP. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Roaming.
Associated AWM Antivirus Windows Registry Information:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AWM
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "awm"
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