MS Antivirus is a rogue anti-spyware program that belongs to the same family as Vitae Antivirus 2008 and Vista Antivirus 2008. MS Antivirus has the same characteristics as its predecessors; it is advertised through misleading sites, lists false infections on your computer, and requires you to purchase the program before you can remove anything. Once installed MS Antivirus will be set to run automatically when your computer starts. Once the program has started, it will automatically scan your computer and list a variety of infections that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the program. If you decide not to purchase the program, then you will then be constantly harassed with popups stating that the program has found infections and that you should register it in order to fix them. This type of behavior can cause your computer to operate slower than normal.

MS Antivirus will also occasionally display fake pop-up alerts on your computer. These alerts pretend to be a detection of an attack on your computer and the alert prompts you to activate, or purchase, the software in order to stop the attack. The attack that it identifies is one from an old infection called Blaster/Sasser. When you receive these alerts, remember not to panic as they are fake and only being shown to scare you into purchasing the software.

 

MS Antivirus screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 4 images you can view.

 

This guide will walk you through uninstalling the MS Antivirus rogue and any related malware that may be installed with it.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View MS Antivirus files.
View MS Antivirus Registry Information.

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Antivirus] C:\Program Files\MSA\MSA.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Antivirus] C:\Program Files\MSA\MSA.exe

 

Guide Updates:

08/21/08 - Initial guide creation.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for MS Antivirus 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. 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)
   
   


3. Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
   
   
4. Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
   
   
5. 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.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. 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 MS Antivirus related files.
   
   
8. 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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. 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 MSAntivirus removal process.
   
   
10. You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
    
    
11. 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.
    
    
12. 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.
    
    
13. You can now exit the MBAM program.
    

Your computer should now be free of the MSAntivirus 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 MS Antivirus Files:

c:\Program Files\MSA
c:\Program Files\MSA\MSA.cpl
c:\Program Files\MSA\MSA.exe
c:\Program Files\MSA\msa0.dat
c:\Program Files\MSA\msa1.dat
c:\WINDOWS\system32\MSA.cpl
%UserProfile%\Desktop\MSAntivirus.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/7/8, and c:\winnt\profiles\<Current User> for Windows NT.

 

Associated MS Antivirus Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AntiVirus
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MSA
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Antivirus"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Antivirus"

 

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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.