How to remove RapidAntivirus 2009 (Uninstall Instructions)

Posted by Lawrence Abrams on October 10, 2008 @ 10:58 AM · Views: 26,669

 

What this infection does:

RapidAntivirus is a rogue anti-spyware software from the same family as Antivir64 and Power Antivirus 2009. Like its predecessors, RapidAntivirus is advertised through the use of pop-ups shown when visiting certain sites. These pop-ups state that your computer is infected and that you should run an anti-malware scanner. If you click on the pop-up you will be brought to a page that shows an advertisement pretending to be an online anti-malware scanner. Once this advertisement is finished, it will display a fake scan result window stating that your computer is heavily infected and that you should download RapidAntivirus in order to protect your computer.

If you decide to download and install RapidAntivirus, the installation program will configure it to start automatically when you logon to Windows. Once running, the program will scan your computer and display a variety of infections that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the software. The problem is that the infections that it finds are perfectly legitimate programs. In fact, if you delete some of the ones shown it may cause problems with the proper operation of Windows. For example, in our tests RapidAntivirus stated that MalwareBytes' Anti-malware is Keylogger.Stawin and that C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe is Spyware.Activitykey, both of which are safe programs.

While running, you may also receive firewall alerts when browsing the web. These firewall alerts will state that Internet Explorer is infected and that you should register RapidAntivirus to protect yourself. Similar to the fake scan results, these firewall alerts are just another tactic being used to scare you into thinking you are infected. Knowing that these alerts are fake, you should ignore them and not purchase the software.

 

RapidAntivirus screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 10 images you can view.

 

This guide will walk you through removing the Rapid Antivirus rogue privacy program and any associated malware that may have been installed with it.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View RapidAntivirus files.
View RapidAntivirus Registry Information.

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - Startup: Rapid Antivirus.lnk = C:\Program Files\Rapid Antivirus\Rapid Antivirus.exe

 

Guide Updates:

10/08/08 - Initial guide creation.
04/14/09 - Updated for new files.

 

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Automated Removal Instructions for RapidAntivirus 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 RapidAntivirus 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 RapidAntivirus 2009 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 RapidAntivirus 2009 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 RapidAntivirus Files:

Note: Some of the folder names may be different.

%UserProfile%\Application Data\Rapid Antivirus
%UserProfile%\Application Data\install_511_MHw0MXwwfHx8fHx8fHw_
%UserProfile%\Application Data\install_511_MHw0MXwwfHx8fHx8fHw_\base.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\install_511_MHw0MXwwfHx8fHx8fHw_\base2.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\install_511_MHw0MXwwfHx8fHx8fHw_\Desc.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\install_511_MHw0MXwwfHx8fHx8fHw_\spline.dat
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Rapid Antivirus\Rapid Antivirus.ini
C:\Windows\System32\RapidAntivirus.exe
C:\Windows\System32\rp-config.xml

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.

 

Associated RapidAntivirus Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Rapid Antivirus