How to remove Real Antivirus (Uninstall Instructions)

Posted by Grinler on October 29, 2008 @ 06:27 AM · Views: 17,139

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What this programs does:

Real Antivirus is a rogue anti-spyware software that deliberately displays fake scan results in order to scare you into thinking you are infected. When Real Antivirus is installed it will be configured to start on your computer when you login to Windows. Once running, RealAV will scan your computer and list a variety of infected files that cannot be removed unless you first purchase the software. The infected files that are found, though, are all fake and do not even exist on your computer. These files are shown to scare you into thinking you are infected and hoping that this causes you to purchase their software. Unfortunately, purchasing the Real Antivirus will not help you at all, but will rather just cause you to lose money while not providing any anti-malware protection.

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

The below guides will walk you through removing Real Antivirus and any associated malware that may have been installed with it.

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

Advanced information:

View Real Antivirus files.
View Real Antivirus Registry Information.

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [RealAV.exe] C:\Program Files\RealAV\RealAV.exe

Guide Updates:

10/29/08 - Initial guide creation.

Automated Removal Instructions for Real 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
   
   


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 quick scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Real 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 RealAV 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 RealAV 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 Posting A Hijackthis Log

Associated Real Antivirus Files:

c:\Program Files\RealAV
c:\Program Files\RealAV\RealAV.exe
c:\Program Files\RealAV\vscan.tsi
c:\Program Files\RealAV\zlib.dll
c:\Program Files\RealAV\Infected
c:\Program Files\RealAV\Suspicious
%UserProfile%\Desktop\RealAV.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\RealAV
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\RealAV\RealAV.lnk
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\RealAV.lnk

Associated Real Antivirus Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RealAV
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "RealAV.exe"