Remove Win7 AV (Uninstall Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on September 3, 2010 @ 07:44 PM · Views: 12,066
What this infection does:
Win7 AV is a rogue anti-spyware program that is installed
through the use of malware and fake online anti-malware scanners. When browsing
the web you may be shown a pop-up that states that your computer is infected.
When you click on this pop-up you will brought to a site that shows a page that
pretends to be a fake online anti-malware scanner, but in reality is just an
advertisement. When the advertisement is finished it will state that your computer
is infected and that you should download and install Win7 AV in order to protect
your computer.
When Win7 AV is installed it will be configured to start automatically when
Windows starts. Once started, it will scan your computer and report that there
are numerous infections, but will state it will not remove them until you first
purchase the program. The reality is that the infections it shows on your computer
are either fake or legitimate programs that should not be removed from your
computer. Therefore, do not remove anything that Win7 AV states are infections.
Screenshot of Win7 AV
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 2 images you can view.
While Win7 AV is running it will also display fake security alerts while it
is running. These alerts will contain messages that attempt to make you think
that your computer is severely infected or that it is sending personal and private
information to a remote computer. Win7 AV will also hijack your Internet Explorer,
Firefox, or Chrome web browsers. When browsing the web with these browsers,
Win7 AV will state that the site you are visiting is infected or has a security
risk. These fake browser messages are:
In Firefox:
Reported Attack Site!
This web site has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based
on your security preference.
In Chrome:
Warning: visit this site may harm your computer
In Internet Explorer:
This is a reported phishing website
Internet Explorer has determined that this is a report phishing website. Phishing
websites impersonate other sites and attempt to trick you into revealing personal
of financial information.
Just like the scan results, these infection alerts and browser alerts are all
fake and should be ignored.
Without a doubt, Win7 AV was created to trick you into thinking that you have
a computer infection so that you will then buy the program. It goes without
saying that you should definitely not purchase this program, and if you have,
you should have contact your credit card company to dispute the charge. To remove
Win7 AV please use the removal guide below.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View Win7 AV files.
View Win7 AV Registry Information.
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
O2 - BHO: Windows Defendor Web-module - {C9C42510-9B41-42c1-9DCD-7282A2D07C61} - C:\Windows\system32\windefWebModule.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Win7 AV] C:\Program Files\Win7 AV\Win7 AV.exe
O23 - Service: Windows Disk Defender (windiskdefend) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\windiskdefend.exe
Guide Updates:
09/03/10 - Initial guide creation.
09/04/10 - Updated to include further files and registry information.
Automated Removal Instructions for Win7 AV 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
Win7 AV
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
Win7 AV
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
Win7 AV
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
Win7 AV
. 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
Win7 AV
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
Win7AV
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
Win7AV
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 Win7 AV Files:
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\AxInterop.SHDocVw.dl
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\base001.dat
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\base002.dat
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\base003.dat
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\Interop.SHDocVw.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\sbhostcl.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\svhostesl.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\svhostqt.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\VmDetectLibrary.dll
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\Win7 AV.exe
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\Win7Browser.exe
%ProgramFiles%\Win7 AV\Win7Common.dll
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Win7 AV.lnk
C:\Windows\System32\windefWebModule.dll
C:\Windows\System32\windiskdefend.exe
C:\Windows\System32\windiskdefend.InstallState
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.
%ProgramFiles% refers to the Program Files folder. The path to this folder is C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files (X86)\ depending on whether the version of Windows or the program being installed is 32-bit or 64-bit.
Associated Win7 AV Windows Registry Information:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{C9C42510-9B41-42c1-9DCD-7282A2D07C61}
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{C9C42510-9B41-42c1-9DCD-7282A2D07C61}
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Win7 AV
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Application\windiskdefend
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Application\Windows Disk Defender
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\windiskdefend
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform\w7avf
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Win7 AV
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