How to uninstall AntiSpyware 2008 (Removal Instructions)

Posted by Lawrence Abrams on July 16, 2008 @ 05:06 PM · Views: 30,025

 

What this infection does:

AntiSpyware 2008 is a rogue anti-spyware program from the developers as Antivirus 2009. This program is advertised through misleading and deceptive web sites that pretend to be malware scanners that find infections on your computer. They do this to scare you into thinking your infected, even though a web site can't possibly know this, in the hopes that you will download and install the AntiSpyware 2008 program. If you decide to install it, the program will scan your computer and come back with a list of security risks found on your computer that you cannot remove unless you first purchase a license of the software. It is important to remember that these people are preying on your fear and for the most part you do not have the infection they say you do.

The problem here is that you in fact do have some infections. These infections are the AntiSpyware 2008 program and the associated malware that was bundled with it. In order to remove these infections, though, you need to use a legitimate program to remove them rather than rogue product. Some of the Trojans that are bundled with this rogue will change your home page, create fake alerts on your computer, and occasionally display alerts in Internet Explorer stating that you are infected. When seeing these alerts it is important to remember that you do not have to purchase AntiSpyware 2009 in order to remove these infections. Instead read through this guide and remove it for free.

 

AntiSpyware 2008 screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 5 images you can view.

 

This guide will walk you through removing the AntiSpyware2008 program and any associated malware for free.

 

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

 

Advanced information:

View AntiSpyware 2008 files.
View AntiSpyware 2008 Registry Information.

 

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

 

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://antispyware-2008buy.com/buy.php?aff=1065
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Antispyware-2008.exe] C:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008\Antispyware-2008.exe
O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\windows\system32\ntdll64.dll
O10 - Unknown file in Winsock LSP: c:\windows\system32\ntdll64.dll

 

Guide Updates:

07/16/08 - Initial guide creation.

 

---

Automated Removal Instructions for AntiSpyware 2008 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 AntiSpyware 2008 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 AntiSpyware2008 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 AntiSpyware2008 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 AntiSpyware 2008 Files:

%Temp%\a.exe
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Antispyware 2008
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Antispyware 2008\Antispyware-2008.lnk
c:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008
c:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008\Infected
c:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008\Suspicious
c:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008\Antispyware-2008.exe
c:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008\vscan.tsi
c:\Program Files\Antispyware 2008\zlib.dll
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Antispyware-2008.lnk
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Antispyware-2008.lnk
c:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll64.dll

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.

%Temp% refers to the Windows Temp folder. By default, this is C:\Windows\Temp for Windows 95/98/ME, C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\<Current User>\LOCAL SETTINGS\Temp for Windows 2000/XP, and C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Local\Temp for Windows Vista and Windows 7.

 

Associated AntiSpyware 2008 Windows Registry Information:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Antispyware 2008
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Antispyware-2008.exe"