How to remove WinAnonymous (Removal Instructions)

Posted by Grinler on February 24, 2008 @ 02:17 PM · Views: 8,964

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What this programs does:

WinAnonymous is a rogue privacy program that is a clone of YourPrivacyGuard and PrivacyConductor. Once installed, WinAnonymous will scan your computer and state that you have a variety of privacy issues on your computer and the only way to remove them is to purchase a license of the software. The issues that are found, though, are either exaggerated or fake and should be ignored as they are being shown only to scare you into purchasing the software. Another byproduct of having this software installed is an occasional popup stating that you have no antimalware software installed and that you should install another rogue software called WinSecureAV. These warnings are shown even if you have antimalware software installed. The current text of this warning is:

It seems that your computer is not protected from viruses, spyware and adware. They may cause loss or disclosure of your private information, unpredictable system behavior, freezes, crashes or permanent damage to your PC.
WinSecureAv can perform quick and absolutely FREE scan of your system for viruses and other infections.
Would you like WinSecureAv to scan your PC now? (Recommended)

A screen shot of the WinAnonymous program and the warning are shown below.

WinAnonymous Screenshot

Exaggerated Security popup stating you should download WinSecureAV

This guide will walk you through removing the WinAnonymous program.

Threat Classification:

• Information on Rogue Programs & Scareware

Entries for this program found in the Add or Remove Programs control panel:

WinAnonymous 1.1.47.0

Tools Needed for this fix:

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [WinAnonymous] C:\Program Files\WinAnonymous\GDC.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [gdcw] C:\Program Files\WinAnonymous\data\GDCW.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Salestart] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\WinAnonymous\stm.exe" dm=http://winanonymous.com ad=http://winanonymous.com sd=http://ilp.winanonymous.com

Guide Updates:

02/24/08 - Initial guide creation.

Automated Removal Instructions for WinAnonymous 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 WinAnonymous 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 WinAnonymous 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 WinAnonymous 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