One of the more dangerous rogue anti-malware programs circulating through the World Wide Web today, Antivirus 2010 Security Centre is a notorious program that attempts to dupe users in to purchasing a software license. This rogue program installs itself on user systems with the help of Trojans that get downloaded through security loopholes in the computer. Once installed, Antivirus 2010 Security Centre proceeds to load up whenever Windows boots and to perform numerous fake malware scans on the computer, reporting heavy amounts of malware activity on the computer which isn’t true. Fake pop-ups generated from the Windows Taskbar add to the user’s worries. The aim of all this activity is to try and get the user to pay for the ‘full’ version of Antivirus 2010 Security Centre by convincing them that the currently installed ‘trial’ version is insufficient to remove the detected ‘threats’. However, you should always remember that the detected fake ‘threats’ don’t really, exist, and that Antivirus 2010 Security Centre could never remove any real threats to your computer.
If you should ever find an instance of this dangerous malware application on your computer, you should immediately initiate Antivirus 2010 Security Centre removal. In order to remove Antivirus 2010 Security Centre, you need to stop its processes, unregister its DLLs, delete its files and folders and remove its registry entries.
File Removal Procedures
The first the step you need to take for Antivirus 2010 Security Centre removal is to stop the following process from executing:
- [random characters].exe
The next step you need to take in Antivirus 2010 Security Centre removal is to unregister the following DLL file:
- [random characters].dll
Next, it is necessary to delete the following files and folders from your hard disk in order to delete Antivirus 2010 Security Centre:
Windows XP:
- %Documents and Settings%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre
- %Documents and Settings%\All Users\Desktop\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre.lnk
- %Documents and Settings%\All Users\Application Data\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre
- c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\[random characters].dll
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\[random characters].exe
- c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\.wtav
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\mswmqnei.dll
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\us?rinit.exe
Windows Vista/Windows 7:
- %Documents and Settings%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre
- %Documents and Settings%\All Users\Desktop\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre.lnk
- %Documents and Settings%\All Users\AppData\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre
- %Documents and Settings%All Users\AppData
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\[random characters].dll
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\[random characters].exe
- %Documents and Settings%All Users\AppData.wtav
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\mswmqnei.dll
- c:\WINDOWS\system32\us?rinit.exe
Once the above steps have been completed, no instances of Antivirus 2010 Security Centre reside on your hard disk any longer. However, due to the prevalent nature of this rogue software it is recommended to scan the entire computer using professional antivirus products such as Spyware Doctor with Antivirus in an attempt to identify any remaining malicious components.
Registry Removal Procedures
Although you may have deleted all the files and folders, this does not ensure complete Antivirus 2010 Security Center removal. In order to completely remove Antivirus 2010 Security Centre, you need to remove the following keys and settings from the Windows Registry:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Antivirus 2010 Security Centre
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\[random characters]
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[random characters]
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\userinit
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Interface\[35c95ec8-f789-9a3a-375c-bdb89a3684fd]
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[9CB00F85-D96F-1C82-F5A4-A31D57D6528D]
Now it is safe to say that you have managed to completely remove Antivirus 2010 Security Centre from your computer.
Conclusion
Manual Antivirus 2010 Security Centre removal is not recommended for inexperienced users as any mistake made during removal could cause heavy damage to the computer’s operating system. Inexperienced users are therefore advised to use a web-based repair service such as www.onlinecomputerrepair.org or legitimate antivirus software such as Spyware Doctor with Antivirus for safe Antivirus 2010 Security Centre removal.