Paladin Antivirus is a rogue antivirus application related to the notorious Malware Defender. It uses scare tactics to try and get users to buy a license to the software. Paladin Antivirus gets installed on a user’s system via Trojan viruses and other malware programs that get downloaded from the internet. Once established on the user’s system, Paladin Antivirus proceeds to load as a startup program and performs various fake scans, on the system, returning false results that state that the computer is infected with range of fictitious viruses. It also goes to the extent of reporting any legitimate antivirus software that the user has already installed as a rogue program. Paladin Antivirus also gives fake warning that a remote computer is trying to hack into the system. After giving all these fake warnings, Paladin Antivirus will ask the user to purchase a license to the ‘full’ version of the software, stating that the currently installed ‘trial’ version cannot remove the detected ‘threats’. However, as Paladin Antivirus is a fake program, none of its versions are capable of scanning or cleaning any system.

In order to delete Paladin Antivirus, you must kill its processes, unregister its DLLs, delete its files and folders and remove its registry entries.

File Removal Procedures

The first step you need to complete in order to delete Paladin Antivirus is to stop the following processes:

• pav.exe
• uninstall.exe

The next step is to unregister the following DLL files:

• pavext.dll
• phook.dll

As the final step of file removal, delete the following files and folders:

• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus
• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\help.ico
• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pav.db
• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pav.exe
• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\pavext.dll
• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\phook.dll
• c:\Program Files\Paladin Antivirus\uninstall.exe
• %UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Paladin Antivirus.lnk
• %UserProfile%\Desktop\Paladin Antivirus Support.lnk
• %UserProfile%\Desktop\Paladin Antivirus.lnk
• %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus
• %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus\Paladin Antivirus Support.lnk
• %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus\Paladin Antivirus.lnk
• %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Paladin Antivirus\Uninstall Paladin Antivirus.lnk

Once you have completed these steps, Paladin Antivirus no longer resides on your file system.

Registry Removal Procedures

The final step you need to complete in order to fully delete Paladin Antivirus is to remove the following keys and settings from the Windows registry:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Paladin Antivirus
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Paladin Antivirus

Once you have removed these registry settings, you have completely deleted Paladin Antivirus from your computer. However, even if manual procedures are closely followed, chances are that a full system scan using a genuine antivirus software such as Spyware Doctor with Antivirus is still necessary in order to reveal other possible malware that may be left behind.

Conclusion

Inexperienced users are discouraged from trying to manually delete Paladin Antivirus as any wrong move on your part could cause damage to your Operating System. The best way to ensure that this rogue software is deleted efficiently and safely is to use a web based virus scanning/cleaning service such as www.onlinecomputerrepair.org.