By Getting your computer infected with virus and spyware is something that might happen quite easily if you don’t use a powerful antivirus program. One of these malicious programs you might get your computer infected with is Privacy Protection. If you’re among those who had the bad luck to get this virus on their computer, then read on as this post will provide you with the necessary steps you have to follow in order to ged rid of Privacy Protection.
Privacy Protection is a rogue anti-spyware program that displays all kinds of false scan results, alerts and warnings in order to make you think that there’s a serious problem with your computer. Once the infection is installed on your computer, it will be configured to start automatically.
It will display fake scan results that will contain numerous infections. Privacy Protection will tell you that in order to remove these infections, you will have to buy the entire package. Don’t let yourself fooled by this since the infections listed are fake and there’s nothing wrong with your computer.
Privacy Protection will also stop your from running most executable files on your machine. You will receive a message telling you that the program is infected whenever you try to run an executable. Ignore all these false warnings since the purpose of them is to trick you into purchasing the whole Privacy Protection package. Don’t buy it and if you’ve already had, then make sure you contact your credit card company and tell them that this is a scam and a virus infection.
To get rid of Privacy Protection, you will have to follow the steps below:
1. As in the case of other virus removal guides, the first thing to do is to print out these instructions as you will have to close all the open windows and running programs at a certain moment in the cleaning procedure. It is advisable to use another computer to download the programs and tools that are needed for the Privacy Protection removal. That’s beacuse the infection may not allow you to do this on your infected computer. Use a CD/DVD, external drive or USB flash drive to transfer these tools on your computer.
2. The next thing to do is to reboot your computer into Safe Mode With Networking by turning it off and then on. Immediately when something appears on the screen, tap the F8 key. You’ll get to a menu with several options. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to get to the Safe Mode With Newtorking option and then press Enter.
When Windows boots up, you will have to login as the user you were logged in with in the normal Windows mode.
3. You will have to run TDSSKiller before going any further because Privacy Protection is known as being bundled with the TDSS rootkit infection. If TDSSKiller requires you to reboot, then allow it to do so and after you reboot, you will have to reboot back in Safe Mode With Networking.
4. After this, you will have to download Rkill in order to end all the processes that belong to Privacy Protection. When the download completes, you will have to double-click on the eXplorer.exe icon in order to stop all the processes related to Privacy Protection.
You might receive fake warnings that Rkill is an infection but it’s just Privacy Protection trying to protect itself from programs that would remove it. Leave these warnings open and ignore them. Do not reboot your computer after Rkill ends up the malware programs.
5. Now you will have to download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and save it to your desktop. When the download finishes, you will have to close all the running programs and windows.
6. To start the installation of MBAM, you will have to double-click on the mbam-setup.exe icon. Follow the installation and do not change the default settings. Just make sure you check the Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware options before the installation finishes. Click OK after that. Do not reboot the computer.
7. Go to the Scanner tab, check the Perform Full Scan option and then hit Scan. MBAM will now start to scan your computer for all the files related to Privacy Protection. When the scanning process finishes, you will see a meesage telling you about this.
8. Go back to the main Scanner screen and click on Show Results. Select all the infections found and then hit Remove Selected. MBAM will now delete all of these files and registry keys and add them to the program’s quarantine. If MBAM asks you to reboot after this, then allow it to do so.
9. You will see the scan log displayed in Notepad. Review it and then close the Notepad and exit MBAM.
If you’ve followed the steps above carefully without skipping any of them, then your computer should be free of the Privacy Protection infection. If the antivirus program you’re currently using is not powerful enough, then it is advisable to purchase the PRO version of Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. This way you’ll avoid this kind of situations in the future.