How To Remove WinPC Antivirus?
The winpc antivirus is a lesser known virus but it is just as malicious as the other malwares that attempts to feign itself as an antivirus software. The WinPC antivirus copies its interface from WinPC defender and both antivirus are simple malwares that will produce lots of fake system warnings, virus alerts and error messages. The aim is to convince you to take out your credit card and purchase the full version of the WinPC antivirus software which is just as useless and malicious. You stand to lose your credit card details on top of money used to pay for the useless winpc antivirus.
There are a number of ways for the winpc antivirus to infect your system. It can be installed when you visit warez sites or some suspicious websites that have been hacked to install the malware when you visit the site. It can also be emailed to you from spam accounts but the most recent manner for infection is via social networks where such viruses are distributed. Your friends account could be hacked and the link to the malware could be broadcast out as one of his/her updates. Clicking on such links will lead you to an installation or a warning that your site is infected by some bogus virus and you will have to install this winpc antivirus in order to delete the bogus virus. Be careful of what you click even when you are on your friend’s page or profile.
WinPC Antivirus Removal
To remove the winpc antivirus, there are a number of simple steps. You will need to kill the winpc antivirus processes running first. Press Ctrl-Alt_Del simultaneously and then select “winav.exe” and then click End Process button. This will delete the current winpc antivirus process running on your system which will stop all those pesky fake alert messages and pop-ups of virus alerts.
You will need to then delete all the winpc antivirus related registry entries. Fire up the Windows Registry Editor by keying “regedit” in the “Run” box under the Windows Start. Once your registry editor is opened, you can search for the below registry keys:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinPC Antivirus HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load "scui.cpl" HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\don't load "wscui.cpl" HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "sysav" HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center "AntiVirusDisableNotify" => 1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center "FirewallDisableNotify" => 1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center "UpdatesDisableNotify" => 1
All these registry values must be deleted so that the winpc antivirus is wipe out from the system else the malware may be restarted again in the processes.
After which you will need to delete all the winpc antivirus files as follows:
winav.exe
WinPC Antivirus.LNK
Make sure all the above steps are followed and in the future you should always update your antivirus software virus definitions so that such viruses do not infect your system. It is also important to remember that links to malicious sites do exist and can even appear under a friend’s facebook account. You should also install a firewall, if you do not have by now, to protect against any incoming traffic that can penetrate your system by exploiting any vulnerabilities to install malwares.