Manual Removal Guide for WinDefender

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "WinDefender" manually.
Use this guide at your own risk; software should usually be better suited to remove malware, since it is able to look deeper.

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Threat Details:

Categories:

• malware

Description:

WinDefender is a rogue antispyware solution. Once executed it finds more than 30 threats but it only shows 5 names thereof. It produces annoying popups that urges the user to buy and register the application. Furthermore it changes the Internet Explorer startpage to a misleading "page cannot displayed"-site. It is related to Fraud.XPAntivirus.

Removal Instructions:

Desktop:

Please remove the following files from your desktop.
To check where they are pointing to, right-click them and choose "Properties" from the context menu appearing.

• Shortcuts named "Launch WinDefender 2008.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\WDefDemo.exe".

Autorun:

Please use Spybot-S&D, RunAlyzer or msconfig.exe to remove the following autorun entries.

• Entries named "WinDefender 2008" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\WDefDemo.exe".

Installed Software List:

You can try to uninstall products with the names listed below; for items identified by other properties or to avoid malware getting active again on uninstallation, use Spybot-S&D or RunAlyzer to locate and get rid of these entries.

• Products that have a key or property named "WinDefender 2008".

Files:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these files.

• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\data.dat".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\FwHookDrv.sys".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\HOSTS.hst".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\Manual.url".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\options.xml".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\reserve.dat".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\rules".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\Rules.txt".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\Support.url".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\svo.scf".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\temp".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\Uninstall.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\vfile".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\WDefDemo.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008\Web.url".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If WinDefender uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify files!

Important: There are more files that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D to remove them.

Folders:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these folders.

• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\WinDefender 2008".
• The directory at "<$COMMONSTARTMENU>\WinDefender 2008 Unregistered".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If WinDefender uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify folders!

Registry:

You can use regedit.exe (included in Windows) to locate and delete these registry entries.

• Delete the registry key "WinDefender 2008" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
• Delete the registry key "FwHookDrv" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\".
• Delete the registry key "FwHookDrv" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Services\".
• Delete the registry key "FwHookDrv" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Services\".
• Delete the registry value "<$LOCALSETTINGS>\Temp\delwdef2008.bat" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\".

If WinDefender uses rootkit technologies, use our RegAlyzer, RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.

Browser:

The following browser plugins or items can either be removed directly in your browser, or through the help of e.g. Spybot-S&D or RunAlyzer.

• Please check your bookmarks for links to "dns-problem.com".

Final Words:

If neither Spybot-S&D nor self help did resolve the issue or you would prefer one on one help,

1. Please read these instructions before requesting assistance,
2. Then start your own thread in the Malware Removal Forum where a volunteer analyst will advise you as soon as available.