Manual Removal Guide for ZoneProtectAntispyware

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "ZoneProtectAntispyware" 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:

ZoneProtectAntispyware is a rogue security tool that uses false positives to force buying a license of the software. Also it installs a variant of AdBlaster adware in the background without knowledge of the user. It opens the Internet Explorer automatically and shows advertising.

Removal Instructions:

Start Menu:

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

• Items named "ZoneProtect AntiSpyware.exe.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\*.exe".

Autorun:

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

• Entries named "adprot" and pointing to "C:\windows\system32\*.exe".
• Entries named "ngpw36" and pointing to "C:\windows\system32\*.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 "ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware1.0".

Files:

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

• The file at "<$COMMONPROGRAMS>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\Uninstall ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware.lnk".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\Configurations.dat".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\DOWNLOAD.AVI".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\FINDCOMP.AVI".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\irunin.bmp".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\irunin.dat".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\irunin.ini".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\irunin.lng".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\KEYMAPDB.MDB".
• A file with an unknown location named "zoneprotectantispyware.exe".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If ZoneProtectAntispyware 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 "<$COMMONPROGRAMS>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware\Quarantine".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\ZoneProtect Anti-Spyware".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If ZoneProtectAntispyware 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 "{941CA48C-3984-4E7D-AAF8-8755ED76EB50}" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\".

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

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.