Removing the “SystemCare Antivirus” infection
Posted by: Tim Tibbetts on 07/09/2013 06:55 AM
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I had a friend who got the SystemCare Antivirus infection yesterday and thanks to modern tools, I was able to remove it completely in 20 minutes. Here is what I did to remove it. This should work with similar named problems as well. These can be called malware, viruses or even ransomware. The name seems familiar because it sounds a lot like the legitimate programs from IObit called Advanced SystemCare Ultimate or Advanced SystemCare with Antivirus.
- A popup window when you start warning of an infection and looking for a credit card.
- Running any programs give an error that the file is infected.
- Your antivirus is no longer in the tray.
- You can’t uninstall anything.
- Nothing in control panel works.
- Internet is not working.
As you can see, add up all these symptoms and your computer is essentially useless. However, there is a well-known trick among geeks that can help anyone who finds they can’t run any scans in Windows; boot into safe mode. By doing this, Windows will start without any start-up programs or drivers essentially disabling any problems you have. I recommend doing this anytime you have an infection because some really nasty infections will rename themselves and return when you reboot. So, I can’t say it enough; always boot into safe mode to clean a suspected virus, malware, trojan or whatever. You know what? Some people run a weekly scan so do that in safe mode as well. It hurt’s nothing and can only help.
1: Start, shut down tab and restart.
2: As your computer starts to boot, tap the f8 key and keep tapping it until you get a prompt screen.
3: Choose safe mode with networking.
Your computer will take a little longer than usual to boot and once Windows starts you will get a window telling you that you are in safe mode. Close that. Now, we can fix any problems.
One of the better programs to scan with is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Download, update and scan. Remove what it find and reboot into Windows. In this one rare exception, see if everything works ok and now do a second scan from Windows normal mode just to feel better. If anything is found, then you want to repeat the steps above.
Here is a video I did on using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It’s a bit older now but it still works the same way:
Sometimes, I like to use CCleaner to remove junk files as well as unrecognized startup items although it can often be overkill, it makes me feel better. Here is a video on using CCleaner:
- A popup window when you start warning of an infection and looking for a credit card.
- Running any programs give an error that the file is infected.
- Your antivirus is no longer in the tray.
- You can’t uninstall anything.
- Nothing in control panel works.
- Internet is not working.
As you can see, add up all these symptoms and your computer is essentially useless. However, there is a well-known trick among geeks that can help anyone who finds they can’t run any scans in Windows; boot into safe mode. By doing this, Windows will start without any start-up programs or drivers essentially disabling any problems you have. I recommend doing this anytime you have an infection because some really nasty infections will rename themselves and return when you reboot. So, I can’t say it enough; always boot into safe mode to clean a suspected virus, malware, trojan or whatever. You know what? Some people run a weekly scan so do that in safe mode as well. It hurt’s nothing and can only help.
1: Start, shut down tab and restart.
2: As your computer starts to boot, tap the f8 key and keep tapping it until you get a prompt screen.
3: Choose safe mode with networking.
Your computer will take a little longer than usual to boot and once Windows starts you will get a window telling you that you are in safe mode. Close that. Now, we can fix any problems.
One of the better programs to scan with is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Download, update and scan. Remove what it find and reboot into Windows. In this one rare exception, see if everything works ok and now do a second scan from Windows normal mode just to feel better. If anything is found, then you want to repeat the steps above.
Here is a video I did on using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It’s a bit older now but it still works the same way:
Sometimes, I like to use CCleaner to remove junk files as well as unrecognized startup items although it can often be overkill, it makes me feel better. Here is a video on using CCleaner:
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