How to Remove GuardPCs | GuardPCs Removal Guide
GuardPCs looks like the latest entry from the wini family of rogues. (They just keep churning out new ones every other day it seems.) They’re using the same template these days of course, just the names change. This one, as the others, is pushed through bogus video codec or flash player updates. Note that I said BOGUS codecs or updates…. typically someone will be searching for the latest hot new video that everyone seems to be talking about and they’ll come across a site that claims to have it, but darn the luck, you have to download this update (wink wink) to be able to see it. There you have just bit the fat juicy worm that was bait and you have been hooked. At that point their frustrating software starts to invade your system and you held the door open for it. It will now pop up many alerts and warnings and complaints about your computer security (or lack thereof) and will scan your machine and claim that you have viruses which it is unable to remove until you purchase it. As you can see this is a scam, merely a ploy to separate you from your money. Read on for how to remove guardpcs.
First up, try visiting the control panel and add/remove programs to see if you can uninstall guardpcs the appropriate way. If you are fortunate enough that this works, then congratulations! Now, proceed to scan your machine with either malwarebytes antimalware or superantispyware and then a reputable antivirus application such as avg/avira/trendmicro or the like.
If that didn’t work you will still need to get a malware remover such as malwarebytes antimalware or superantispyware. I have a link to malwarebytes antimalware on my virus removal toolkit page. While you’re there you may also wish to download process explorer as you may make use of it later in the guardpcs removal process.
If you are unable to install malwarebytes antimalware (or superantispyware) you may try the following tricks. 1) rename the installer from mbam-setup.exe to something else such as iexplore.exe and then retry the install, update and scan. 2) reboot into safe mode (with networking) and try to install (possibly also using trick #1). 3) follow the next step which will be killing off the running processes associated with guardpcs and then retry the install, update and scan with malwarebytes or superantispyware.
The following processes are associated with guardpcs and should be killed off using the task manager. If you are unable to launch the task manager you may try the following tricks: 1) copy the task manager executable to the desktop and then rename it (taskmgr.exe) to something else…. firefox.exe and then launch it and kill off the listed processes. 2) reboot into safe mode and see if the programs are running, if not, install from safe mode (with networking for updates). 3) use process explorer instead of task manager to kill off the following processes:
guardpcs.exe
uninstall.exe
RANDOM.exe
Some of the filenames above (and below) are created randomly as the software is installed on your system. You need to use the patterns you see on your system along with the file locations given below to decide which applications to kill off.
The following files and folders are associated with guardpcs and should be deleted in order to remove guardpcs:
%docs%\All Users\Desktop\GuardPcs.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\GuardPcs
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\GuardPcs\1 GuardPcs.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\GuardPcs\2 Homepage.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\GuardPcs\3 Uninstall.lnk
%progfiles%\GuardPcs Software
%progfiles%\GuardPcs Software\GuardPcs
%progfiles%\GuardPcs Software\GuardPcs\GuardPcs.exe
%progfiles%\GuardPcs Software\GuardPcs\uninstall.exe
%win%\System32\RANDOM.exe
%tmp%\RANDOM.exe
After the above files have been deleted you have completed the manual removal of guardpcs and you should follow this up with a scan from the malware removals listed above (malwarebytes antimalware or superantispyware) or another TRUSTED antimalware application. Then you should follow that up with a scan from a trusted antivirus application (norton, mcafee, avg, avira, trendmicro, etc.)