How to Remove ProtectPCs | ProtectPCs Removal Guide
ProtectPCs is a rogue antivirus application from the Wini family of rogues. It will push itself through claims of it being a video codec update or flash player update. Usually these appear on a site that shows up in the search results for whatever latest greatest sought after video clip may be making the top search traffic. Once installed on your system this rogue will pop up many complaints about your system security (or lack thereof) and will claim that many of the files on your computer are infected with viruses. It is important to not purchase this software (as that’s the only way they claim your system will be fixed), but read on for how to remove proctectpcs.
Among the first things you will want to do in the removal process of protectpcs…. first you may wish to block the following domain:
protectpcs.com
Next you should go to the control panel and start with add/remove programs and see if you can uninstall protectpcs from there. If that works, you should still follow up with a scan of your pc from malwarebytes antimalware or superantispyware. Then follow THAT up with a scan from a trusted antivirus application such as trendmicros online scan, avg, or other trusted antivirus app.
You may find a download link for malwarebytes antimalware on the virus removal toolkit page. While you are there you may wish to download process explorer as well. It will be of possible use later in the manual removal of protectpcs.
If you are unable to install malwarebytes try the following: 1) rename the installer from mbam-setup.exe to something like explorer.exe or iexplore.exe and then retry the install, update and scan. 2) reboot into safe mode with networking and retry your install (possibly using #1 trick above.) 3) follow the next step which will be to kill off the processes associated with protectpcs.
The following programs are associated with protectpcs and should be killed off using the task manager. If you are unable to launch the task manager, you may try the following: 1) copy and paste the executable for the task manager (taskmgr.exe) to the desktop and then rename it to something like firefox.exe and then re-launch this copied and renamed program and browse to kill off the processes listed. 2) reboot into safe mode and see if the programs are running. 3) use process explorer instead of task manager to kill off the following processes:
ProtectPcs.exe
uninstall.exe
RANDOM.exe
One file name listed above (and below) is randomized. Each install of protectpcs will be different. Use the locations listed below, and what you find on your system to determine what should be terminated and what should be deleted.
The following files and folders should be deleted for a complete manual removal of protectpcs:
%docs%\All Users\Desktop\ProtectPcs.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ProtectPcs
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ProtectPcs\1 ProtectPcs.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ProtectPcs\2 Homepage.lnk
%docs%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\ProtectPcs\3 Uninstall.lnk
%progfiles%\ProtectPcs Software
%progfiles%\ProtectPcs Software\ProtectPcs
%progfiles%\ProtectPcs Software\ProtectPcs\ProtectPcs.exe
%progfiles%\ProtectPcs Software\ProtectPcs\uninstall.exe
%win%\10199virzs7a45.cpl
%win%\1058zsp941a5.cpl
%win%\107csza9se555.bin
%win%\system32\RANDOM.exe
%win%\system32\10075izus96.ocx
%win%\system32\10493wozm56c.bin
%win%\system32\10593sp9mzot654.bin
After the above have been cleaned up, your manual removal of protectpcs should be done. Continue with a scan with malware removal tools such as superantispyware and/or malwarebytes antimalware and then follow THAT with scans with legitimate, reputable, trusted antivirus applications such as avg, avira, sophos, etc.