Winhound is a anti-spyware/antivirus program that is know to issue fake alerts on your computer in order to manipulate you into buying its full commercial version. If you are infected with this program you may receive virus alerts in your task bar that appear to be from Microsoft Security Center stating that you are infected with spyware and to run its special anti-spyware tool. This tool turns out to be the commercial version of Winhound. These alerts are fake and are a goad to have you buy the commercial version of this software. It will also hijack your desktop to show the following fake message: Warning Spyware Detected on Your System: Install an antivirus or spyware software to clean your computer.
1. print out these instructions before starting, because you will not be able to connect to the internet during most of this fix.
2. Download smitRem.exe and save to your desktop. Double- click it to extract it to it’s own folder on the desktop.
3. Download and Install Ad-aware SE. If you have a previous version of Ad-Aware installed during, the installation of the new version, you will be prompted to uninstall the older version – be sure to uninstall the previous version.
Run Ad-Aware. Click on the world icon at the top right of the Ad-Aware window and let AdAware update the reference list for the adware and malware. Close Ad-Aware.
4. Download and Install Ewido Security Suite. When installing, under “Additional Options” uncheck :
– “Install background guard”
– “Install scan via context menu”
Launch Ewido, there should be an icon on your desktop double-click it. You will need to update Ewido to the latest definition files. On the left hand side of the main screen click update. Then click on Start Update. The update will start and a progress bar will show the updates being installed.
It`s all programs.
Next, please reboot your computer in Safe Mode by doing the following:
1. Restart your computer
2. After hearing your computer beep once during startup, but before the Windows icon appears, press F8.
3. Instead of Windows loading as normal, a menu should appear
4. Select the first option, to run Windows in Safe Mode.
Open the smitRem folder, then double click the RunThis.bat file to start the tool. Follow the prompts on screen. Your desktop and icons will disappear and then reappear again — this is normal.
Wait for the tool to complete and Disk Cleanup to finish — this may take a while; please be patient.
Open Ad-aware and do a full scan. Remove all it finds.
Run Ewido: Click on scanner. Click on Complete System Scan and the scan will begin. NOTE: During some scans with ewido it is finding cases of false positives.
– You will need to step through the process of cleaning files one-by-one.
– If ewido detects a file you KNOW to be legitimate, select none as the action.
– DO NOT select “Perform action on all infections”
– If you are unsure of any entry found select none for now.
– When the scan is finished, click the Save report button at the bottom of the screen.
Close Ewido
Next go to Control Panel click Display > Desktop > Customize Desktop > Web > Uncheck “Security Info” if present.
Restart your computer in normal mode.
Run the Panda online virus scan.
– Once you are on the Panda site click the Scan your PC button
– A new window will open…click the Check Now button
– Enter your Country
– Enter your State/Province
– Enter your e-mail address and click send
– Select either Home User or Company
– Click the big Scan Now button
– If it wants to install an ActiveX component allow it
– It will start downloading the files it requires for the scan (Note: It may take a couple of minutes)
– When download is complete, click on Local Disks to start the scan
– When the scan completes, if anything malicious is detected, click the See Report button, then Save Report and save it to a convenient location.
Finally, restart your computer.
