How to remove Windows Stability Center virus

Windows Stability Center is a rogue antispyware program which uses the name of Microsoft Windows and pretends to be a legitimate malware removal tool. The rogue from the family of fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert malware that hides Windows desktop, disables legitimate antvirus applications, blocks Windows programs from running and displays fake security alerts in order to trick you into thinking your computer is infected. It hopes that you will next purchase so-called full version of the software. Do not pay for the bogus software! You should never trust in anything related to this application and remove Windows Stability Center from your computer as quickly as possible!

As all rogueware applications from same family, Windows Stability Center is distributed with the help of trojans. When the trojan is started, it will block important Windows applications (e.g. Task Manager, Internet Explorer, etc) from running and display false information that states “Unknown Win32/Trojan was detected on your computer”. The fake alert will prompt to perform a scan of your PC. Once the scan is complete, it will suggest to install Windows Stability Center to remove the trojan. If you confirm it by clicking to OK button, this malware will download and install the fake antivirus and then restart your PC.

During installation, this malware will configure itself to start every time when your computer boots up. After the installation is done, it will reboot your computer. When Windows is loaded, you will be shown the Windows Stability Center prompt instead of Windows desktop. But there is no any choice, only “OK” button is active. After click to it, the rogue will perform a fake scan of your computer and list a lot of infections to trick you into thinking your PC in danger. It will report that was able to clean the majority of infected files, but was not able to cure a few important Windows files and offer to purchase its full version to clean them. However, the scan results is a scam, because the program is neither able to detect, nor to remove anything from your computer, especially viruses or other kind of malware. Thus, do not pay for the bogus software, simply ignore all that the fake antivirus will display you.

While WindowsStabilityCenter is running, it will display display a variety of fake security warnings and block legitimate Windows applications on your computer. Some of the alerts are:

Attention
Software without digital certificate is detected. System
files security is at risk.
It is strongly recommended to enable the security mode.

Attention
Suspicious software activity is detected.
Please start system files scanning for details.

Critical vulnerability!
Application that seems to be a key-logger is detected.
System information security is at risk. It is recommended to enable the security mode and run
total System scanning.

Warning!
Name: taskmgr.exe
Name: C:\WINDOWS\taskmgr.exe
Application that seems to be a key-logger is detected. System information security is at risk. It is recommended to enable the security mode and run total System scanning.

Just like false scan results above, all of these alerts are a fake and supposed to scare you into thinking your computer is in danger. You should ignore all of them!

As you can see, WindowsStabilityCenter is a scam. Most importantly, do not purchase it! Instead of doing so, follow the removal instructions below in order to remove Windows Stability Center and any associated malware from your computer for free.

Automatic removal instructions for Windows Stability Center

Step 1. Stop Windows Stability Center from “autorunning”

Once Windows loaded you will see a Windows Stability Center prompt similar to the one below.

Click OK button. Once fake scan is complete, it will state you need to open the License Manager.

Press the “OK, Open the license manager” button. Now you can close the program. Click “X” button at the top-right of WindowsStabilityCenter or press ALT + F4. After that your Windows Desktop will be available.

Click Start, Type in search field (if you use Windows XP, then Click Start, Run and type in Open field):

%APPDATA%

Press Enter. It will open the contents of Application Data folder (for Windows XP) or the contents of Roaming folder (for Windows Vista, Windows 7). Next open the Microsoft folder as shown in the screen below.

Locate randomly named file(s), right click to it and select Rename. Type any new name (123.exe) and press Enter. Reboot your computer.

Step 2. Remove Windows Stability Center associated malware

Download MalwareBytes Anti-malware (MBAM). Once downloaded, close all programs and windows on your computer.

Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MalwareBytes Anti-malware onto your computer. When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure a checkmark is placed next to “Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware” and Launch “Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware”. Then click Finish.

MalwareBytes Anti-malware will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.

As MalwareBytes Anti-malware will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main menu. You will see window similar to the one below.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Window

Make sure the “Perform quick scan” option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Windows Stability Center associated malware. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient.

When the scan is finished a message box will appear that it has completed scanning successfully. Click OK. Now click “Show Results”. You will see a list of infected items similar as shown below.
Note: list of infected items may be different than what is shown in the image below.

Malwarebytes Anti-malware, list of infected items

Make sure all entries have a checkmark at their far left and click “Remove Selected” button to remove Windows Stability Center. MalwareBytes Anti-malware will now remove all of associated WindowsStabilityCenter files and registry keys and add them to the programs’ quarantine. When MalwareBytes Anti-malware has finished removing the infection, a log will open in Notepad and you may be prompted to Restart.

Windows Stability Center removal notes

Note 1: if you can not download, install, run or update Malwarebytes Anti-malware, then follow the steps: Malwarebytes won`t install, run or update – How to fix it.

Note 2: if you need help with the instructions, then post your questions in our Spyware Removal forum.

Note 3: your current antispyware and antivirus software let the infection through ? Then you may want to consider purchasing the FULL version of MalwareBytes Anti-malware to protect your computer in the future.

Windows Stability Center creates the following files and folders

%AppData%\Microsoft\{RANDOM}.exe

Windows Stability Center creates the following registry keys and values

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\avastsvc.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\avastui.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msascui.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msmpeng.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msseces.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\egui.exe | Debugger
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ekrn.exe | Debugger
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon | Shell = “%AppData%\Microsoft\{random}.exe”