How to remove VBS:Malware-gen [Virus removal guide]

If you’ve received a notification from the Avast, AVG or other antivirus software that a VBS:Malware-gen threat has been detected, then it means that your PC system is infected with a previously unseen malware. The VBS:Malware-gen virus has been installed on many personal computers around the world without users permission, so you are one of many. Most probably, you don’t even know how and where this trojan has got into your system.

It is likely that you might be bothered with the VBS:Malware-gen. You should not disregard this unwanted software. The virus might not only show annoying ads, but reroute your web-browser to malicious web-pages. What is more, the VBS:Malware-gen trojan can analyze your browsing, and gain access to your confidential information and, later, can sell it to third parties. Thus, there are more than enough reasons to remove VBS:Malware-gen virus from your personal computer.

Usually, a malware such as the VBS:Malware-gen gets into your computer as part of a bundle with freeware, sharing files and other unsafe apps that you downloaded from the Internet. The makers of this malicious software pays software makers for distributing malware within their programs. So, optional applications is often included as part of the installation package. In order to avoid the installation of any malware: choose only Manual, Custom or Advanced setup option and disable all bundled software in which you are unsure.

We suggest you to scan your computer for malware and get rid of VBS:Malware-gen as soon as possible. The few simple steps below will help you to remove VBS:Malware-gen and protect your PC from more malicious software and trojans.

How to remove VBS:Malware-gen

Most often virus requires more than a simple uninstall with the help of Windows Control panel in order to be fully removed. For that reason, our team developed several removal ways which we have summarized in a detailed instructions. Therefore, if you have the undesired VBS:Malware-gen trojan on your computer and are currently trying to have it uninstalled then feel free to follow the steps below in order to resolve your problem. Read this manual carefully, bookmark or print it, because you may need to exit your web-browser or restart your machine.

To remove VBS:Malware-gen, follow the steps below:

1. Get rid of VBS:Malware-gen virus without any utilities
   • Delete suspicious software by using MS Windows Control Panel
   • Delete scheduled tasks created by VBS:Malware-gen
   • Disinfect the web-browser’s shortcuts changed by VBS:Malware-gen
   • Remove VBS:Malware-gen trojan from Firefox
   • Remove VBS:Malware-gen virus from Google Chrome
   • Get rid of VBS:Malware-gen trojan from Internet Explorer
2. How to automatically remove VBS:Malware-gen trojan
   • Run Zemana Anti-malware to get rid of VBS:Malware-gen
   • Remove VBS:Malware-gen with Malwarebytes
   • Run AdwCleaner to get rid of VBS:Malware-gen trojan

Get rid of VBS:Malware-gen virus without any utilities

Read this “How to remove” section to know how to manually remove VBS:Malware-gen malware which can send information about your machine to a remote malicious hacker. Even if the steps does not work for you, there are several free malware removers below that can easily handle such VBS:Malware-gen trojan that can reroute your browser to various undesired web-sites.

Delete suspicious software by using MS Windows Control Panel

First, you should try to identify and delete the program that causes the appearance of undesired advertisements or browser redirect, using the ‘Uninstall a program’ which is located in the ‘Control panel’.

Make sure you have closed all web-browsers and other programs. Press CTRL, ALT, DEL keys together to open the Windows Task Manager.

Click on the “Processes” tab, look for something questionable that is the VBS:Malware-gen trojan that can give a remote malicious hacker access to your machine then right-click it and select “End Task” or “End Process” option. Most often, malware masks itself to avoid detection by imitating legitimate Windows processes. A process is particularly suspicious: it’s taking up a lot of memory (despite the fact that you closed all of your programs, its name is not familiar to you (if you’re in doubt, you can always check the program by doing a search for its name in Google, Yahoo or Bing).

Next, uninstall any unwanted and suspicious apps from your Control panel.

Windows 10, 8.1, 8

Now, press the Windows button, type “Control panel” in search and press Enter. Choose “Programs and Features”, then “Uninstall a program”.

Look around the entire list of software installed on your system. Most probably, one of them is the VBS:Malware-gen virus which can send information about your personal computer to a remote malicious hacker. Choose the suspicious program or the application that name is not familiar to you and delete it.

Windows Vista, 7

From the “Start” menu in Microsoft Windows, choose “Control Panel”. Under the “Programs” icon, select “Uninstall a program”.

Select the questionable or any unknown apps, then click “Uninstall/Change” button to remove this unwanted program from your PC.

Windows XP

Click the “Start” button, select “Control Panel” option. Click on “Add/Remove Programs”.

Choose an undesired program, then press “Change/Remove” button. Follow the prompts.

Delete scheduled tasks created by VBS:Malware-gen

Once installed, the VBS:Malware-gen trojan can add a task in to the Windows Task Scheduler Library. Due to this, every time when you run your computer, it will start automatically. So, you need to check the Task Scheduler Library and delete all harmful tasks that have been created by VBS:Malware-gen.

Press Windows and R keys on the keyboard simultaneously. This shows a prompt that titled with Run. In the text field, type “taskschd.msc” (without the quotes) and click OK. Task Scheduler window opens. In the left-hand side, press “Task Scheduler Library”, as displayed in the figure below.

In the middle part you will see a list of installed tasks. Please choose the first task, its properties will be show just below automatically. Next, click the Actions tab. Pay attention to that it launches on your computer. Found something like “explorer.exe http://site.address” or “chrome.exe http://site.address”, then delete this harmful task. If you are not sure that executes the task, check it through a search engine. If it is a component of the adware, then this task also should be removed.

Having defined the task that you want to delete, then click on it with the right mouse button and choose Delete as shown below.

Repeat this step, if you have found a few tasks which have been created by ‘ad-supported’ program. Once is finished, close the Task Scheduler window.

Disinfect the web-browser’s shortcuts changed by VBS:Malware-gen

The VBS:Malware-gen virus can hijack various Windows shortcuts on your desktop (most often, all web-browsers shortcuts), so in this step you need to check and clean them by removing the argument such as http://site.address/.

Click the right mouse button to a desktop shortcut which you use to open your browser. Next, select the “Properties” option. Important: necessary to click on the desktop shortcut for the internet browser which is redirected to an undesired web-site.

Further, necessary to look at the text which is written in the “Target” field. The VBS:Malware-gen virus can rewrite the contents of this field, which describes the file to be launch when you start your internet browser. Depending on the web-browser you’re using, there should be:

• Google Chrome: chrome.exe
• Opera: opera.exe
• Firefox: firefox.exe
• Internet Explorer: iexplore.exe

If you’re seeing an unknown text such as “http://site.addres” that has been added here, then you should remove it, as displayed in the following example.

Next, click the “OK” button to save the changes. Now, when you launch the web-browser from this desktop shortcut file, it does not occur automatically reroute on an annoying web pages. Once the step is finished, we recommend to go to the next step.

Remove VBS:Malware-gen trojan from Firefox

The Firefox reset will keep your personal information like bookmarks, passwords, web form auto-fill data, recover preferences and security settings, remove redirects to unwanted pages and disable malicious browser plugins.

Press the Menu button (looks like three horizontal lines), and click the blue Help icon located at the bottom of the drop down menu as displayed in the following example.

A small menu will appear, press the “Troubleshooting Information”. On this page, click “Refresh Firefox” button as on the image below.

Follow the onscreen procedure to restore your FF web-browser settings to its original state.

Remove VBS:Malware-gen virus from Google Chrome

Like other modern browsers, the Chrome has the ability to reset the settings to their default values and thereby recover the internet browser’s settings such as newtab page, start page and search engine by default that have been modified by the VBS:Malware-gen virus.

1. First start the Chrome and click Menu button (small button in the form of three dots).
2. It will open the Chrome main menu. Choose More Tools, then click Extensions.
3. You’ll see the list of installed addons. If the list has the extension labeled with “Installed by enterprise policy” or “Installed by your administrator”, then complete the following steps: Remove Chrome extensions installed by enterprise policy.
4. Now open the Chrome menu once again, click the “Settings” menu.
5. You will see the Chrome’s settings page. Scroll down and click “Advanced” link.
6. Scroll down again and click the “Reset” button.
7. The Google Chrome will display the reset profile settings page as shown on the screen above.
8. Next press the “Reset” button.
9. Once this task is finished, your internet browser’s home page, new tab page and search provider by default will be restored to their original defaults.
10. To learn more, read the post How to reset Chrome settings to default.

Get rid of VBS:Malware-gen trojan from Internet Explorer

In order to restore all web-browser start page, new tab page and default search engine you need to reset the IE to the state, which was when the MS Windows was installed on your PC.

First, open the IE, then press ‘gear’ icon . It will display the Tools drop-down menu on the right part of the web browser, then click the “Internet Options” as displayed on the screen below.

In the “Internet Options” screen, select the “Advanced” tab, then click the “Reset” button. The Internet Explorer will display the “Reset Internet Explorer settings” dialog box. Further, click the “Delete personal settings” check box to select it. Next, click the “Reset” button as shown in the following example.

After the task is finished, press “Close” button. Close the Internet Explorer and restart your system for the changes to take effect. This step will help you to restore your internet browser’s newtab, start page and search engine by default to default state.

How to automatically remove VBS:Malware-gen trojan

If your personal computer is still infected with VBS:Malware-gen malware then the best way of detection and removal is to use an antimalware scan on the computer. Download free malicious software removal tools below and run a full system scan. It will help you remove all components of the trojan from hardisk and Windows registry.

Run Zemana Anti-malware to get rid of VBS:Malware-gen

Zemana Anti-malware highly recommended, because it can detect security threats such adware and malwares which most ‘classic’ antivirus applications fail to pick up on. Moreover, if you have any VBS:Malware-gen virus removal problems which cannot be fixed by this utility automatically, then Zemana Anti-malware provides 24X7 online assistance from the highly experienced support staff.

Visit the page linked below to download the latest version of Zemana AntiMalware for MS Windows. Save it to your Desktop.

After the downloading process is done, close all software and windows on your PC system. Double-click the setup file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up as shown on the screen below, click the “Yes” button.

It will open the “Setup wizard” which will help you set up Zemana Anti-Malware on your PC. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.

Once installation is done successfully, Zemana Free will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown on the image below.

Now click the “Scan” button to perform a system scan for the VBS:Malware-gen virus which can give a remote malicious hacker access to your personal computer. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the count of files on your PC system and the speed of your system. While the Zemana program is checking, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.

Once Zemana completes the scan, Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) will open a scan report. Review the scan results and then click “Next” button. The Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) will remove VBS:Malware-gen trojan that can inject ads into the web pages that you are visiting and add threats to the Quarantine. After finished, you may be prompted to restart the computer.

Remove VBS:Malware-gen with Malwarebytes

Manual VBS:Malware-gen removal requires some computer skills. Some files and registry entries that created by the trojan can be not completely removed. We recommend that run the Malwarebytes Free that are completely free your computer of malware. Moreover, the free program will help you to remove malicious software, potentially unwanted programs, hijackers and toolbars that your system may be infected too.

1. Download MalwareBytes Free by clicking on the link below. Save it on your Desktop.
   
   

   Malwarebytes Anti-malware
   326386 downloads
   Author: Malwarebytes
   Category: Security tools
   Update: April 15, 2020
   
2. At the download page, click on the Download button. Your internet browser will open the “Save as” dialog box. Please save it onto your Windows desktop.
3. When the download is finished, please close all apps and open windows on your computer. Double-click on the icon that’s called mb3-setup.
4. This will open the “Setup wizard” of MalwareBytes Free onto your computer. Follow the prompts and don’t make any changes to default settings.
5. When the Setup wizard has finished installing, the MalwareBytes will open and show the main window.
6. Further, press the “Scan Now” button for checking your PC for the VBS:Malware-gen malware which can redirect your browser to various intrusive sites. Depending on your computer, the scan can take anywhere from a few minutes to close to an hour. During the scan MalwareBytes Anti-Malware will detect threats exist on your PC system.
7. After the scan is done, MalwareBytes will show a list of all items found by the scan.
8. In order to delete all items, simply click the “Quarantine Selected” button. After the task is finished, you may be prompted to reboot the computer.
9. Close the Anti-Malware and continue with the next step.

Video instruction, which reveals in detail the steps above.

Run AdwCleaner to get rid of VBS:Malware-gen trojan

AdwCleaner is a free tool which can detect VBS:Malware-gen malware that can record your keystrokes and the web-sites you visit. It is not always easy to locate all the unwanted software that your system might have picked up on the Web. AdwCleaner will scan for the adware, browser hijacker infections and other malicious software you need to uninstall.

Visit the following page to download the latest version of AdwCleaner for Windows. Save it directly to your MS Windows Desktop.

When downloading is done, open the directory in which you saved it and double-click the AdwCleaner icon. It will start the AdwCleaner tool and you will see a screen as shown in the figure below. If the User Account Control prompt will ask you want to run the program, press Yes button to continue.

Next, press “Scan” to find out VBS:Malware-gen malware that can inject advertisements into the web pages that you are visiting. A system scan may take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your PC system. While the AdwCleaner application is checking, you can see count of objects it has identified as threat.

After that process is complete, AdwCleaner will produce a list of unwanted and adware applications as displayed in the figure below.

Review the report and then click “Clean” button. It will open a prompt. Click “OK” button. The AdwCleaner will remove VBS:Malware-gen trojan that can inject ads into the web pages that you are visiting and add items to the Quarantine. When the clean-up is done, the tool may ask you to reboot your machine. After restart, the AdwCleaner will show the log file.

All the above steps are shown in detail in the following video instructions.

Use AdBlocker to stay safe online

If you browse the Net, you cannot avoid malicious advertising. But you can protect your web-browser against it. Download and use an ad blocking program. AdGuard is an ad blocker which can filter out tons of of the malvertising, blocking dynamic scripts from loading malicious content.

Installing the AdGuard ad blocking application is simple. First you’ll need to download AdGuard from the following link. Save it directly to your Windows Desktop.

Once the download is complete, double-click the downloaded file to run it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as shown on the screen below.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick tutorial as on the image below.

Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick instructions which will help you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your PC system, AdGuard will launch automatically and block pop up advertisements, as well as other harmful or misleading web pages. For an overview of all the features of the program, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, that may be found on your desktop.

To sum up

Now your computer should be clean of the VBS:Malware-gen virus which can record your keystrokes and the web-sites you visit. Uninstall AdwCleaner. We suggest that you keep Zemana (to periodically scan your personal computer for new trojans and other malware) and AdGuard (to help you stop annoying advertisements and harmful pages). Moreover, to prevent trojans, please stay clear of unknown and third party apps, make sure that your antivirus program, turn on the option to search for PUPs (potentially unwanted programs).

If you need more help with VBS:Malware-gen virus related issues, go to our Spyware/Malware removal forum.