Rogue antispyware removal? (Spyware Protect 2009)?
Every time I start up my computer, it's sitting there in the system tray (as Spyware Protect 2009 demo), taking up space. It's been giving me pop-ups ...
Every time I start up my computer, it’s sitting there in the system tray (as Spyware Protect 2009 demo), taking up space. It’s been giving me pop-ups and insists that my computer is infected and demands that I buy the full version of it.
So I looked it up online and removeonline.com told me:
“Spyware Protect 2009 ( also known as SpywareProtect2009 ) is new rogue antispyware software that displays many fake warning alerts, messages and popups. It starts generating warning messages claiming system infection in order to force users into purchasing the full version of the program. Spyware Protect 2009 is a dangerous application and it should be deleted as soon as possible.
Risk Level : High ( Dangerous )
Note :- To safely & quickly detect Spyware Protect 2009, We highly recommend you to use the Removal Tool for Spyware Protect 2009.”
I wasn’t sure if I should trust the download the site provided (or should I?), so I looked into the instructions on how to manually remove it.
To manually remove it, I’m supposed to search and kill SpywareProtect2009.exe, which I managed to do easily.
I’m also supposed to remove SpywareProtect2009.exe and Spyware Protect 2009.lnk and then uninstall Spyware Protect 2009.lnk. How do I do that? Can I just search in all my files and drives and delete whatever pops up?
Also, I’m supposed to:
Remove/Modify corrupt Registry Entries: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Spyware Protect 2009
What does that mean and how do I do it?
This is the first time I’ve attempted to deal with a virus or anything on a computer by myself, so I really don’t know what I’m dealing with…
My computer runs on Windows XP and it’s a Lenovo ThinkPad, if that’s any help.