How to remove AntiSpy Safeguard

Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 1:15 am
Home » Rogue Antispyware » AntiSpy Safeguard

AntiSpy Safeguard description

AntiSpy Safeguard is a rogue program. It belongs to the bunch of deceptive tools promoted by fake Microsoft Security Essentials Alert trojan. It’s identical to Red Cross Antivirus, Peak Protection 2010, Pest Detector 4.1 and Major Defense Kit scams. AntiSpy Safeguard (also known as AntiSpySafeguard) is not an anti-spyware; it pretends to be one in order to gain a purchase. AntiSpy Safeguard is able to fabricate security warnings. Those are meant to scare people into thinking their computers are infected while the only infection is AntiSpy Safeguard.

AntiSpy Safeguard loads on boot and stops other applications if a victim tries to run any. The fraud claims that all the legitimate programs are infected and AntiSpy Safeguard is the only one to remove the infections. Do not trust a single notification loaded by AntiSpy Safeguard! The program is a hoax and it is not worth a dime. Delete AntiSpy Safeguard as soon as possible.

AntiSpy Safeguard displays the following counterfeit alerts:

The application [program name].exe was launched successfully but it was forced to shut down due to security reasons.
This happened because the application was infected by a malicious program which might pose a threat for the OS.
It is highly recommended to install the necessary heuristic module and perform a full scan of your computer to exterminate malicious programs from it.


Warning! Running trial version!
The security of your computer has been compromised! Now running trial version of the software! Click here to purchase the full version of the software and get full protection for your PC


Warning! Database updated failed!
Database update failed!
Outdated viruses database are not effective can’t guarantee adequate protection and security for your PC! Click here to get the full version of the product and update the database!

AntiSpy Safeguard is a Rogue Antispyware software

How to manually remove AntiSpy Safeguard

To remove AntiSpy Safeguard spyware you must block AntiSpy Safeguard sites, stop and remove processes, unregister DLL files, search and delete all other AntiSpy Safeguard files and registry utility. Follow the AntiSpy Safeguard detection and removal instructions below.

The most typical software removal method is to remove AntiSpy Safeguard by using "Add or Remove Programs" service. However there may be hidden AntiSpy Safeguard files, running processes and registries in your computer, so AntiSpy Safeguard may recreate all other files after reboot.

AntiSpy Safeguard manual removal instructions

Stop and remove AntiSpy Safeguard processes:
antispy.exe
defender.exe
tmp.exe
exe.exe Read more how to kill AntiSpy Safeguard processes

Locate and delete AntiSpy Safeguard registry entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PAV
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "WarnonBadCertRecving" = "0"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "WarnOnPostRedirect" = "0"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "tmp"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce "SelfdelNT"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon “Shell” = "%UserProfile%\Application Data\antispy.exe" Read more how to delete AntiSpy Safeguard registry entries
Download RegistryBooster 2010 to scan errors caused by AntiSpy Safeguard

Detect and delete other AntiSpy Safeguard files:
%UserProfile%\Application Data\PAV\
%UserProfile%\Application Data\antispy.exe
%UserProfile%\Application Data\defender.exe
%UserProfile%\Application Data\tmp.exe
%UserProfile%\Application Data\exe.exe

We strongly recommend you to use spyware remover to track AntiSpy Safeguard and automaticaly remove AntiSpy Safeguard processes, registries and files as well as other spyware threats.

Download does not start? Try a mirror download here

Tags: , , ,

49 Responses to

AntiSpy Safeguard

  1. roger snipes
    September 7th, 2010 at 12:46 pm

    antispy safeguard is a pain. just poped up and scared me until i did some research found you hope this helps

    Reply

  2. Lowman905
    September 15th, 2010 at 9:40 pm

    I have a laptop that is totally locked out by this antspy. The task manager is disabled and the start menu won’t come up. I have tried using the cmd prompt to “TASKKILL” the processes but non of them were found. There were 3 register keys listed found. When the laptop boots up the safeguard program is running and you can not do anything on the computer in normal or safemode. Any ideas?

    Reply

    matchu121994 Reply:
    September 24th, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    hey man you know what? i have a good news and hope to help ya out there… when this spyware shit boots up when you turn on your laptop, press ctrl+alt+delete then press end task and to make your start menu load, click file on the task manager then click new task, then type in explorer.exe . that should help you out man! and also saves you alot of money repairing your lappy! :D then search for google on how to remove this spyware shit! :D

    Reply

    Carol Morlock Reply:
    October 6th, 2010 at 7:45 pm

    thanks!!! That worked!!! You’re awesome!

    Reply

    adam Reply:
    October 1st, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    hey i found out a way to bypass the virus and can get on the internet and use my task manager other wise it blocks both

    first go to start control panel the current running programs and it will be right there minw was labeled hotkey and hit end task it should allow u to use the internet again

    Reply

    AJ Reply:
    October 3rd, 2010 at 11:59 am

    Well many advises I too tried but nothing worked out. “Task Manager” couldnt be loaded with Ctrl+Alt+Del. I couldnt open any browser. As I learned through my mobile internet that this is program does a fake chenking, I let it complete it. Once it was completed it gave a list of problems of the computer and asked to pay and get the full program or whatever…I ignored this warning and the same time windows was loaded but still I couldnt access to any program. Now you should click “hide” on the AntiSpy Safeguard to minimise it to the task bar. The weakness of the program was that you could close it with right mouse click on the task bar and select “close”. That made the trick and now I could open any program. Then I tried to remove manually as I didnt have any suitable program to remove it. The only thing in the registry I could see was < and I deleted it. There after I downloaded Spyware doctor and did the scanning I restarted. So far it didnt come back.
    The point was closing down the application through just right click mouse. I didnt even kill the process thereafter as I couldnt find anything there.
    all the best!!

    Reply

  3. SJMore
    September 16th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    My computer has locked me out of the task manager, word documents, firefox, and safari…it doesn’t seem like there is a way to fix it without any of those….can anyone help me?

    Reply

    AJ Reply:
    September 27th, 2010 at 1:46 pm

    I too have the same problem. Couldnt run any program incl Task. But what I did was I let complete the scaning of the AntiSpy Safeguard. Thereafter when the windows is completely booted up I just right-click the AntiSpy selected “close” program. …That did the trick me to load any other program including the firefox. Now trying to remove it.

    Reply

  4. KBSimmelink
    September 17th, 2010 at 4:58 am

    It would appear that AntiSpy Safeguard actually relpaces itself as the shell program and it is hard to remove. Try a third party service killer to kill the processes, delete the registry settings you do have (it may not have all of them that you see in the removal instructions) and then delete the programs and directory (again you may not have all the files and folders listed above). Then do a search on “antispy” and delete any programs or directories that come up. This is what worked for me.

    Reply

  5. moses
    September 21st, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    pls help me to remove antispy safeguard

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    September 22nd, 2010 at 2:08 am

    Use Antispy Safeguard manual removal guide posted right above the comments. Make sure you delete everything related to the malware. If you can not find some of the files or registries on you PC, it’s ok, because the files may vary on different computers. If you have trouble with some of the removal steps, there are links to more detailed tutorials next to each step. For example, there’s a link to “Read more how to kill AntiSpy Safeguard processes” next to “Stop and remove AntiSpy Safeguard processes:”

    Reply

  6. how i fixed
    September 21st, 2010 at 7:04 pm

    it blocked me out so i went to internet and it came up with a prompt not letting me in so at the bottom i right clicked the promt and clicked close try if it works for you i hpoe it does

    Reply

  7. Ed York
    September 22nd, 2010 at 7:07 am

    I also had the AntiSpy Safeguard infection on my computer yesterday. It was blocking IE from launching and I couldn’t open Task Manager.

    My version of this infection had another process to contend with called “hotfix.exe”. It even gave itself the Windows icon in Windows Explorer to make you think it was legit. On my Vista machine I found it in C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming. To remove it, I had to do a few things. Since I couldn’t open Task Manager to kill the process, I downloaded “Process Explorer” (free utility from SysInternals) from another machine and copied it to my infected machine. It allowed me to kill the “hotfix.exe” process. Once the process was killed, I could then delete the hotfix.exe file from the path mentioned above. In the registry, I then needed to remove the reference to hotfix.exe from the Shell setting inside HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon. This shell setting is causing this infection to take over the machine after the Windows logon.

    After I did the above, I’m able to launch IE and open Task Manager – yeah!!! I hope this helps others. This thing is getting sneaky.

    Reply

    Ross Reply:
    September 24th, 2010 at 9:55 pm

    ED YOU ROCK!! This was my problem exactly! You saved me…the instructions above were not working. Thank you thank you!!!

    Reply

    Frank Reply:
    September 25th, 2010 at 11:34 am

    Thanks man, this really helped.

    Reply

    bob Reply:
    September 26th, 2010 at 9:38 am

    Ed — a million muchos gracias, followed your directions and boom no AntiSpy Safeware. Good karma all over you.

    Reply

    Lisa Reply:
    September 26th, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    Thanks a bunch!!!!

    Reply

    John Reply:
    October 5th, 2010 at 5:39 am

    Ed has it figured out. I just removed this from a client’s PC. It’s a nasty one. Let it finish it’s thing at startup. Run Process Explorer (best if you can download it from another PC, but I was able to get to the Internet by interrupting the virus’s start up routine).
    Run Process Explorer
    Kill the “hotfix.exe” process
    Delete the hotfix.exe file. On WinXP, I found hotfix.exe in C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data.
    Like Ed says, remove hotfix.exe from the Shell setting inside HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon.
    That took care of it
    I didn’t find any of those other files – antispy.exe, defender.exe, tmp.exe, exe.exe

    Reply

  8. D. Smith
    September 22nd, 2010 at 7:26 pm

    How can I possibly download any software to solve the problem when I cannot access the Net because of the bogus software?

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    September 23rd, 2010 at 7:03 am

    You don’t have to download any software as you can delete AntiSpy Safeguard manually. However, if you want to use some security software, you can download it on another computer and copy the install file to the infected PC using USB key or CD.

    Reply

  9. Hi
    September 23rd, 2010 at 5:33 am

    Hi,Can you help me to remove this pls ? Im 14 years old and i really dont know how to remove it :S pls help me

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    September 23rd, 2010 at 7:05 am

    Take a look at the manual removal guidelines, they are right above the comments section. The manual removal is helpful is you go through it step by step and remove every thing related to AntiSpy Safeguard.

    Reply

    Hi Reply:
    September 23rd, 2010 at 9:36 am

    hmm… thanks , but my english isnt good , I will try to do something with it …

    Reply

    Eli Reply:
    September 25th, 2010 at 7:55 pm

    where above the commets does it tell you step by step o how to manually remove it

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    September 26th, 2010 at 4:57 am

    Right where it says “AntiSpy Safeguard manual removal instructions”. There are explanations divided into sections “Stop and remove AntiSpy Safeguard processes” “Locate and delete AntiSpy Safeguard registry entries” and “Detect and delete other AntiSpy Safeguard files”. Since dealing with processes and registries might be difficult if you hadn’t done it before, those two section have links to more detailed tutorials. For example, there a link to “Read more how to kill AntiSpy Safeguard processes” next to “Stop and remove AntiSpy Safeguard processes” section.

  10. madashell
    September 25th, 2010 at 7:25 am

    Thank you for saving my skin! I am still upset that this happened – HOW THE HECK DO THESE PEOPLE GET AWAY THIS THIS!!!!!

    Reply

  11. sean
    September 26th, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    the manual instructions for removing this do not work for me seeing has none of the entries under HKEY exist help please!

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    September 27th, 2010 at 6:22 am

    The malware may install things under different names. Delete the things you can find and skip those that are not installed on your PC. That might be enough to stop AntiSpy Safeguard from blocking security tools.

    Reply

  12. Cassie
    September 28th, 2010 at 5:13 am

    I don’t know what else to do.. I have tried most of the above, program doesn’t work and I am unable to open most things. Have looked at many pages on the net and watched videos on YouTube none of which helped.. Don’t know what else to do?? I have windows vista so some of the steps are different for my system .. Please help!!!!!!

    Reply

    adam Reply:
    October 1st, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    go to start control panel current running programs and u can scroll down to the virus and hit end task just like task manager except it dolesnt block this and u should be able to use the internet again

    Reply

  13. wayne
    September 28th, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    tried it all and eventually with all these put together it worked thanks

    Reply

  14. Judy
    September 29th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    I too have tried all of the above and nothing is working… it seems to have blocked all avenues… I must be missing something?! i have even gone into safe mode and then i seem to get somewhat bamboozeled by it all. Please help, i know there is no simple way, perhaps i need a little more info pertaining to how and where to find this nasty little critter. cheers :-{

    Reply

  15. al
    September 29th, 2010 at 4:54 pm

    i cant find any of these: antispy.exe, defender.exe, tmp.exe, exe.exe

    Reply

  16. Mike
    October 3rd, 2010 at 8:51 pm

    Ed York seems to have the best fix on this site I’ve seen, but this is the only place I looked and his fix was all I had to try.
    My room mate infected my other computer (he uses) and I was locked out of any application(s) with the trojan application desperately wanting a credit card number! Haha! Nice try!
    I used my computer to download the “Process Explorer” from sysinternals to a CD. Then I ran that file off of the CD on the infected computer which allowed me to kill the hotfix.exe! I was then able to open a command prompt, run the registry editor and search for the files listed above. Deleted those that I found and all is well! Thanks Ed.

    Reply

  17. Kc
    October 6th, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    I am not able to locate any of the files mentioned, and I cannot even open up the registry editor. Please help? I cannot understand this, even with the links for “removal guidelines”.

    Reply

  18. Neil
    October 8th, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    My son’s laptop had this problem on Oct.8th.(Windows Home Premium)It appears his anti-virus protection subscription ran out.The way that worked for me is:
    Disconnect internet from computer.Reboot computer and let antispy do its thing.
    While it is scanning press ctrl-alt-del repeatedly until task manager comes up.Taskmanager will come up and show antispy safeguard – highlight it and click end task – you may have to do this several times until screen message says – program not responding – click end now several times until antispy is gone from task manager.
    Now in Task Manager click new task – from there start fooling around with various tasks.The one you want is System Restore.
    I restored the computer from Oct. 6th restore point.Reboot again.I plugged in the internet and went to downloads .com and downloaded Antivirus and when it told me to reboot for completion of installation I let it do it’s thing and as the computer was starting up it was already scanning for viruses.After it finished I did a full system scan again to make sure.
    I didn’t lose anything from my computer,but I did have to reset my home page.
    This worked for me. Cheers.

    Reply

  19. peter
    October 8th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    i cant find the files like antispy.exe and other files help me!!!
    I am 13 years old and if my parents find out they will kill me!!!

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    October 11th, 2010 at 10:06 am

    Have you tried simply running anti-spyware scan? If there is no anti-spyware on your computer, there are many free-to-use spyware removers on web. Just make sure, you download a real program and not another hoax like AntiSpy Safeguard.

    Reply

  20. Colin
    October 8th, 2010 at 8:11 pm

    I just rebooted my machine and did ctrl alt del as soon as the antispy safeguard appeared and it worked. (was not working if i allowed my machine to boot up and let the antispy safeguard do a full boot as well)

    I reset my machine with system restore to 2 days ago and it is working fine now.

    Reply

  21. kevin
    October 11th, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    i hope im not speaking too soon but thanku for the help. i guess this is karma for downloading music illegally i already had spware doctor on my computer so i just did a full scan instead of the inelli scan and it found it i think…ill post again if it didnt work goodluck to fellow infectees

    Reply

    kevin Reply:
    October 12th, 2010 at 8:19 am

    ok so this just crashed my computer^^ . in the end i just did a system restore of a couple days ago and walaa everything is back to normal:)

    Reply

  22. Ann
    October 12th, 2010 at 6:20 am

    Hi
    Tried to remove using the task manager but none of those image names show up, now I don’t know what to do! There’s no antispy.exe, defender.exe, tmp.exe, exe.exe. listed. Now what do I do? Any help would be appreciated. Why do people do this anyway?

    Reply

    Ryan Reply:
    October 13th, 2010 at 7:42 am

    From John’s post above..

    * Let it finish it’s thing at startup
    * Hit Control+Alt+Delete to run the Task Manager
    * Click on the Processes tab
    * End the “hotfix.exe” process
    * Delete the hotfix.exe file (On WinXP it was at C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data)
    * Run the Registry Editor (Start, Run, regedit)
    * Remove hotfix.exe from the Shell setting inside HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Winlogon

    Reply

  23. Ryan
    October 13th, 2010 at 7:38 am

    I didn’t have the patience to spend another minute trying to battle this demon so I just ended up restoring my system to a day earlier.

    Reply

  24. ff
    October 17th, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    mine has been infected last week while googling. I didnt know it was a spyware i just ignore it, sadly. And today, my desktop is not working at all! Now that i decided to google about this antispy safeguard and shockingly found out that this app is actualy a scam! What should i do now? Cannot do all mentioned above, at all! A little too late:( have to call the technician i suposed? :’(

    Reply

  25. MIK
    October 26th, 2010 at 1:30 am

    locked me out at my desktop dam the thing, i used the three key press for windows task manager then open up applications and typed in “system restore” and my desktop revived itself so i could use my computer normally but i still had a few problems with other programs like system mechanic locking up to so i couldnt locate it and get ride of it thats how i ended up in this page so i can download the removal tool i hope it works

    Reply

  26. laura
    October 26th, 2010 at 7:45 pm

    Ok…so, this stupid fake malware virus stuff is just making me lose my mind. I have tried to press ctrl alt del but it doesn’t open up the task manager. I have gotten sick and tired of this popping up. I have a windows vista and i just want my computer to work the way it did. Someone help me plz!

    Reply

    Luciana Reply:
    October 27th, 2010 at 11:46 pm

    Boot your computer in a safe mode and you will be able to run antispyware tools and to access system tools like the Task Manager and Registry Editor.

    Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Download does not start? Try a mirror download here
«
»