Author: Amy Zhou

Last Sunday, I went to visit one of my close friends and he told me that his computer is infected with several viruses and since he is not a computer geek, he asked me to help removing those viruses. I checked his computer and found that he had Personal Antivirus on his system which was showing the fake security alerts. My friend was considering buying this product but gladly he didn’t fall into this scam. I removed this threat from his computer and I’ll outline my finding in this article.

What is Personal Antivirus?

In short, It is a fake software which is a virus itself. It will get installed on your computer somehow and pressure you to purchase the program. It will show you fake infections with scary sounds to intimidate you so that you purchase the license of software and pay money to these scammers.

How your computer can get infected with Personal Antivirus?

If you are surfing the Internet without any real time protection software installed on your computer, you are on high risk. Most of the computer users who get infected with such viruses are trying to download something for free, but in reality, nothing is free in the world.

If you visit suspicious websites to get free software, screen savers, music, videos and other similar stuff, you will be a victim of such threats sooner or later. These malicious software are bundled in the stuff you are downloading. Once you download and install that stuff on your computer, your computer gets infected and It is like installing the virus yourself!

What happens If my computer catches Personal Antivirus?

This software will bug you every now and then telling you that your computer is infected with a certain virus. Your computer will run extremely slow and from time to time, It will show you fake alerts and disturb your work with scary sounds. Believe me, It will drive you crazy with fake alerts and ask you to buy the product to get rid of these viruses. It won’t let you run many program and close them automatically.

How To Remove Personal Antivirus?

Once you realize that your computer is infected with this bogus software, you must remove it as soon as possible. There are two days to remove it, Manual Removal and Automatic Removal.

Manual Removal

1. Run Task Manager by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and kill processes named pav.exe and unins000.exe.

2. Click on Start–>Run, type “regedit” and click on OK to run Registry Editor. In registry Editor, please delete these registry values:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE–>SOFTWARE–>Microsoft–>Windows–>CurrentVersion–>UninstallPersonal Antivirus_is1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE–>SYSTEM–>CurrentControlSet–>Enum–>Root–>LEGACY_ITGRDENGINE
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE–>SYSTEM–>CurrentControlSet–>Services–>ITGrdEngine
HKEY_CURRENT_USER–>Software–>Microsoft–>Internet Explorer “PrS”
HKEY_CURRENT_USER–>Software–>Microsoft–>Windows–>CurrentVersion–>Run “Personal Antivirus”

3. Then please search your computer for these files and remove them from your computer.

Personal Antivirus.lnk
Uninstall.lnk
pav.exe
msxmlm.dll.tmp
drv1878004.exe.tmp

4. After that, please delete these directories:

c–>Documents and Settings–>All Users–>Start Menu–>Programs–>Personal Anti Virus
%UserProfile%–>Application Data–>Personal Antivirus
%UserProfile%–>Application Data–>Personal Antivirus–>db
c–>Program Files–>Personal Anti Virus
c–>Program Files–>Personal Anti Virus–>db
c–>Program Files–>Personal Anti Virus–>Languages

If you follow above steps literally, you can remove personal antivirus from your computer easily, however manual steps are much harder to follow and If you are not expert in editing registry, you should not attempt manual removal instructions as you may cause further harm to your computer by removing wrong keys.

If you are not comfortable with manual removal instructions, It is highly recommend that you get an automatic removal software. I personally used this software to from my friends computer and it worked like charm. Not only It removed personal antivirus but also It provides real time protection and now my friend’s computer is safe from similar threats in future! Make sure to install a genuine security software on your system so that such threats are deleted before they spread to your computer!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/security-articles/personal-antivirus-removal-instruction-how-to-remove-personal-antivirus-completely-2745326.html

About the Author

Amy Zhou is a professional security software expert and virus threat analyst that contributes to the security software company. She is fond of reviews many antispyware and antivirus software in the market. She would like to help computer users to know more essential computer knowledge and take good care of their daily friends-the computers. Read more http://www.bestspywarescanner.net/