How to remove the Virus Protect Pro malware
A friend of mine was recently hit with some malware that would put a little shield in the system tray of windows which would show reports of virus infections and all types of problems. Every time you click on it, it would open up a page for a product called Virus Protect Pro. Of course you have to pay for this, and what you're paying for is really a glorified uninstaller of their malware. Here's how to clean it from your system...
Products Tested
I first tried AVG Anti-Virus but to no avail. This isn't technically a virus. It's malware, so it wasn't detected. Next we tried Ad-Aware but it also could not remove the VPP malware. I ran Hijack This and turned off a few recommended things but that program is so technical I couldn't quite figure out if I had done anything good with it. I decided to just leave things be.
Quick Solution
I searched around and heard of success using a product called SuperAntiSpyware. I had never heard of it before and was very skeptical but had tried everything else I trusted to no avail, so I gave it a shot. After updating, it found absolutely everything including the Virus Protect Pro malware and removed all of it successfully. I have no affiliation with that company but their product really did hands down work the best in this case.
What NOT to do if you have the Virus Protect Pro infection
This thing is a scam. It is not anti-virus software. It installed itself on your pc, in effect being a virus, then claiming that it is detecting viruses and trying to get you to pay to remove them, which is really just removing itself. Don't click on it, don't give them money, don't buy in to any of it. Just get rid of it. I highly recommend trying SuperAntiSpyware before anything else as it worked 1st try for me, but I'm sure eventually more products will support removal of VPP. Please post a comment if you find another product that supports VPP removal now. I will keep a list up-to-date here for others to use. Good luck!
Stumble It!
This malware can be removed with SpyBot. Accomplished this morning so I know it works.
Excellent info. I'm sure there are more products that are supporting it this week.
that virus is such a dumb and nagging thing!
thank you so much for helping me
God Bless U
Good Bye
Just took your advice, wonderful! Thank you so much! Worked and it didnt take too long! Have no idea how the virus protect pro got on there!
I tried the super anti spyware, but it's still on my pc! How frustrating! I can't seem to remove it
Try rebooting, rerunning and rebooting again. That did the trick for me. Also, make sure your antispyware is up-to-date!
Here is how I did it:
First I tried using my old faithful Spy Sweeper. This program has always worked in the past, although removing a lot of junk, no success.
Then I tried the recommended Super AntiSpyware. Removed more stuff, but still no go.
Finally I took the suggestion about SpyBot !!! Thank you spybot. It worked perfectly removing my problem and others. So if you want to get it the first time go with spybot.
Ran spybot 3 times including on reboot and I still am infcted with VPP. Weird part is spybot did find and fix VPP but its still there so ...
I tried all the tips above, but I still have at least the little annoying shield in the tray at the bottom corner of the screen. All the spyware destroying programs I've downloaded have deteled many viruses, but i still have some on my PC.
i had the same problem as dw! rad spybot 3 times, detected it and fixed it, but it's still there the next time!!!
I used the "System Restore" function,went back to yesterday,rebooted,problem solved
Might need to make sure the SYSTEM RESTORE option is disabled prior to running any cleaners. otherwise you'll simply reinfect your machine.
THank you so MUCH!!!! The download worked GREAT!!! GONE
I with there would be a way to send these virus protect people to jail.
Thanks AGAIN!!
Dear Robert Green,
Thank you so MUCH!!! I got rid of it by downloading SuperAntiSpyware and will purchase the software whether or not you are affiliated. I was going to beat my PC to death. You saved its life. Good of you and may you be rewarded in life. For surely what goes around comes around.
Donald
hey thanks alot man that thing was doing my head in and had tried various things to remove it. superantispyware worked a charm.
once again thanks for the info.
a very happy monkeyboots
I got this a couple of days ago, but didn't manage to remove it using Spybot.
However, using System Restore in XP to restore my pc to a day before I got the spyware fixed it for me. I found this under Accessories/System Tools/System Restore.
Tried Spyhunter could not get rid of it. Ran ad-aware three times Spy-bot four times Ewido once much better now. Thanks.
FYI: Spybot did not work for me
Tried Superantispyware which did not work. then ran cCleaner again did not work. i then gave AVG Anti-spyware didnt work either. last resort was system restore but it didnt work. does spybot work there are mixed results here??? any suggestions on what to use would be great.
Tried various types of antispyware to get rid of VPP .Finally tried super antispyware and it worked first time
Hi, thanks for the help! My pc infected with Virus Protect, and i downloaded the super anti-spyware.Looks like working (i hope).Found 105 malware,25 trojan! Ouch. So, thanks again!
i tried using the system restore and it work! thanks for the help, greatly appreciate it!
Thank you so much!!! Downloaded super-anti-spyware and got rid of that annoying malware in about 10 minutes. It completely sckrewed up my Internet Explorer so i couldn't naviagte away from the virus protect page. I'm just glad i had downloaded firefox and safari too!
This malware is really annoying, but so far nothing is coming up on SuperAntiSpyware's scan as a threat. I tried to do a System Restore but it failed. Did you use the Free Home version or the Trial Professional version? I downloaded the Free Home edition... was that the wrong choice?
Spybot didn't work for me, but Super Anti-Spyware did. Home edition was fine. I rebooted after removing the spyware. Thanks so much!
I had the same exact problem! It started when I went to download Active X control, and then it downloaded Virus protect onto my computer. The pop-ups were annoying, and about every 2 minutes or so. I had the caution symbol "detecting malicious scripts" and the shield saying that I should download anti-virus shields because they detected trojans on my system. The messages had a lot of misspelled words. I went to download.com and downloaded an "anti-spyware" which turned out to be even more spyware. I then downloaded Spyware-Terminator, which cleaned some of my cookies and trojans, but didn't get rid of VPP. Then I found this site, took the advice and downloaded SuperAntiSpyware... it took about 50 mins to run, but after I rebooted my computer VPP was gone!
Thank You so much for your help and comments!
Thanks for the advice. Used Super Anti Software and it did the trick! Whew! Glad the only thing I lost tonight was two hours trying to get this off my computer.
I used SUPERAntiSpyware free version and it took 52 minutes to finish the scan and after that I rebooted my computer. Then I saw that VPP has gone!! Thank you SUPERAntiSpyware!!!!
I used the System Restore to the day before this dumb program downloaded to my comp and it worked like a charm. Thanks to whoever came up with this plan.
Many thanks for your advice - Virus Protect was slowing my laptop to a crawl and popping up every couple of minutes.
Tried removing the program from the Control Panel, which didn't work, and also had a couple of abortive attempts at a System Restore. No dice.....
Downloaded Super Anti-Spyware and Spybot S&D last night, and did a scan-and-fix with each. Problem solved.
I appreciate all your comments and help, people!
I used AVG Free and it got rid of it due to some modding tools i developed!
SuperAntiSpyware did work for me and it was the free trail version. thank you all
this worked for me thanks so much!