Proven Antivirus is counterfeit security software that is distributed by a Trojan. Trojan will act as legitimate software or movie player hosted on fake video web sites. When someone visits the site, it will prompt visitors to download the player which unknown to user will trigger the download and installation of Proven Antivirus. If successfully installed, Proven Antivirus will produce various alert messages and warnings stating that virus were detected. It will repeatedly issue these messages until user will be forced to pay for the licensed version of Proven Antivirus.
Another deceiving tactic by this malware is to provide instant scan once Windows starts. This scan will mimic the way how genuine antivirus program runs a virus scan. Later on, dozens of threats will be displayed as detected by the rogue program. Again, it will prompt user to get the registered version of Proven Antivirus to be able to remove the threats. This tactics are commonly employed by rogue security software.
As a piece of advice, never give in to these tricks. If something like this happens on the computer, download effective anti-malware software and be ready to thoroughly scan the computer to remove unwanted tool like Proven Antivirus. A guide below will help you get rid of Proven Antivirus together with all the entities it has dropped onto the computer. Be sure to execute a scan with suggested tool to delete hidden files and registry values linked to the malware.
What are the Symptoms of Proven Antivirus Infection?
As shown in the image above, Proven Antivirus integrates its code to a fake Windows Explorer that will run a scan on the computer. After the scan, it will prompt to download a tool, which is actually a malware in disguise.
It will modify Windows Registry and add the following entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run “Proven Antivirus”
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Proven Antivirus
The threat will drop the following malicious files:
%AllUsersProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\ Proven Antivirus
%Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\ Proven Antivirus.lnk
%Documents and Settings%\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Proven Antivirus
%Documents and Settings%\All Users\Application Data\Proven Antivirus
%Program Files%\Proven Antivirus
Proven Antivirus .lnk
How to Remove Proven Antivirus Manually
1. Restart your computer in SafeMode
– Press F8 on keyboard as soon as you turn on the computer
– Select SafeMode to start the computer loading only minimal resources
2. Delete Windows registry entries the malware created. It is important to BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY FIRST.
– On Windows Start Menu, Click Start > Run
– Type in the field, regedit
– Find registry entries mentioned above and delete if necessary
3. Files related to Proven Antivirus must be deleted:
– Browse and delete malicious files detected above.
– Some files cannot be deleted instantly. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open Windows Task Manager, look for any virus-related files mentioned on this page and highlight it, click End Process. Try to delete the file once more.
4. Run Antivirus Program
– You must be connected to Internet to be able to update your anti-virus program. This is needed to have the latest database available and detect newer threats.
– Thoroughly scan the computer and clean or delete all detected threats.
How to Easily Remove Proven Antivirus
1. Print this procedure as we need to close all running programs later.
2. Download AntiMalware Application here and save it to your Desktop.
3. Close all open applications.
4. Double-Click on the downloaded mbam-setup.exe to start the installation. If unable to execute, infections on computer is preventing it from running, rename the file mbam-setup.exe to anything (like myfile.exe)
5. Run the installation on the default settings. No changes are necessary.
6. Just before completing the installation, make sure that the following are marked check.
– Update the program
– Launch the program
7. The tool will run and update itself after installation. Close it after the update.
8. Restart your computer in SafeMode
– After Power-On the computer, just before Windows start, press F8
– From the selections, Select SafeMode
9. Click on the icon and start to Perform Full Scan to begin scanning your computer for Proven Antivirus related files.
10. After scanning, a message will appear stating that the scan is completed successfully. Click OK.
11. Click Show Results and detected threats will be displayed.
12. Make sure that all threats are marked check, then click Remove Selected to begin removal of the malicious files.
13. Exit AntiMalware Apps and restart your computer.
14. Proven Antivirus and all its files are now removed from your computer. To guard your computer from this threat and avoid future infections, you may want real-time protection from a full version of anti-malware program..
