Windows Vista Blog

Personal Anti Malware is a rogue anti-spyware application that tries to trick users into paying for its license. It gets installed by using Trojans that get downloaded from websites that advertise fake system scanners and through social engineering methods. Once established on the user’s system, Personal Anti Malware loads itself at boot time and performs a large number of fake scans on the system, returning results that show that the computer is badly infected with a number of malicious software programs. It also shows fake pop-ups from the Windows taskbar claiming that the system is under threat. The aim of all this activity is to try and get the user into purchasing a license for the ‘full’ version of Personal Anti Malware, as the rogue software claims that the currently installed ‘trial’ version is incapable of properly removing the detected false ‘threats’. If the user actually pays for the license, Personal Anti Malware will even change its name to Personal Anti Malware Center. However, no version of Personal Anti Malware can perform a proper scan or clean on any system as it is merely a fake program. This website Personal Anti Malware has good infos about this malware.

In order to delete Personal Anti Malware, you must stop its processes, remove its files and folders, and delete its registry entries.

File Removal Procedures

The first step you need to take to delete Personal Anti Malware is to stop the following processes:

• SysShield.exe
• add.exe
• AVP_Update.exe
• PAM.exe

Next, it is necessary to delete the following files and folders:

• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\add.exe
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\AVP_Update.exe
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\PAM.exe
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\scanopt.sys
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\Support.url
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\svo.scf
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\sysdata.sys
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\SysShield.exe
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\Uninstall.exe
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\vlist
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\warning.mht
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\nagsr
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\payment
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\tray
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\windows
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\windows\options
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\windows\Recover
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\windows\Security
• c:\Program Files\Personal Anti Malware\bitmaps\windows\sustemscan
• c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Personal Anti Malware
• c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Personal Anti Malware\Personal Anti Malware.lnk
• c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Personal Anti Malware\Support.lnk

Once these steps have been completed, Personal Anti Malware no longer resides on your file system. However, in order to be sure of this fact it is recommended to install and conduct a full system scan with the help of genuine security software such as Spyware Doctor with Antivirus.

Registry Removal Procedures

In order to completely delete Personal Anti Malware, it is necessary to remove the following keys and settings from the registry as well:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AV2009
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AVP09
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “Personal Anti Malware”
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “Windows applications server”
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform “AVP09″

Now your computer is completely safe from Personal Anti Malware. Even if this is true in most of the cases, a full system scan using genuine antivirus software such as Spyware Doctor with Antivirus is to be considered.

Conclusion

It is not recommended for inexperienced users to try and manually delete Personal Anti Malware, as any wrong move on your part could cause damage to your operating system. Unless you are an experienced system administrator, you should use a web-based system repair service such as www.onlinecomputerrepair.org or a legitimate security product in order to properly delete Personal Anti Malware.