Daily Archives: June 9, 2012

How To Remove Relevant Knowledge Virus / Malware

Posted on by

How To Remove Relevant Knowledge Virus / Malware

Relevant Knowledge monitors browsing habits and purchasing activities. The data collected is sent to the creator of the application or third-parties. It displays surveys in a pop-up window. Relevant Knowledge uses Internet connection in the background without a user’s knowledge and in some cases may even affect Internet connection speed because your Internet connections will go through its own proxy. RelevantKnowledge is bundled in many freeware and commercial applications and it is introduced to a user when those commercial or free products are installed. It could be Windows screensavers, themes, games, etc.

Manual Removal of Relevant Knowledge: First to avoid any further infections caused by internet browsing redirects users will need to go to their Internet Options; this can be done by going to the start menu followed by control panel. Once in Internet Options choose the “Connections” tab followed by “LAN Settings” uncheck the “Use a Proxy Server” Option. Once done click “Ok” to save these settings. Next users restart your computer in safe mode. To access safe mode, restart your computer and tap the F8 button. When correctly done a black screen will appear with options for starting up Windows. Choose Safe Mode and Windows will load safe mode, Next locate and delete the following files associated with Relevant Knowledge:

C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\nscf.dat
C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\rlls64.dll
C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\rlls.dll
C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\rloci.bin
C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\rlservice.exe
C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\rlvknlg64.exe
C:\Program Files\RelevantKnowledge\rlvknlg.exe
Relevant Knowledge Registry Entries that should be removed:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu\Programs\RelevantKnowledge
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “RelevantKnowledge”
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce “OSSProxy” rlvknlg.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\MUICache Data “RelevantKnowledge”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{d08d9f98-1c78-4704-87e6-368b0023d831}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile\AuthorizedApplications\List “c:\program files\relevantknowledge\rlvknlg.exe:*:Enabled:rlvknlg.exe”

How to Remove Windows Maintenance Suite

Posted on by

Windows Maintenance Suite is a scareware program from the Rogue.FakeVimes family of computer infections. This program is considered a rogue anti-spyware program because it shows fake security warnings, terminates processes and prevents you from running legitimate applications, and deliberately displays false scan results in order to scare you into purchasing the program. Windows Maintenance Suite is distributed through hacked web sites that exploit vulnerabilities on your computer and via fake online anti-malware scanners that state you are infected.

When this program is installed it will be configured to start when you login to Windows. The installer will also set numerous Windows Registry entries that make it so you cannot launch your anti-virus programs or Windows programs that can help you remove the computer infection. Once running, Windows Maintenance Suite will perform a scan and state that there are many infected files on your computer. If you attempt to remove any of them, though, the program will state that you first need to purchase it before it will allow you to do so.

While running, Windows Maintenance Suite will also display numerous security warnings that are designed to scare you into thinking your computer has a security problem. An example of one of the messages you may see is:

Error
Attempt to modify registry key entries detected. Registry entry analysis is recommended.

Just like the scan results, all of these security alerts are fake and should be ignored.

Without a doubt, Windows Maintenance Suite is a scam that was created to trick you into thinking your computer is severely infected so that you will then purchase the program. With this said, for no reason should you purchase this program, and if you have, you should contact your credit card company and dispute the charge stating that the program is a scam and a computer virus. To remove Windows Maintenance Suite and related malware, please follow the steps in the removal guide below.

Automated Removal Instructions for Windows Maintenance Suite using Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware:

1.Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is open later in the fix.

2.It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow you to download files on the infected computer. If you run into this problem when following the steps in this guide you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.

3.Reboot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking:

Select Safe Mode with Networking rather than just Safe Mode. When the computer reboots into Safe Mode with Networking make sure you login with the username you normally use. When you are at your Windows desktop, please continue with the rest of the steps.

4.This infection changes your Windows settings to use a proxy server that will not allow you to browse any pages on the Internet with Internet Explorer or update security software. Regardless of the web browser you use, for these instructions we will first need need to fix this problem so that we can download the utilities we need to remove this infection.

Please start Internet Explorer, and when the program is open, click on the Tools menu and then select Internet Options.

5-7 Now click on the Connections tab, then Now click on the Lan Settings button, Under the Proxy Server section, please uncheck the checkbox labeled Use a proxy server for your LAN. Then press the OK button to close this screen. Then press the OK button to close the Internet Options screen. Now that you have disabled the proxy server you will be able to browse the web again with Internet Explorer.

8.Now we must end the processes that belong to Windows Maintenance Suite so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please download RKill to your desktop from the following link.

RKill Download Link

When at the download page, click on the Download Now button labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted where to save it, please save it on your desktop.

If you are unable to connect to the site to download RKill, please go back and do steps 3-6 again and make sure the infection has not reenabled the proxy settings. You may have to do this quite a few times before you can get RKill downloaded. If you still cannot download the RKill program on the infected computer, you should download it to a clean computer and copy it to the infected one via a USB flash drive or CDROM.

9.Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with Windows Maintenance Suite and other Rogue programs. Please be patient while the program looks for various malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just a fake warning given by Windows Maintenance Suite when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that RKill can terminate Windows Maintenance Suite . So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.

If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions of RKill from the RKill download page. Both of these files are renamed copies of RKill, which you can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new browser window or tab.

10.Now you should download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Download Link

If you are unable to connect to the site to download Malwarebytes’, please go back and do steps 3-6 again and make sure the infection has not reenabled the proxy settings.

11.Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.

12.Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.

13.When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button. If MalwareBytes’ prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.

14.MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program.

15.On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Windows Maintenance Suite related files.

16.MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan.

17.When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.

You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the Windows Maintenance Suite removal process.

18.You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.

19.A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.

You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.

20.When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.

21.You can now exit the MBAM program and done.