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Vista anti-malware

A computer got infected with this. It pretends that your computer is infected with x amount of spyware/malware and you have to get the registered version to remove the (fake) malware. From the page here the steps to getting rid of this annoyance are:

  1. Type Ctrl/Shift/Escape to bring up the task manager (or right click on the task bar).
  2. Kill the ave.exe process. The popups will disappear. Leave the task scheduler up.[NOTE: you can use procexp too]
  3. Type Windows/R (to get the Run box) and type regedit and OK.
  4. Ave.exe will start again, just do step #2 again.
    [Note: Be careful with regedit. If you are not familiar with it, use other solutions for this infection]
  5. In Regedit, go to HKCR\.exe\shell\open\command. You will see something like this for (default):
    "C:\Documents and Settings\[your account]\Local Settings\Application Data\ave.exe" /START "%1" %*
  6. Modify the value to be:
    "%1" %*
  7. Do the same with HKCR\secfile\shell\open\command.
  8. Delete ave.exe from the location in step 5. [NOTE: I could just not find this program]
    At this point, you have control back and no more popups.
  9. Download the current version of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and run it.
  10. Choose to fix the items the scan found.
  11. Run a scan of your regular anit-virus program.

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