How to remove AV Guard Online virus

AV Guard Online is a malicious program from the same family of malware as Sysinternals Antivirus which pretends to be an antivirus software. In reality, the program displays false information and detects fake infections in order to trick you into thinking your computer is infected with all sorts of malware. It will say that all you have to do in order to remove viruses, malware and trojans is purchase so-called full version of the software. Remember, the program is unable to detect and remove any malware and viruses, so do not pay for the bogus software! Simply ignore all that it will display you and remove AV Guard Online from your computer as quickly as possible!

AV Guard Online installed itself onto your computer without your permission and knowledge, through the use of trojans. When the trojan is started, it will download and install the rogue onto your computer. During installation, AV Guard Online will configure itself to start automatically every time when Windows loads. Once started, it will perform a system scan and “detect” a lot of infected files, trojans, worms, and so on, that will not be fixed unless you first purchase the full version of the program. Of course, this is not necessary.

The scan results, as well as the “system scan”, is nothing but a scam. AV Guard Online cannot detect and remove any infections, as well as not be able to protect you from possible infections in the future. Thus, you can safely ignore all that the rogue antispyware will show you.

While AV Guard Online is running, it will display a fake Windows Security Center and a wide variety of alerts, reminders, security messages from Windows task. Some of the alerts:

However, like the scan results, all of these alerts, screens and pop-ups are a fake. Feel free to ignore all of them.

What is more, AV Guard Online can block the Windows Task Manager and most legitimate Windows applications, so that they will not even start. If you try to run a program, your computer will display an alert from Windows task bar stating that the program is infected and then this program will be terminated. An example of the alert:

As you can see AV Guard Online is a fraudulent program that you should to try to remove immediately after the discovery on the your computer. Do not be fooled into buying the program! Instead of doing so, follow the removal guidelines below in order to remove AV Guard Online and any associated malware from your computer for free.

Use the following instructions to remove AV Guard Online (Uninstall instructions)

It is possible that the rogue will not allow you to run a malware removal tools, then you will need to reboot your computer in Safe mode with networking.

Restart your computer. After hearing your computer beep once during startup, start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key when the Boot Menu appears.

Instead of Windows loading as normal, Windows Advanced Options menu appears similar to the one below.

Windows Advanced Options menu

When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, select Safe mode with networking and then press ENTER.

AV Guard Online virus changes Internet Explorer proxy settings to use a malicious proxy server that will not allow you download or update security software. So, you should complete this step to fix this problem.

Run Internet Explorer, Click Tools -> Internet Options as as shown in the screen below.

Internet Explorer – Tools menu

You will see window similar to the one below.

Internet Explorer – Internet options

Select Connections Tab and click to Lan Settings button. You will see an image similar as shown below.

Internet Explorer – Lan settings

Uncheck “Use a proxy server” box. Click OK to close Lan Settings and Click OK to close Internet Explorer settings.

Now you should download Malwarebytes Anti-malware and remove all AV Guard Online associated malware.

Download MalwareBytes Anti-malware (MBAM). Once downloaded, close all programs and windows on your computer.

Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MalwareBytes Anti-malware onto your computer. Once installation is complete, you will see window similar to the one below.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Window

Now click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for AV Guard Online associated malware. This procedure can take some time, so please be patient.

When the scan is finished a message box will appear that it has completed scanning successfully. Click OK. Now click “Show Results”. Make sure all entries have a checkmark at their far left and click “Remove Selected”.

AV Guard Online may be bundled with TDSS trojan-rootkit, so you should run TDSSKiller to detect and remove this infection.

Download TDSSKiller from here and unzip to your desktop. Open TDSSKiller folder. Right click to tdsskiller and select rename. Type a new name (123myapp, for example). Press Enter. Double click the TDSSKiller icon. You will see a screen similar to the one below.

TDSSKiller

Click Start Scan button to start scanning Windows registry for TDSS trojan. If it is found, then you will see window similar to the one below.

TDSSKiller – Scan results

Click Continue button to remove TDSS trojan.

If you can`t to download or run TDSSKiller, then you need to use Combofix. Download Combofix. Close any open browsers. Double click on combofix.exe and follow the prompts. If ComboFix will not run, please rename it to myapp.exe and try again!

Your system should now be free of the AV Guard Online virus. If you need help with the instructions, then post your questions in our Spyware Removal forum.

AV Guard Online removal notes

Note 1: if you can not download, install, run or update Malwarebytes Anti-malware, then follow the steps: Malwarebytes won`t install, run or update – How to fix it.

Note 2: your current antispyware and antivirus software let the infection through ? Then you may want to consider purchasing the FULL version of MalwareBytes Anti-malware to protect your computer in the future.

AV Guard Online creates the following files and folders

%UserProfile%\application data\AV Guard Online
%UserProfile%\start menu\Programs\AV Guard Online
%UserProfile%\application data\AV Guard Online\wf.conf
%UserProfile%\application data\AV Guard Online\AV Guard Online.ico
%UserProfile%\Desktop\AV Guard Online.lnk
%UserProfile%\start menu\Programs\AV Guard Online\AV Guard Online.lnk