Smart Protection 2012

Smart Protection 2012 - how to remove?

Smart Protection 2012 is a rogue computer security program. It comes from the same family of misleading programs as Security Sphere 2012, Personal Shield Pro, Total Security and many other. Internet criminals designed this program to scare unsuspecting computer users into purchasing a fake licence for Smart Protection 2012. This bogus program is distributed through Trojans, fake online security scanners or fake program updates. To prevent you computer from being infected with such rogue programs as Smart Protection 2012 you should always use an updated legitimate antivirus/antispyware program. When this fake program installs itself on your computer it will start automatically every time you start your computer, you will be shown a computer security scan.

Screenshot of Smart Protection 2012:

This security scan is totally fake. Smart Protection 2012 doesn't have anything in common with a legitimate security program - there's no virus definition database, no security scan engine, etc. All the processes displayed by Smart Protection 2012 are imaginary and are only used to trick you into purchasing it's fake licence. Needless to say that you shouldn't buy Smart Protection 2012 to remove the security threats from your computer. If you have already bought it, contact your credit card company and dispute the charges explaining that you have been tricked into buying a fake security program. Use this removal guide to remove Smart Protection 2012 from your computer.

Such fake security warning messages will be displayed when infected with Smart Protection 2012:

"Smart Protection 2012 Warning Intercepting programs that may compromise your privacy and harm your system have been detected on your PC. Click here to remove them immediately with Smart Protection 2012"

"Smart Protection 2012 Warning Your computer is still infected with dangerous viruses. Activate antivirus protection to prevent data loss and avoid theft of your credit card details. Click here to activate protection"

All of these security warnings are fake. After you have noticed that your computer is infected with Smart Protection 2012 you should remove it immediately.

Automatic Smart Protection 2012 removal:

Step 1
Before downloading automatic remover, you need to enter fake license key in registration window of this program. Click "registration" button at the top of the main window of Smart Protection 2012 and enter this key:  AA39754E-715219CE

It will not remove the infection, but will help removal process. Note, that if you copy this key to clipboard and click "registration" button Smart Protection 2012,  may automatically detect your copied key and will thank you for registration. Then it will imitate removing of fake infections and will ask you to restart your computer. Before restarting, or entering key, you can download remover (Step 2), so there won't be need to get back to this site. After restarting you'll notice that Smart Protection 2012  icon is still in taskbar. It will be gone, when the remover will finish it's job. Keep in mind, that by registering fake security programs you don't break any copyright laws.

Step 2
Now you can download and install spyware remover. Note, that when you'll scan your computer, Smart Protection 2012 may still generate fake warnings. You can ignore these warnings.

Automatic Smart Protection 2012 remover

If you can't download or run default installation file, you can try to download alternate installer (It is renamed to iexplore.exe, because most of spyware doesn't block execution of files with this name)

Smart Protection 2012 manual removal (experienced users):

1. Load your computer in safe mode with networking. Click Start, click Shut down, click Restart, click OK. During your computer starting process press F8 key on your keyboard multiple times until you see Windows Advanced Option menu, then select Safe mode with networking from the list.

2. Open Internet explorer, click Tools and select Internet Options. Select "Connections".

3.Click LAN settings, if a Use a proxy server for your LAN is checked, uncheck it and press OK.

4. Download HijackThis and save it on your desktop. Some malicious programs are able to block HijackThis so when you click the download link, in the Save dialog rename HijackThis.exe to iexplorer.exe and only then click the Save button. After saving the file on your desktop, double click it. In the main HijackThis window click “Do a system scan only” button. Select these entries (place a tick at the left of the entry):

O4 - HKCU\..\RunOnce: [<random>] %CommonAppData%\<random>\<random>.exe

After selecting required entries, click "Fix Checked". After this procedure you can close HijackThis and proceed to the next removal step.

5. Smart Protection 2012 modifies system hosts file. It is used to resolve some canonical names of websites to ip addresses. When it is changed, the user may be redirected to malicious site still seeing good URL in address bar. It is very hard to find out if the site is genuine or not, when hosts file is modified. To fix this, please download Microsoft FixIt tool, that restores your hosts file to windows default. Run this tool when downloaded and follow the on-screen instructions. Download link below:

6. Download and install Anti-spyware software to completely remove the infection.

Before downloading automatic remover, we need to enter fake license key in registration window of this program. Click "registration" button at the top of the main window of Smart Protection 2012 and enter this key:  AA39754E-715219CE

It will not remove the infection, but will help removal process. Note, that if you copy this key to clipboard and click "registration" button Smart Protection  2012 may automatically detect your copied key and will thank you for registration. Keep in mind, that by registering fake security programs you don't break any copyright laws.

Automatic Smart Protection 2012 remover

NOTE: Some spyware can block downloading spyware removers. If You can't download it using default location, try one of the alternative download locations below:

• Location 1 (The file is renamed to "iexplore.exe" because most of spyware doesn't block this file)
• Location 2

Other tools, known to remove Smart Protection 2012:

You can also try this registration code AA39754E-715219CE. After entering this code Smart Protection 2012 should stop showing security warnings. This could help you in the removal process. This code disables Smart Protection 2012 only temporary, after entering this code you should scan your computer with a legitimate antispyware program.

*If you can't download anti-spyware software: Click on the download link, when the save dialog opens change the file name (example: when downloading mbam-setup.exe rename it to iexplore.exe).
*If you have installed anti-spyware program but you can't run it: Click Run, type %ProgramFiles% and press Enter. Open folder of your anti-spyware program, search for executable file and rename it. (example: Open Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware folder, right-click on the main executable file (mbam.exe) then click rename. Rename the mbam.exe file to iexplore.exe, winlogon.exe firefox.exe ...
*If you can't access your anti-spyware software, try creating a new user account:
Click Start -> Settings -> Control panel.
Click User Accounts and create a new account.
Reboot your computer and login using a newly created user account.
*After this procedure you should be able to access your anti-spyware programs. Update and run a full system scan.

Additional information:

Some malicious software modifies browser settings and disables downloads of spyware and virus removing software. If you have problems downloading anti-spyware software with Internet Explorer, try downloading with Chrome, FireFox, Opera, etc.

General tips on removing Smart Protection 2012:

Load your computer in safe mode. Click Start, click Shut down, click Restart, click OK. During your computer starting process press F8 key on your keyboard multiple times until you see Windows Advanced Option menu, then select Safe mode with networking from the list.

Start Task manager. Press ctrl+alt+del (or ctrl+shift+esc) and end task the processes of rogue program. ( if after this procedure you can't access any programs press ctrl+alt+del, click File, select New Task, and type explorer.exe then press OK.

Open Internet explorer, click Tools and select Internet Options. Select Connections, then click LAN settings, if a Use a proxy server for your LAN is checked, uncheck it and press OK.

After this procedure you should be able to access Internet. Now you can download anti-spyware software from our "Top spyware removers" section and run a full scan. Download, install and don't forget to update your selected anti-spyware program. Then run a full system scan.

If you are unable to remove Smart Protection 2012, you can use this manual removal instruction. Use it at your own risk. If you don't have strong computer knowledge you could harm your operating system. Use it only if you are an experienced computer user. (Instructions on how to end processes, remove registry entries...)

End these Smart Protection 2012 processes:

[random].exe

Remove these Smart Protection 2012 registry entries:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\featurecontrol\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION "svchost.exe"
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "enablehttp1_1" = '1'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce ""

Delete these Smart Protection 2012 files:

%CommonAppData%\<random>\
%CommonAppData%\<random>\<random>
%CommonAppData%\<random>\<random>.exe
%StartMenu%\Programs\Smart Protection 2012.lnk