Windows Home Patron - how to eliminate it from your computer?
Windows Home Patron is a rogue antivirus program that is being promoted by Cyber criminals, they are hoping that unsuspecting PC users will fall for the trickery shown by this malicious software and will purchase it's licence key (activate ultimate protection). You shouldn't mistaken Windows Home Patron to a legitimate antivirus software, thought it may look as a professional program that scans your computer for security issues, in reality all the displayed processes are imitated. This program is designed to show fake security scans and detect non existent security infection.
Windows Home Patron doesn't have a virus definition database nor a scan engine, this fact clearly states that this software is bogus and you shouldn't trust it. You can be calm about the virus and malware detection list that is shown by Windows Home Patron - it's fake, this misleading program shows the same list on all of the computers that it infiltrates. This fake antivirus program is not unique, it comes from a big family of rogues called "FakeVimes", all of the malicious software from this family shares the same user interface and are installed on user's computers using trickery or security vulnerabilities. Previous versions of this rogue antivirus software were called Windows Virtual Firewall, Windows Premium Defender and Windows Web Combat.
Internet criminals who has released this scam are hoping that you will pay for it's full version in order to remove the supposedly detected security threats, you shouldn't activate the ultimate protection for Windows Home Patron - you will send your money to Cyber criminals and your PC will still be infected. You should be aware that there are more than one hundred fake antivirus programs which all originates from this rogue family, if you notice a security program that looks like the one in the provided screenshot and asks you to activate ultimate protection you can be sure that you are dealing with a malicious software. Ignore all the information given by Windows Home Patron and eliminate this fake software from your PC.
Windows Home Patron generates such fake warning messages:
"Warning! Virus Detected Threat detected: FTP Server Infected file: C:\Windows\System32\dllcache\wmploc.dll"
"Warning! Identity theft attempt Detected Hidden connection IP: 58.82.12.124 Target: Your passwords for sites"
"Error Key-logger activity detected. System information security is at risk. It is recommended to activate protection and run a full system scan"
"Microsoft Security Essentials detected potential threats that might compromise your privacy or damage your computer. You need to clean your computer immediatly to prevent the system crash"
"Trojan-PSW.Win32.launch Hack Tool:Win32/Welevate.A Adware.Win32.Fraud"
Windows Home Patron removal:
Before downloading the remover for Windows Home Patron click a question mark icon at the top of the main window of this program, choose "Activate Now" and enter this registration code: 0W000-000B0-00T00-E0020 This will enable blocked Windows functions and will make the further removal process much easier, after entering the activation code continue to downloading the spyware remover.
remover for Windows Home Patron
If you can't download or run spyware remover try running registry fix (link below). It enables execution of programs. download registryfix.reg file, double click it, click YES and then OK.
Manual Windows Home Patron removal instructions:
Step 1
Start your computer in safe mode. Click Start, then click Shut down. Select Restart and click OK. During your computer starting process press F8 key on your keyboard multiple times until Windows Advanced Options menu shows up, then select Safe mode with networking from the list and press ENTER.
Step 2
Now we need to remove proxy settings. Windows Home Patron adds a proxy to your Internet connection settings to show various errors when you try to access Internet. To do this, open Internet explorer, click Tools and select Internet Options. Then select the "Connections" tab.
In the "Connections" tab, click LAN settings, if a "Use a proxy server for your LAN" is checked, uncheck it and press OK.
Step 3
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 iexplore.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\..\Run: [Inspector] %AppData%\Protector.exe (Protector.exe file may have 3 or more random characters at the end of it's file name like ProtectionGQY.exe)
After selecting required entries, click "Fix Checked" and these entries will be removed. After this procedure you can close HijackThis and proceed to the next removal step.
Step 4
Download a legitimate anti-spyware software to fully remove Windows Home Patron from your computer.
Step 5
After removing Windows Home Patron, you will need to reset your Hosts file. Don't skip this step, this malware modifies your Hosts files, and you will encounter browser redirect problems if malicious entries will not be removed from hosts file.
Hosts file 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 Fix It tool, that restores your hosts file to Windows default. Run this tool when downloaded and follow the on-screen instructions. Download link below:
Finish
After completing all these steps your computer should be clean.
Other tools known to remove Windows Home Patron:
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.
If you can't access Internet:
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, un-check 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.
Manual Windows Home Patron removal:
If you were unable to remove Windows Home Patron using the steps above, 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. Be careful and use it only if you are an experienced computer user. (Instructions on how to end processes, remove registry entries...)
End these Windows Home Patron processes:
random.exe
Protector.exe (Protector.exe file may have 3 or more random characters at the end of it's file name like ProtectionGQY.exe)
Remove these Windows Home Patron registry entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\_avp32.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ashLogV.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\beagle.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\jedi.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msa.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ntvdm.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\rav7.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\spoler.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\vir-help.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\wupdt.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "WarnOnHTTPSToHTTPRedirect" = 0
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableRegedit" = 0
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableRegistryTools" = 0
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableTaskMgr" = 0
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "Inspector"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Settings "net
Delete these Windows Home Patron files:
%StartMenu%\Programs\Windows Home Patron.lnk
%AppData%\Protector.exe (NOTE: this file may have various symbols at the end of it's name. Look for the similar file name pattern and remove it)
%AppData%\result.db
%Desktop%\Windows Home Patron.lnk