PC Tonic

2876 serious infections and critical errors were found on your computer!!! Click on the tray icon to purchase AntiVermins Gold NOW and fix your computer. Instant download option available!

These three lines are enough to send any regular PC user into panic. And if you’re still scratching your head on what I wrote above — this is typically what a rogue software does to frighten, and thereby force, you to give away your credit card details to purchase “security software”, which will eventually wipe your hard drive clean of all important documents.

The number of Windows computers being infected with rogue software has been increasing really fast. This is due to the fact that a majority of the regular antivirus and antispyware tools somehow fail to detect these infections. Once installed, the rogueware (as they’re better known) will turn off the security apps and pop up messages every 10-15 seconds until you’re pissed off and just do whatever it says you to.

Ages ago, I had written about two small tools – RogueFix and SmitfraudFix – that can detect and remove such infections from your PC. They’re still being actively updated, but both run in command prompt, require you to boot Windows in Safe Mode, and are definitely not user-friendly. To address all this, we now have a brand new free tool called RogueRemover by Malwarebytes – it’s small, has got a graphical interface (yay!), runs under normal Windows, and is damn easy to use! RogueRemover comes in two editions – the free version updates manually, scans and removes infections, while the Pro version has an additional monitoring tool that can stop rogueware from infecting your computer in future. As always, we’ll be dealing with the free product, which I feel is more than enough.

RogueRemover Free (RR) is just 675KB and installs in seconds. On running for the first time, it’ll ask you to update it’s database and program signatures. Once done, you can proceed to the main window where you get the option to :

• Scan your computer for rogueware: It’s really fast, taking just about half a second to complete! My laptop got the clean cheat but if there’s something lurking in yours, it’ll come up in the results and RR will have it removed for you (can’t tell you how, but it should be easy!).

• Check the entire list of rogue programs (currently 444) and their risk level under ‘Programs Targeted’. You can also avail this list at Malwarebytes’ threats center.
• A really stupid ‘Exclude List’ that lets you to make RR ignore one / more of the detected rogueware in future – I’m sure all the programs detected by RR are perfectly rogue, so there’s no need for the Exclude List.
• Check for updates.
• ‘Try the PRO version’ – well it had to be there.

For something this small and free, RogueRemover does a great job of cleansing your PC of all those evil-ware. Grab it to have your PC checked!