Alias: Windows Health Center, Windows Health Center Virus, Windows Health Center Trojan

Description: Posted on: Feb 01, 2011 2:10am

Windows Health Center is a fake Windows belonging to the Microsoft Security Essentials Alert family of rogue products. Windows Health Center hijacks your computer and starts claiming that your computer is infected. Windows Health Center uses this as a scare tactic to get you to purchase the full version. Windows Health Center is very good at eluding detection. In order for Windows Health Center to stop you from removing it, it disables your existing antivirus and antispyware programs and blocks access to help forums and to major name brand antispyware and antivirus vendor websites. It can also disable Task Manager so that you don't shut it down manually.

Windows Health Center blocks your browser and disables your programs. We have created a tool that temporarily removes this blocking ability so that you can download and run SpyNoMore to remove Windows Health Center. See the Special Instructions below.

If you try to run an application, Windows Health Center will give a warning message saying "Attempt to modify registry key entries is detected. Register entries analysis is recommended." (a sample message is shown below). In most cases we have seen, Windows Health Center was installed by a trojan or mistakenly downloaded from one of many fraudulent Fake Scanner Sites.

Windows Health Center displays exaggerated fake scan results similar to those shown below:









If you are unable to run programs, this is because Windows Health Center has disabled them.

Windows Health Center Special Removal Instructions

Step 1: Bookmark this page.

Step 2: Windows Health Center prevents you from running programs. We created a special SpyNoMore installer to work around the infection. To download the special installer click here.

Note that you can download the special installer to a clean computer then transfer it to the infected computer. You can use a thumb drive to do that, or transfer it via an existing computer network.

If your browser opens to 'Internet Explorer Safe Mode', follow the instructions here to fix this.
If your browser is not opening pages, follow the instructions here to fix this.

Step 3: Install SpyNoMore on the infected computer. When the installation is completed, SpyNoMore will check for and download available updates. Download any available updates. After the update is completed, the infection may shut down SpyNoMore, simply restart it from SpyNoMore's (blue shield) desktop icon.

Step 4: SNM will scan your computer and if Windows Health Center is present, SNM will detect it and you will be able to see Windows Health Center or Microsoft Security Essentials Alert in the scan results. These are the same product. Please note that the free version of SpyNoMore will only show you the detections but will not remove them. In order to remove the infection you need to purchase a 1-year license which costs $29.95 (or $39.95 for 3 computers).

Step 5: After you run the free scan, you can purchase SpyNoMore by clicking on the Remove Spyware button and completing the purchase. Alternatively, you can purchase the activation key from a clean computer by clicking on our Purchase link on our website. Write down the activation key and use it to activate SNM on the infected computer. This will remove Windows Health Center and fix any problems that may have come along with it (such as loss of Internet connection or inability to run programs).

Step 6 (optional but recommended): It would be a good idea to check your computer for rootkits (which are basically hidden trojans) which may have tagged along with Windows Health Center. To do so, download and run TDSSKiller by Kaspersky Labs.

Step 7 (optional but recommended): If TDSSKiller does find a rootkit, it will ask you to restart your computer so that it can remove the rootkit(s). After your computer restart, scan your computer once more with SpyNoMore to make sure everthing is OK.

Threat type:

Hijacker - A Hijacker is a software application that takes control of your browser's settings. Usually it changes your home page and redirects it to some unknown site or modifies your search settings. It prevents you from changing back your browser's settings. An infected browser usually operates much slower.

Ransomware - Ransomware is a software application that infects a computer and asks for money to have the infection removed.

Trojan - A Trojans or Trojan Horse is any programs that installs itself secretly, quite often with sinister intent. Once installed, the trojan author (hacker) can gain complete control of the infected PC. Trojans are usually designed to steal sensitive information and/or destroy the system. Trojans can be distributed as unsolicited email attachments, or bundled with freeware and shareware programs.

Advice: Remove This is a very high risk threat and should be removed immediately as to prevent harm to your computer and / or to protect your privacy.

Detection:
SpyNoMore removes Windows Health Center: Yes

Threat risk: Very High Risk

Extremely dangerous malware. Uses stealth installation, randomly named entries and has the capability to self update or resurrect after incomplete removal. Almost impossible to remove manually. Category mostly consists of trojans and spyware.

Symptoms:

Windows Health Center Signature Details: The following information includes some of the standard signatures associated with this spyware threat. Please do not attempt to manually remove these items from your computer; Removing these items incorrectly or partially can cause your computer to experience critical errors, prevent your computer from restarting or cause loss of Internet connectivity. Should you be infected with Windows Health Center, you can clean your computer by downloading SpyNoMore now.

Running Process Signatures:
N/A

File Signatures:
N/A

Registered Dll (Dynamic Link Library) Signatures:
N/A

Folder Signatures:
N/A

Registry Signatures:
N/A

SpyNoMore Collected Residual File Signatures:
N/A

See Also:
Windows Risk Eliminator
Windows Universal Tool
AVG Antivirus 2011
gudefender.com
Windows Shield Center
Windows Problems Remover
WinDisk
CheckDisk
Windows Problems Protector
Antivirus System 2011