Remove Windows Recovery (Uninstall Guide)
Posted by Lawrence Abrams on March 22, 2011 @ 11:53 PM · Views: 481,790
Windows Recovery is a fake computer analysis and optimization program that displays fake information in order to scare you into believing that there is an issue with your computer. Windows Recovery is installed via Trojans that display false error messages and security warnings on the infected computer. These messages will state that there is something wrong with your computer's hard drive and then suggests that you download and install a program that can fix the problem. When you click on of these alerts, Windows Recovery will automatically be downloaded and installed onto your computer.
Once installed, Windows Recovery will be configured to start automatically when you login to Windows. Once started, it will display numerous error messages when you attempt to launch programs or delete files. Windows Recovery will then prompt you to scan your computer, which will then find a variety of errors that it states it cannot fix until you purchase the program. When you use the so-called defragment tool it will state that it needs to run in Safe Mode and then show a fake Safe Mode background that pretends to defrag your computer. As this program is a scam do not be scared into purchasing the program when you see its alerts.
Windows Recovery screen shot
For more screen shots of this infection click on the image above.
There are a total of 4 images you can view.
To further make it seem like your computer is not operating correctly, Windows Recovery will also make it so that certain folders on your computer display no contents. When opening these folders, such as C:\Windows\System32\ or various drive letters, instead of seeing the normal list of files it will instead display a different folder's contents or make it appear as if the folder is empty. This is done to make it seem like there is corruption on your hard drive that is causing your files to not be displayed. It does this by adding the +H, or hidden, attribute to all of your files, which causes your files to become hidden. It will then change your Windows settings so that you cannot view hidden and system files. Once the rogue's processes are terminated you can enable the setting to view hidden files, and thus be able to see your files and folders again, by following the instructions in this tutorial:
How to see hidden files in Windows
Windows Recovery also attempts to make it so you cannot run any programs on your computer. If you attempt to launch a program it will terminate it and state that the program or hard drive is corrupted. It does this to protect itself from anti-virus programs you may attempt to run and to make your computer unusable so that you will be further tempted to purchase the rogue. The messages that you will see when you attempt run a program are:
Hard Drive Failure
The system has detected a problem with one or more installed IDE / SATA hard disks. It is recommended that you restart the system.
Or
System Error
An error occurred while reading system files. Run a system diagnostic utility to check your hard disk drive for errors.
Or
Critical Error
Hard drive critical error. Run a system diagnostic utility to check your hard disk drive for errors. Windows can't find hard disk space. Hard drive error.
After you close this alert you will be presented with another alert that pretends to be for a program that will attempt to fix your hard drive.
Fix Disk
Windows Recovery Diagnostics will scan the system to identify performance problems.
Start or Cancel
If you press the Start button, it will pretend to scan your computer and then state that there is something wrong with it. This message is:
Windows Recovery Diagnostics
Windows detected a hard disk error.
A problem with the hard drive sectors has been detected. It is recommended to download the following sertified <sic> software to fix the detected hard drive problems. Do you want to download recommended software?
These are just further alerts trying to make you think your computer has a serious hard drive problem. It should be noted that if you attempt to run a program enough times it will eventually work.
When you perform the scan or use the fake Windows Recovery it will state that there are numerous problems on your computer, but that you first need to purchase it before it can fix any of them. Some examples of the fake problems it detects on your computer are:
Requested registry access is not allowed. Registry defragmentation required
Read time of hard drive clusters less than 500 ms
32% of HDD space is unreadable
Bad sectors on hard drive or damaged file allocation table
GPU RAM temperature is critically high. Urgent RAM memory optimization is required to prevent system crash
Drive C initializing error
Ram Temperature is 83 C. Optimization is required for normal operation.
Hard drive doesn't respond to system commands
Data Safety Problem. System integrity is at risk.
Registry Error - Critical Error
While WindowsRecovery is running it will also display fake alerts from your Windows taskbar. These alerts are designed to further scare you into thinking that your computer has an imminent hardware failure. The text of some of the alerts you may see include:
Critical Error!
Damaged hard drive clusters detected. Private data is at risk.
Critical Error
Hard Drive not found. Missing hard drive.
Critical Error
RAM memory usage is critically high. RAM memory failure.
Critical Error
Windows can't find hard disk space. Hard drive error
Critical Error!
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \System32\496A8300. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware.
Critical Error
A critical error has occurred while indexing data stored on hard drive. System restart required.
System Restore
The system has been restored after a critical error. Data integrity and hard drive integrity verification required.
Activation Reminder
Windows Recovery Activation
Advanced module activation required to fix detected errors and performance issues. Please purchase Advanced Module license to activate this software and enable all features.
Low Disk Space
You are running very low disk space on Local Disk (C:).
Windows - No Disk
Exception Processing Message 0x0000013
Just like the fake corruption messages and fake scan results, these alerts are only designed to scare you into purchasing the program.
As you can see, the warnings issued by this program are all fake, and once you realize that, the alerts become more of a nuisance rather than a concern. Therefore, do not purchase WindowsRecovery for any reason, and if you already have, please contact your credit card company and state that the program is a computer infection and a scam and that you would like to dispute the charge. To remove this infection and related malware, please follow the steps in the guide below.
Threat Classification:
Advanced information:
View Windows Recovery files.
View Windows Recovery Registry Information.
Tools Needed for this fix:
Symptoms that may be in a HijackThis Log:
Windows Vista & 7:
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [<random>.exe] %AllUsersProfile%\<random>.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [<random>] %AllUsersProfile%\<random>.exe
Windows XP:
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [<random>.exe] %AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\<random>.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [<random>] %AllUsersProfile%\AppData\<random>.exe
Guide Updates:
03/22/11 - Initial guide creation.
03/27/11 - Included instructions on how to see files hidden by this infection.
Automated Removal Instructions for Windows Recovery using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware:
- Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
- It is possible that the infection you are trying to remove will not allow you to download files on the infected computer. If this is the case, then you will need to download the files requested in this guide on another computer and then transfer them to the infected computer. You can transfer the files via a CD/DVD, external drive, or USB flash drive.
- Before we can do anything we must first end the processes that belong to Windows Recovery so that it does not interfere with the cleaning procedure. To do this, please download RKill to your desktop from the following link.
RKill Download Link - (Download page will open in a new tab or browser window.)
When at the download page, click on the Download Now button labeled iExplore.exe download link. When you are prompted where to save it, please save it on your desktop.
- Once it is downloaded, double-click on the iExplore.exe icon in order to automatically attempt to stop any processes associated with Windows Recovery and other Rogue programs. If you cannot find the iExplore.exe icon that you downloaded, you can also execute the program by doing the following steps based on your version of Windows:
For Windows 7 and Windows Vista, click on the Start button and then in the search field enter %userprofile%\desktop\iexplore.exe and then press the Enter key on your keyboard. If you Windows prompts you to allow it to run, please allow it to do so.
For Windows XP, click on the Start button and then click on the Run menu option. In the Open: field enter %userprofile%\desktop\iexplore.exe and press the OK button. If you Windows prompts you to allow it to run, please allow it to do so.
Please be patient while the program looks for various malware programs and ends them. When it has finished, the black window will automatically close and you can continue with the next step. If you get a message that RKill is an infection, do not be concerned. This message is just a fake warning given by Windows Recovery when it terminates programs that may potentially remove it. If you run into these infections warnings that close RKill, a trick is to leave the warning on the screen and then run RKill again. By not closing the warning, this typically will allow you to bypass the malware trying to protect itself so that rkill can terminate Windows Recovery . So, please try running RKill until the malware is no longer running. You will then be able to proceed with the rest of the guide. If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions of RKill from the rkill download page. All of the files are renamed copies of RKill, which you can try instead. Please note that the download page will open in a new browser window or tab.
Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.
- Now you should download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM, from the following location and save it to your desktop:
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Download Link (Download page will open in a new window)
- Once downloaded, close all programs and Windows on your computer, including this one.
- Double-click on the icon on your desktop named mbam-setup.exe. This will start the installation of MBAM onto your computer.
- When the installation begins, keep following the prompts in order to continue with the installation process. Do not make any changes to default settings and when the program has finished installing, make sure you leave both the Update Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes Anti-Malware checked. Then click on the Finish button. If MalwareBytes' prompts you to reboot, please do not do so.
- MBAM will now automatically start and you will see a message stating that you should update the program before performing a scan. As MBAM will automatically update itself after the install, you can press the OK button to close that box and you will now be at the main program as shown below.
- On the Scanner tab, make sure the the Perform full scan option is selected and then click on the Scan button to start scanning your computer for Windows Recovery related files.
- MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you go and do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan. When MBAM is scanning it will look like the image below.
- When the scan is finished a message box will appear as shown in the image below.
You should click on the OK button to close the message box and continue with the WindowsRecovery removal process.
- You will now be back at the main Scanner screen. At this point you should click on the Show Results button.
- A screen displaying all the malware that the program found will be shown as seen in the image below. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image.
You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the listed malware. MBAM will now delete all of the files and registry keys and add them to the programs quarantine. When removing the files, MBAM may require a reboot in order to remove some of them. If it displays a message stating that it needs to reboot, please allow it to do so. Once your computer has rebooted, and you are logged in, please continue with the rest of the steps.
- When MBAM has finished removing the malware, it will open the scan log and display it in Notepad. Review the log as desired, and then close the Notepad window.
- You can now exit the MBAM program.
- This infection family will also hide all the files on your computer from being seen. To make your files visible again, please download the following program to your desktop:
Unhide.exe
Once the program has been downloaded, double-click on the Unhide.exe icon on your desktop and allow the program to run. This program will remove the +H, or hidden, attribute from all the files on your hard drives. If there are any files that were purposely hidden by you, you will need to hide them again after this tool is run.
- Finally, as many rogues and other malware are installed through vulnerabilities found in out-dated and insecure programs, it is strongly suggested that you use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs on your computer. A tutorial on how to use Secunia PSI to scan for vulnerable programs can be found here:
How to detect vulnerable and out-dated programs using Secunia Personal Software Inspector
Your computer should now be free of the WindowsRecovery program. If your current anti-virus solution let this infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect against these types of threats in the future.
If you are still having problems with your computer after completing these instructions, then please follow the steps outlined in the topic linked below:
Preparation Guide For Use Before Using Malware Removal Tools and Requesting Help
Associated Windows Recovery Files:
Windows Vista & 7:
%AllUsersProfile%\~<random>
%AllUsersProfile%\~<random>r
%AllUsersProfile%\<random>.dll
%AllUsersProfile%\<random>.exe
%AllUsersProfile%\<random>
%AllUsersProfile%\<random>.exe
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Windows Recovery.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Recovery\
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Recovery\Uninstall Windows Recovery.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Recovery\Windows Recovery.lnk
Windows XP:
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~<random>
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\~<random>r
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\<random>.dll
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\<random>.exe
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\<random>
%AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\<random>.exe
%UserProfile%\Desktop\Windows Recovery.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Recovery\
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Recovery\Uninstall Windows Recovery.lnk
%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Windows Recovery\Windows Recovery.lnk
File Location Notes:
%UserProfile% refers to the current user's profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User> for Windows 2000/XP, C:\Users\<Current User> for Windows Vista/7, and c:\winnt\profiles\<Current User> for Windows NT.
%AllUsersProfile% refers to the All Users Profile folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users for Windows 2000/XP and C:\ProgramData\ for Windows Vista/7.
Associated Windows Recovery Windows Registry Information:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "<random>.exe"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run "<random>"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "CertificateRevocation" = '0'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings "WarnonBadCertRecving" = '0'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop "NoChangingWallPaper" = '1'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Associations "LowRiskFileTypes" = '/{hq:/s`s:/ogn:/uyu:/dyd:/c`u:/bnl:/ble:/sdf:/lrh:/iul:/iulm:/fhg:/clq:/kqf:/`wh:/lqf:/lqdf:/lnw:/lq2:/l2t:/v`w:/rbs:'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments "SaveZoneInformation" = '1'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System "DisableTaskMgr" = '1'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system "DisableTaskMgr" = '1'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Download "CheckExeSignatures" = 'no'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main "Use FormSuggest" = 'yes'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced "Hidden" = '0'
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced "ShowSuperHidden" = 0'
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