XP Antivirus 2014 and XP Protection 2014 Removal Guide

Filed Under : Rogue Programs & Scareware

September 5, 2014

What is XP Antivirus 2014?

Skip this and learn how to remove XP Antivirus 2014!

XP Antivirus 2014 & XP Protection 2014 are rogue anti-spyware programs from the Rogue.FakeRean-Braviax family of computer infections. This infection is considered a rogue anti-spyware program because it purposely displays fake scan results, false security warnings, hijacks your web browser, and does not allow you to run your legitimate Windows applications. This scareware is promoted through web sites that have been hacked with scripts that try to install the software by exploiting vulnerabilities on your computer. It is also promoted through Trojans that pretend to be legitimate programs that are required to view an online video, but instead install the infection.

When installed, XP Antivirus 2014 will be configured to start every time you try to launch a program on your computer. Once started it will pretend to scan your computer and then display numerous infected files. If you attempt to remove these infections, though, it will prompt you to first purchase the program. As the scan results are fake, please ignore them. XP Antivirus 2014 also attempts to protect itself from being removed by terminating any program that you try to run. When it terminates a program it will then state that the file is infected with the Trojan-BNK.Win32.Keylogger.gen infection. As your files are not infected, please ignore this message.

While the infection is started it will also show a variety of security warnings that are worded to think that your computer has a serious security issue. These alerts include:

System Hijack!
System security threat was detected. Viruses and/or spyware may be damaging your system now. Prevent infection and data loss or stealing by running a free security scan.

XP Antivirus 2014 has blocked a program from accessing the internet
This program is infected with Trojan-BNK.Win32.Keylogger.gen
Private data can be stolen by third parties, including credit card details and passwords.

Just like the scan results, these security alerts are fake and should be ignored. Finally, XP Antivirus 2014 will hijack your web browser so that you cannot visit web sites. When you attempt to visit a web site, you will instead be shown a page that states that the page you are visiting may be a security risk.

As you can see, this infection was created to scare you into thinking your computer has a security problem due to your computer being infected. Please do not purchase this program , and if you already have, please contact your credit card company and dispute the charges stating that the program is a computer infection and a scam. To remove XP Antivirus 2014 and related malware please use the guide below.

XP Antivirus 2014 Removal Options

Self Help Guide

This guide contains advanced information, but has been written in such a way so that anyone can follow it. Please ensure your data is backed up before proceeding.

If you are uncomfortable making changes to your computer or following these steps, do not worry! Instead you can get free one-on-one help by asking in the forums.

Print out these instructions as we may need to close every window that is open later in the fix.
Reboot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking. To do this, turn your computer off and then back on and immediately when you see anything on the screen, start tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Eventually you will be brought to a menu similar to the one below:

Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select Safe Mode with Networking and press Enter on your keyboard. If you are having trouble entering safe mode, then please use the following tutorial: How to start Windows in Safe Mode

Windows will now boot into safe mode with networking and prompt you to login as a user. Please login as the same user you were previously logged in with in the normal Windows mode. Then proceed with the rest of the steps.
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 XP Antivirus 2014 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 XP Antivirus 2014 and other Rogue programs. 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 XP Antivirus 2014 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 XP Antivirus 2014 . 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. Do not reboot your computer after running RKill as the malware programs will start again.

If you continue having problems running RKill, you can download the other renamed versions of RKill from the RKill download page. Both of these 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.
At this point you should download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, or MBAM, to scan your computer for any any infections or adware that may be present. Please download Malwarebytes 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 mb3-setup-1878.1878-3.0.6.1469.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 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 start and you will be at the main screen as shown below.

Please click on the Scan Now button to start the scan. If there is an update available for Malwarebytes it will automatically download and install it before performing the scan.
MBAM will now start scanning your computer for malware. This process can take quite a while, so we suggest you do something else and periodically check on the status of the scan to see when it is finished.
When MBAM is finished scanning it will display a screen that displays any malware that it has detected. Please note that the infections found may be different than what is shown in the image below due to the guide being updated for newer versions of MBAM.

You should now click on the Remove Selected button to remove all the seleted 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.
You can now exit the MBAM program. If Malwarebytes did not prompt you to reboot your computer, please do so that you are back in normal mode.
This infection also deletes certain Windows services when it is running. Once the infection has been removed, we can attempt to reinstall those services manually using the following registry files. Please download the registry file that corresponds to your Windows version for each service listed below. Once they are downloaded, double-click on each of the registry files to recreate the various service. When Windows prompts you if you would like to allow the data to be merged, please select Yes. If you are concerned about this step or need further assistance, please post in the Am I Infected forum for assistannce.

The services you need to download a Registry file for are:

Security Center (Wscsvc) service files:

Windows XP Wscsvc File
Windows Vista Wscsvc File
Windows 7 Wscsvc File
Windows 8 Wscsvc File

Windows Defender (WinDefend) service files (This service does not exist in Windows XP):

Windows Vista WinDefend File
Windows 7 WinDefend File
Windows 8 WinDefend File
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 XP Protection 2014 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.

View Associated XP Antivirus 2014 Files

%CommonAppData%\<random characters and numbers> %LocalAppData%\<random characters and numbers> %LocalAppData%\<random>.exe %Temp%\<random characters and numbers> %AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\<random characters and numbers>

File Location Notes:

%Temp% refers to the Windows Temp folder. By default, this is C:\Windows\Temp for Windows 95/98/ME, C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\<Current User>\LOCAL SETTINGS\Temp for Windows 2000/XP, and C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Local\Temp in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

%CommonAppData% refers to the Application Data folder for the All Users Profile. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data for Windows 2000/XP and C:\ProgramData\ in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

%AppData% refers to the current users Application Data folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>\Application Data for Windows 2000/XP. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 it is C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Roaming.

%LocalAppData% refers to the current users Local settings Application Data folder. By default, this is C:\Documents and Settings\<Current User>\Local Settings\Application Data for Windows 2000/XP. For Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 it is C:\Users\<Current User>\AppData\Local.

%CommonAppData% refers to the Application Data folder in the All Users profile. For Windows XP, Vista, NT, 2000 and 2003 it refers to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\, and for Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 it is C:\ProgramData.

View Associated XP Antivirus 2014 Registry Information

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyOverride <-loopback> HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyServer http=127.0.0.1:8888;https=127.0.0.1:8888; HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\<random> C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\<random>.exe HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable "1" (old value="0")

This is a self-help guide. Use at your own risk.

BleepingComputer.com can not be held responsible for problems that may occur by using this information. If you would like help with any of these fixes, you can ask for malware removal assistance in our Virus,Trojan,Spyware, and Malware Removal Logs forum.

If you have any questions about this self-help guide then please post those questions in our Am I infected? What do I do? and someone will help you.