How I Removed XP Anti-Spyware

So, I opened my email and I saw this unassuming message from DHL Express (allegedly, of course).  Since I am waiting for something from my sister, my guard was down and I clicked on the email.  It didn't contain any other information but an attachment.  I usually do not fall for this kind of nasty fraud, but I thought, "What if Kris sent the package?" So, I clicked and then the attachment opened and then I run the file.  Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

It was only after I clicked run that I saw the extension. EXE. You can just imagine the colourful language that came out of my mouth.  Avast popped up with a warning, but it was too late. Boxes started popping and popping and popping.

A box that looks like a legit Windows box came up and started scanning and then it listed down viruses and malware and trojans and all the effed-up stuffs that will drive you to a panicked state. It claimed to be XP Anti-Spyware and then it said to buy the registration key. I have never bought anything online. I'm one of those miserable pirates.

Anyway, I grabbed Erbe's unit (since the virus hijacked all my browsers) and looked for registration key. It was only then that I found out that the "thing" asking for a registration key, presenting itself as a protection software is actually the malware itself. crap.

And then I started looking for ways to remove the damn thing. I had to run the system in safe mode, download malwarebytes  to Erbe's unit, copied the installation file to a USB and run it in my unit.  I ran malwarebytes and it was able to detect 3 infections. 3! just 3!

I ran the system in normal mode and I was frustrated to see the nasty pop ups. This went on for a couple of hours, with me trying to look for ways to remove the malware.  I tried installing spybot, but it was hijacked too.

I tried to manually look for the malware to remove it but I can't find it from the registry entries. I read from a forum the same thing happening to someone - and she was told to try system restore.  Anyway, I finally threw in the towel and run system restore. voila! the system restored and then I installed superantispyware, update it and run it. It didn't find any infections. I reinstalled malwarebytes, update and run it. It didn't find anything. I run ccleaner and cleaned the registry. Now, everything is all up and running. I wonder if I have really cleaned the system.