I was online once and this thing called “Windows Internet Watchdog” suddenly popped up saying that I had a virus on my desktop. I was freaking out so I clicked on “Remove it” but it didn’t do anything to remove the threat. It just took me to a page asking me to pay the registered version. I searched on the Internet on my laptop and found it was a fake antivirus program. Now it disabled my internet and even blocked my real antivirus. I tried to manually get rid of it but i couldn’t find the files it was telling me to delete. What should I do? Any help will be appreciated.
“Windows Internet Watchdog” is categorized as a rogue program which is a form of malicious software that tries to trick users into downloading the program (and sometimes paying for the program) to remove fictitious and non-existent virus threats. There are many ways for this type of virus to sneak into your computer. Most of time, unwary users may get infected by visiting some infected websites or by downloading Trojans from Torrents, disguised as video clips. And the most common way is through fake pop-up windows and fake alerts that indicate that your computer is infected. These alerts attempt to scare the user into downloading the software to remove the fake virus or resolve the fake issue. If you believe in those fake messages, malicious Windows Internet Watchdog virus will be installed on your computer immediately. This is a counterfeit software program that appears to be beneficial from a security perspective, but in fact, all it can do on a computer is irreparable damages instead of PC protection. Once it is running, you will be forced to launch a bogus scan every time when you restart your computer. And then it keeps displaying continuous alerts and scanners saying the same thing which claim the status of your current PC is at risk. The nasty rogue program even provides a lot of non-existent features such as Quick Scan, Deep Scan and Custom Scan to deceive users into believing this is a legitimate software. Just like its variants called Windows Web Watchdog, it masquerades itself as a genuine security software too, generating erroneous or misleading alerts to scare inexperienced users to partake in fraudulent transactions. To better fulfill its malicious goal and convince users into thinking computer is going to be messed up, it also blocks all the applications installed on the computer, especially the security tools. Thus, when you try to run a program, it will display some notifications warning that the program is infected and cannot be run. As mentioned above, we can know a fact “Windows Internet Watchdog” is the real and only virus that stays on your computer rather than something helpful to protect your computer. While the program claims to help your computer to get rid of malware, it actually does the opposite. It stays in the system and constantly nags you about being infected and forces you into buying the solution (upgrade to the paid version of the program). Since it hooks itself deep into the system and cannot be easily removed or uninstalled, it is suggested users should get rid of it manually. Also users should never pay anything on this fake product in case of money loss and even identify theft.
This rogue program will run a scan automatically when you start Windows, and the results of the scan are always the same. It claims that your computer is heavily infected and compromised by malware and spyware. Just like the following picture shows:
Don’t do Internet banking or buy anything online while the rogue program is infecting your computer. It is not worthwhile to buy this useless product which is a virus that damages your computer and steals your personal information. Follow the manual removal guide to remove it now!
There are so many ways can lead this malware to get inside the computer, but most of the time it is beyond your knowledge.
1> It can be downloaded via malicious drive-by-download scripts from corrupted porn and shareware / freeware websites.
2> It may be installed through spam email attachments, media downloads and social networks.
3> It can get into your system if you have ever clicked some malicious ads or visited some malicious sites, as well as opened unknown downloaded files.
1. Check the virus icon on the desktop and then delete it.
This virus may add its own icon on your desktop without your permission, just delete the icon as soon as you detect it.
2. Try to Use Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.
In some cases, this fake antivirus program can show up in Control Panel, then computer users can use generic removal procedures to uninstall it completely.
For Windows XP:
For Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8:
3. Remove all the contents related to Windows Internet Watchdog Virus Manually.
Note: Manual removal requires at least some experience with the system, the registry, and other Windows components. If you make a mistake, your operating system might become unusable. If you need any further help, you can contact a PC expert by clicking the live chat button below.
Since this fake anti-virus software may block many executable programs from running, it’s difficult to proceed the removal processes while being constantly interrupted by the Windows Internet Watchdog pop-up screen. To temporarily disable this rogue software from popping up, try to restart the infected computer into safe mode with networking first.
1. Reboot your computer to safe mode with networking. As your computer restarts but before Windows launches, tap “F8” key constantly. Then log on to your computer with a user account that has administrator rights.
2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to quickly bring up Task Manager and check the suspicious processes, and then end them.
If the computer appears sluggish and takes forever to do anything, you may see a high number of running processes and CPU usage of 100%. CPU usage only drops to 0% when the system is idle, at any other time the running figure will be between these limits; the lower the usage the faster and more responsive the system will be. Most of time this virus process is random, users can google the suspicious process before taking action to end it.
3. Show hidden files and folders.
Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.
3. Open Registry entries. Find out the malicious files and entries related to Windows Internet Watchdog malware and then delete all.
Attention: Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.
a. Press the “Start” button and then choose the option “Run”. In the “Open” field, type “regedit” and click the “OK” button.
b. All malicious files and registry entries that should be deleted:
%AllUsersProfile%random.exe
%CommonAppData%\[random]\[random].cfg
%Temp%\random.exe
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “[random characters]”
You can see a video on how to remove this type of virus manually on our website:
Windows Internet Watchdog appears to be a legit Antivirus that can detect and remove all the threats in your computer, it makes you believe that the security program installed on your computer is genuine, and it will offer protection against malware attacks. But it is not the truth for this is a virus that can ruin a computer instead of protecting it. To gain users’ trust, scareware authors carefully design this rogue security software to look legit and functional. Then it uses scare tactics by only showing innocent users fake reports, misleading them to pay for its useless product so as to rip off their money. Once the scareware is activated, it can steal your information, slow your computer, corrupt files, disable updates for legitimate antivirus software, or even prevent you from visiting legitimate security software vendor sites. It is hard to uninstall “Windows Internet Watchdog” because you won’t find it in Control Panel. We recommend users to remove this virus manually to make sure all the bad things can be deleted permanently.
Note: Spending a lot of time removing this virus but still with no luck? To avoid system crash or data loss, please Live chat with YooCare experts now to save your computer and remove the virus safely and completely.
Published by on April 2, 2014 3:35 am, last updated on April 2, 2014 3:35 am
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.