How to easily remove Attentive Antivirus (Removal Guide)

Attentive Antivirus is a computer virus, which masquerades as genuine security software, while actually reporting non-existent malware threats in order to scare the user into paying for this rogue security software.

What is Attentive Antivirus?

Attentive Antivirus is a rogue anti-virus program from the Rogue.WinWebSec family of computer infections. This program is classified as a rogue because it pretends to be an anti-virus program, but will instead displays bogus scan results, report non-existing computer infections, and does not allow you to run your normal applications.
In this case, not only is Attentive Antivirus going to disrupt your system, it’s going to try and trick you into making a purchase using your credit card.
Attentive Antivirus appears in the form of a fake Windows warning on your computer system that reads you have a specific number of viruses on your computer (usually in the hundreds) and that this software has detected those viruses. To get rid of them you must purchase the full-version of Attentive Antivirus. It’s important to remember that by purchasing the “claimed full version to remove the viruses” you will be submitting your personal information to unscrupulous persons and may also end up being a victim of credit card or identity fraud or theft.

How did Attentive Antivirus got on my computer?

Attentive Antivirus is distributed through several means. Malicious websites, or legitimate websites that have been hacked, can infect your machine through exploit kits that use vulnerabilities on your computer to install this rogue antivirus without your permission.
Another method used to propagate Attentive Antivirus is spam email containing infected attachments or links to malicious websites. Cyber-criminals spam out an email, with forged header information, tricking you into believing that it is from a shipping company like DHL or FedEx. The email tells you that they tried to deliver a package to you, but failed for some reason. Sometimes the emails claim to be notifications of a shipment you have made. Either way, you can’t resist being curious as to what the email is referring to – and open the attached file (or click on a link embedded inside the email). And with that, your computer is infected with the Attentive Antivirus virus.
The threat may also be downloaded manually by tricking the user into thinking they are installing a useful piece of software, for instance a bogus update for Adobe Flash Player or another piece of software.
The Attentive Antivirus infection is also prevalent on peer-to-peer file sharing websites and is often packaged with pirated or illegally acquired software.

Am I infected with Attentive Antivirus virus?

Some examples of the interface, fake alerts, fake scanning results, and pop-ups displayed by Attentive Antivirus are shown below:

Activation codes for Attentive Antivirus

As an optional step,you can use any of the following license keys to register Attentive Antivirus and stop the fake alerts.
Attentive Antivirus Activation code:
AA39754E-715219CE
OR
AF03E-A1B69411-5E496BEE-92A70D00-1AD697F6
Please keep in mind that entering the above registration code will NOT remove Attentive Antivirus from your computer , instead it will just stop the fake alerts so that you’ll be able to complete our removal guide more easily.

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How to remove Attentive Antivirus virus (Removal Guide)

This page is a comprehensive guide, which will remove the Attentive Antivirus infection from your your computer. Please perform all the steps in the correct order. If you have any questions or doubt at any point, STOP and ask for our assistance. To remove the Attentive Antivirus infection we can use any of the below options:
OPTION 1: Remove Attentive Antivirus virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Mawlare and HitmanPro
OPTION 2: Manually remove Attentive Antivirus virus from your computer
OPTION 3: Remove Attentive Antivirus virus with HitmanPro Kickstart USB stick

OPTION 1: Remove Attentive Antivirus virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Mawlare and HitmanPro

STEP 1 : Start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking (OPTIONAL)

Some variants of the Attentive Antivirus virus will not allow you to start some of the below utilities while running Windows in its regular state.
If this happens, we recommend that you start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking, and try from there to perform the below scan.
To start your computer Start your computer in Safe Mode with Networking, you can follow the below steps:

1. Remove all floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs from your computer, and then restart your computer.
2. When the computer starts you will see your computer’s hardware being listed. When you see this information start to gently tap the F8 key repeatedly until you are presented with the Windows XP, Vista or 7 Advanced Boot Options.
   
   If you are using Windows 8, press the Windows key + C, and then click Settings. Click Power, hold down Shift on your keyboard and click Restart, then click on Troubleshoot and select Advanced options. In the Advanced Options screen, select Startup Settings, then click on Restart.
3. If you are using Windows XP, Vista or 7 in the Advanced Boot Options screen, use the arrow keys to highlight Safe Mode with Networking , and then press ENTER.
   \
   If you are using Windows 8, press 5  on your keyboard to Enable Safe Mode with Networking.
   Windows will start in Safe Mode with Networking.

STEP 2: Remove Attentive Antivirus virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware FREE

The Malwarebytes Chameleon utility will allow us to install and run a scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free without being blocked by Attentive Antivirus rootkit.

1. Right click on your browser icon, and select Run As or Run as Administrator. This should allow your browser to open so that we can then download Malwarebytes Chameleon.
   
   If you’ll see a “Warning! The site you are trying visit may harm your computer!” message in your web browser window, you can safely click on the Ignore warnings and visit that site in the current state (not recommended) link, because this a bogus alert from Attentive Antivirus.
2. Download Malwarebytes Chameleon  from the below link, and extract it to a folder in a convenient location.
   MALWAREBYTES CHAMELEON DOWNLOAD LINK  (This link will open a new web page from where you can download Malwarebytes Chameleon)
   
3. Make certain that your infected computer is connected to the internet and then open the Malwarebytes Chameleon folder, and double-click on the svchost.exe file.
   
   IF Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will not start, double-click on the other renamed files until you find one will work, which will be indicated by a black DOS/command prompt window.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to press a key to continue and Chameleon will proceed to download and install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for you.
   
5. Once it has done this, it will update Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and you’ll need to click OK when it says that the database was updated successfully.
   
6. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will now attempt to kill all the malicious process associated with Attentive Antivirus.Please keep in mind that this process can take up to 10 minutes, so please be patient.
   
7. Next, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware will automatically open and perform a Quick scan for Attentive Antivirus malicious files as shown below.
   
8. Upon completion of the scan, click on Show Result
   
9. You will now be presented with a screen showing you the malware infections that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has detected.
   Make sure that everything is Checked (ticked),then click on the Remove Selected button.
   
10. After your computer will start in Windows regular mode, open Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and perform a Full System scan to verify that there are no remaining threats

STEP 3: Remove Attentive Antivirus infection with HitmanPro

Some variants of the Attentive Antivirus virus will install on victims computers a ZeroAccess rootkit. To remove this nasty piece of malware, we will perform a system scan with HitmanPro.
HitmanPro is a cloud on-demand scanner, which will scan your computer with 5 antivirus engines (Emsisoft, Bitdefender, Dr. Web, G-Data and Ikarus) for the Attentive Antivirus infection.

1. You can download HitmanPro from the below link:
   HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a web page from where you can download HitmanPro)
2. Double-click on the file named HitmanPro.exe (for 32-bit versions of Windows) or HitmanPro_x64.exe (for 64-bit versions of Windows). When the program starts you will be presented with the start screen as shown below.
   If you are experiencing problems while trying to start HitmanPro, you can use the Force Breach mode.To start HitmanPro in Force Breach mode, hold down the left CTRL key when you start HitmanPro and all non-essential programs are terminated, including the Attentive Antivirus virus.
   
   When HitmanPro will start, click on the Next button, to install this program on your computer.
   
3. HitmanPro will now begin to scan your computer for Attentive Antivirus trojan.
   
4. When it has finished it will display a list of all the malware that the program found as shown in the image below. Click on the Next button, to remove Attentive Antivirus virus.
   
5. Click on the Activate free license button to begin the free 30 days trial, and remove all the malicious files from your computer.
   

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OPTION 2: Manually remove Attentive Antivirus virus from your computer

When Attentive Antivirus has infected a computer, it will drop it’s malicious files in the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\random folder (Windows XP) or C:\ProgramData\random folder (Windows Vista, 7 or 8) folder, and add on your desktop a Attentive Antivirus.lnk shortcut. In the following steps, we will rename this malicious folder thus disabling this infection.

STEP 1: Display the hidden files and folders on your computer

Because the C:\ProgramData\ path is hidden by default, we will need to enable the Show hidden files and folders option.

1. Click on the Start button, and click on Computer.
2. Click Organize and choose Folder and Search Options. (Tools > Folder Options for Windows XP Users).
   
3. Click the View tab, select Show hidden files, folders and drives, then click on Apply and then OK.
   

STEP 2: Rename the malicious folder to disable Attentive Antivirus virus

1. Right click on the Attentive Antivirus icon on your desktop, click Properties in the drop-down menu, then click the Shortcut tab. In the Target box there is a path to the Attentive Antivirus malicious file.
   
2. Browse to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ (For Windows XP) or C:\ProgramData\ (For Windows Vista, 7 or 8), and find the Attentive Antivirus malicious folder. In our case it was named hVma7xi, however its name is randomly generated, so you might have a different name.
3. Right click on the hvma7xi folder, and select Rename from the context menu.
   
4. Add a unique variation to the folder name, such as _old (for example, hvma7xi_old) or something random.
   
5. Restart your computer, then perform a system scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and HitmanPro to remove Attentive Antivirus malicious files from your computer.

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OPTION 3: Remove Attentive Antivirus virus with with HitmanPro Kickstart

If you cannot remove Attentive Antivirus virus using the previous options, we can use the HitmanPro Kickstart program to bypass Attentive Antivirus infection.
As the Attentive Antivirus infection will prevent your from start your programs, you will need to create a bootable USB drive that contains the HitmanPro Kickstart program.
You will need a USB drive, which will have all of its data erased and will then be formatted. Therefore, only use a USB drive that does not contain any important data.

1. Using a “clean” (non-infected) computer, please download HitmanPro Kickstart from the below link.
   HITMANPRO DOWNLOAD LINK (This link will open a download page in a new web page from where you can download HitmanPro Kickstart)
2. Once HitmanPro has been downloaded, please insert the USB flash drive that you would like to erase and use for the installation of HitmanPro Kickstart. Then double-click on the file named HitmanPro.exe (for 32-bit versions of Windows) or HitmanPro_x64.exe (for 64-bit versions of Windows).
   To create a bootable HitmanPro USB drive, please follow the instructions from this video:
   
3. Now, remove the HitmanPro Kickstart USB drive and insert it into the Attentive Antivirus infected computer.
4. Once you have inserted the HitmanPro Kickstart USB drive, turn off the infected computer and then turn it on. As soon as you power it on, look for text on the screen that tells you how to access the boot menu.
   
   The keys that are commonly associated with enabling the boot menu are F10, F11 or F12.
5. Once you determine the proper key (usually the F11 key) that you need to press to access the Boot Menu, restart your computer again and start immediately tapping that key. Next, please perform a scan with HitmanPro Kickstart as shown in the video below.
   
6. HitmanPro will now reboot your computer and Windows should start normally. Then you will need to fix your Windows registry as seen in Option 1 on Step 2, and run a computer scan with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and HitmanPro

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Your computer should now be free of the Attentive Antivirus infection. 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, and perform regular computer scans with HitmanPro.
If you are still experiencing problems while trying to remove Attentive Antivirus from your machine, please start a new thread in our Malware Removal Assistance forum.