Remedies
Avoid infection
If the initial dialog box is shown, disconnecting from the internet BEFORE closing it may prevent the download and any infection.
Switching to a different browser rather than Internet Explorer may reduce vulnerability to this and other online Trojan threats. Most malware is targeted at Internet Explorer, and thus is written to take advantages in any flaws and loopholes in its programming.
Blocking the site www.winfixer.com in your firewall will prevent the typical infecting download. However, there may be other ways in which the program installs itself.
Removing WinFixer
It should be noted that besides WinFixer itself, there are several other products to be found on the Web that claim to have the ability to stop and uninstall WinFixer. All users are advised to be skeptical, as many of these ‘solutions’ are themselves WinFixer clones.
WinFixer will prompt the user to purchase a licensed copy of the WinFixer software. Making this purchase may solve the problems caused by the application, without removing it. However, buying the license carries certain ethical questions as it will encourage the creators of the program to continue their operations. In addition, there is no proof that the program works, even after purchasing the license. Some users report that purchasing and installing the Winfixer program causes additional serious operating problems. If you have purchased the program with a credit card many urge calling the credit card to reverse the charge citing fraud.
Symantec has published procedures for removing WinFixer manually. This is a tedious process involving registry editing, which should be done with the utmost care. As of January 2006, the better-known antivirus and antispyware software packages do not detect or remove WinFixer infections automatically. Webroot‘s Spy Sweeper does detect and remove WinFixer; the free trial version of Spy Sweeper will remove WinFixer from memory and from your files and registry.
McAfee’s WinFixer information indicates that WinFixer may be classified as legitimate software, however, McAfee’s Vundo information should still aid in your WinFixer removal process. This removal process makes use of Sysinternals’s Process Explorer (download here) to suspend infected critical system processes. (Vundo is malware intended to automatically install WinFixer on your machine, without your consent)
This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
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