If your computer is infected with the XP security 2012 virus then you will no doubt be suffering from a number of annoying symptoms as this is a very intrusive piece of malware which is rather persistent and may continue to reappear even if your antivirus program informs you that it has detected and removed the problem.
The reason that XP Security 2012 cannot always be removed by your antivirus program is because it makes some complicated changes to your registry settings which case the virus to be re-initiated upon restarting your computer. Please follow the steps below in order to safely remove this virus whilst preserving your system data:
N.B Do not reboot your PC until you have completed all stages of this process (rebooting it will mean that you have to start from the beginning again!).
1) The first step is to download a file that can repair the changes made to your computers registry. Search Google for a file called FixNCR.reg and download this to your PC. There are several well-known download sites which have this file available. N.B. If your internet connection has been affected by the virus infection then you will need to download this file from a different computer and transfer it via a USB drive for example.
2) Double click FixNCR.reg - this will then very quickly correct modifications that have been made to your computers registry by the XP Security 2012 virus.
3) Download a second file called RKill (again this is easily found at all major download sites via a quick Google Search). Double click this file to run Rkill - this is basically a useful DOS-Based program that will scan for, and terminate any active processes of the XP security 2012 virus. This can take several minutes to complete so be patient at this stage and wait for program to report that it has finished scanning your computer.
4) Now that RKill has terminated the virus you will need to download one more free tool, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware which is available from numerous download sites. Double click to install the program once installed. Once installed open the program from the shortcut it has created on your desktop and it will ask you if you wish to update the databases - click "yes" to update the database to the latest version.
5) Once Malwarebytes has updated and launched you will need to select the option "perform full system scan". Click "scan" and choose your main system drive (likely to be the C: Drive), This program will take some time to scan and detect all files relating to the XP Security 2012 virus. Once the scan has completed it will indicate in red how many infected files have been found. Click the "show results" tab and click on the option "remove selected files".
6) You computer should now be free of the XP Security 2012 virus and this is the end of the removal process.
Possible Issues With Windows Updates
After removal check the status of your automatic update settings to ensure that they are still enabled (control panel-security centre-windows updates). If they are marked as disabled and you are unable to re-enable them then you will need to download a tool called Dial-A-Fix. Install and run this free tool, ticking all the boxes relating to windows updates (untick any other boxes). Click Go and the program will now scan and reset your Windows Update settings.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully if all goes well then you will be clear of the XP Security 2012 virus and you will notice that your PC has returned to normal. If you still have problems then at this stage it would be advisable to contact a specialist virus removal company to isolate and remove the virus from your computer.
David Hughes works for PC Repairs Watford who specialise in virus removal and also provide HDD data recovery to home users and small businesses.