Removing the Nasty W32 Alureon Rootkit on Windows 7 64-Bit - HITMAN PRO!
Recently my PC was infected with the dreaded Trojan W32 Alureon Rootkit and it’s pretty nasty! From what I hear this has forced people into reformatting their PCs in order to remove it (which is always a last resort!).
The Rootkit modifies the PCs Master Boot Record (MBR) with some malicious entity, and as soon as the Windows operating system is loaded the rootkit fires up too, including in safe made!
The symptoms I faced were not being able to open many.exe files, web browsers, media players, antivirus software etc.
I noticed that all the .exe files I couldn’t open were 32 bit based whereas I could open any 64-bit .exe without a problem, like solitaire…
After digging into the ‘C:\Program Files’ directory (Note: NOT the ’C:\Program Files (x86)’ directory), I was able to run Internet Explorer, and as much as I despise using this, it’s better than not having any browser at all!
In Internet Explorer, go to: http://www.surfright.nl/en/hitmanpro and download the latest 64-bit version of the awesome HitMan Pro and run a complete scan. Hitman Pro WILL find the Alureon Rootkit and remove this beast from your machine.
This application saved me tonnes of frustration and is also fantastic at removing a billion other trojans/spyware/malware etc, at the very least give the free version a go and if you like it support the developers and buy it :-)
