jacobmlcanderson

Windows Pro Defense prevents Malwarebytes from running. You can rename the executable file or using Malwarebytes Chameleon, but with the Windows Pro Defense virus either way it will freeze up Malwarebytes during the removal of the files it finds. Booting from a remote OS leaves the virus dormant and removes the files (the executable, mainly) that prevent Malwarebytes from removing ANY files. So, booting from the remote OS first and then running Malwarebytes in the actual OS is how you can get rid of that particular virus. Otherwise you must MANUALLY remove the executable first like I did, and you'd have to have computer knowledge, which not ALL users of Malwarebytes have. I'm sure there will be more really nasty viruses like this one, too, so I think there is atleast some good that I contributed by coming up with a way to boot from a flash drive to any computer and scan using Malwarebytes, a freeware that I think is AMAZING, and recommend to everyone that asks me for help.

Well, I guess I'll tell my secret, lol. I installed Linux Ubuntu on a flash drive and installed VirtualBox to add a Windows XP virtual machine. I installed malwarebytes on the Windows XP VM and just have to boot up from the flash drive, boot up the WinXP VM, mount the hard drive that needs to be scanned in the VM, and scan it! Linux Ubuntu takes care of the drivers, so you can boot up on pretty much any computer that's not bore-you-to-death slow, and then the virtual machine drivers are simply handled by VirtualBox. So, there you have it; a way to boot up from a flash drive and use Malwarebytes to scan a hard drive! This technique isn't very problematic, I think it's an extreme accomplishment.

Thank you all for your responses, I'll do some looking into the Malwarebytes Chamelion. I did find a way to boot an OS from a flash drive and run Malwarebytes, though, and it works great!

Thanks =)

My name is Jacob Anderson, and I absolutely LOVE freewares. I'm a Windows freeware fanatic, a guy with no credit card but a nag for software that does many things for me. Malwarebytes and MSE are the two antivirus freewares I use in combination to protect my computers and my friends' computers. I love the idea of a free OS, too. I'm into using Ubuntu, and I have even got an 8 gig flash drive that I can boot Ubuntu up from on any computer that boots usb. Thanks to Linux's amazing hardware compatibility, drivers are RARELY an issue for booting from the flash drive for any computer! I'm posting because I think it would be one small step for me and a giant leap for Malwarebytes if they created a .deb installer for Linux that scans hard drives with Windows installed on them. The reason I'd like to do this is because I dealt with the Windows Pro Defense virus on one of my friends' computers. It was the worst spyware I'd ever seen! I had to rename the mbam.exe to something random lik jfkldssdl.exe just so it would run, and then every time the scan completed and I tried to remove the files the spyware caused Malwarebytes to stop responding. I had to use a portable task-manager freeware called Daphne Portable (Because Windows task-manager was not being allowed to run) to find the process, then find the executable. I couldn't delete it in windows so I took note of the file path booted from Ubuntu on my flash drive to delete the virus's executable file. Finally I booted, scanned, and cleaned off the mess left from the virus's war we had. I just think it would be amazing if we could boot up a free operating system (Linux) that was compatible with Malwarebytes and clean off these extremely clever and complex spywares like Windows Pro Defense. I don't know what kind of work it takes to make a stable version for Linux, but unfortunately it's just something that Linux Wine will never really handle. Linux and Malwarebytes working together would be an amazing freeware combination that will knock viruses and spyware off their feet before they know what's happening, and I'd be thrilled to see this happen sometime. Thank you everybody for your time and consideration! =)