micro spyware

Yesterday evening I got a phone call from my friend “I have a 2008 IBM Think Pad and I tried to Uninstall Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2009. But this software is known to be difficult to uninstall. When I attempt to upgrade my laptop to Windows7, it detects these and will not continue. Is there a cure?” Then, my answer is ” Yes, it is”. And the following passage is how I successfully dealt with it.

Firstly, boot your system in safe mode by keep pressing F8 from the startup.

Secondly, remove the Trend Micro Internet Security Pro in the Add or Remove Programs of control panel by going to the start menu.

Thirdly, manually search and delete the files below in the C disk,

C:WINDOWSsystem32driverstmactmon.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driverstmcomm.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driverstmevtmgr.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driverstmpreflt.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driverstmtdi.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driverstmxpflt.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driversTM_CFW.sys

C:WINDOWSsystem32driversvsapint.sys

Fourthly, manually search and delete the registry keys in the Registry Editor by going to the Start Menu ( select “Run” in the menu, and type in “regedit” in the pop up box) if they exist.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro/VBEE

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro/TrendSecure

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro/TMAS

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro/PC-cillin

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro/NSC

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/TrendMicro/Aegis

Last but not least, since the Add or Remove Programs could just activate the removal tool of the program itself, such as Trend Micro Internet Security Pro, to uninstall the main installing files and registry, you may have to manually remove the left over entries, such as the files and registry keys in the step 3 and step 4. Therefore, the manual removal would be very risky and not trouble shooting.

To avoid this, you can just download a removal tool to uninstall Trend Micro to finish the two steps (3,4) in one minute by resetting and automatically uninstalling the Trend Micro folder (empty).