The Malware Defense virus (in fact, it is a rogue anti-spyware) has been infecting computers around the world for a few weeks now, and we thought that our loyal readers, as well as new ones, might find it useful if we create a Malware Defense virus removal guide. But, before I go on about how to remove the Malware Defense virus from your computer, you might want to find out how the Malware Defense virus got on your computer in the first place and what it does. This way, you might be able to prevent other viruses or rogues (if you don’t know yet, rogues are basically scams) from infecting your computer in the future.

The Malware Defense virus gets on your computer via Trojans. The downside is that you can get this Trojan from almost every infected website, although 90% of the times it will get on a computer by pretending to be a “necessary” video codec or a flash update. Once the Trojan gets on your computer, it will download the rest of the data needed to install the Malware Defense virus on your computer. On way to make sure you won’t download Trojans in the future (as well as viruses and other infected files) is to always have active internet security software installed on your computer.

Once Malware Defence gets on your computer, it will be set up to automatically start when Windows loads. The first time you restart your computer, Malware Defense will start a fake scan of your computer. When this scan is complete, Malware Defense will report that a number of infections have been found on your computer, but that you need to buy the full version of Malware Defense to remove them. Do not purchase Malware Defense by any means, as it is a scam. In addition, you shouldn’t be concerned about this fake scan, as the files Malware Defense reports as infections are mostly legitimate Windows files. The only thing you need to do is remove Malware Defense from your computer as we will show you a little later in our removal guide.

Just like other rogues that we talked about here at Softsailor, the Malware Defense virus will also try to trick you by displaying numerous messages on your desktop. These security messages are Internet Explorer related, Windows Messenger related, etc. Do not believe these warnings. (Here we must note that Internet Explorer might be affected by the virus up to the point where you cannot browse the Internet. Remember that buying Malware Defense is not an alternative. Internet Explorer will return to normal when you will remove the Malware Defense virus).

How to Remove Malware Defense Virus Using Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware

Before we begin this removal guide, it might be a good idea to print out all these instructions as you will need to close all open applications and windows a little later in the guide.

Step 1: If the Malware Defense blocked out your Internet Explorer, you have three choices: you download the files you need from another computer and copy them on a stick or a CD/DVD you go through the remaining of the Pre-Steps on your computer to fix Internet Explorer, or you use another browser (such as Firefox, Chrome, etc). If you choose the first or the third option, skip to step.

Step 2: If you are here, you don’t have any other browser installed on your computer and you want to fix the Internet Explorer settings that have been changed by the Malware Defense virus to block your internet connection. To fix Internet Explorer, start the browser, and go to Tools->Internet Options->Connections and click on the LAN Settings button. When the “Local Area Network (LAN) Settings” window opens, uncheck the “Use a proxy server for your LAN” box.

Step 3: Now you should download this file, that will help you terminate the Malware Defense process so you can remove the virus from your computer. In addition, go here to our download page and download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware on your desktop. Make sure you save the file with a general name such as “explorer.exe”.

Step 4: Now run the rkill file multiple times until the Malware Defense process closes. You will get fake security messages regarding the rkill file. Do not believe these messages and run it until you manage to kill the Malware Defense virus process.

Step 5: Once you closed the Malware Defense virus process, close all open windows and apps and run the setup for Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware from your desktop (it’s the one you saved as “explorer.exe”). During the install process, make sure you choose the default settings. It’s also very important that you tell MBAM to automatically update itself and then run itself.

Step 6: When Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware has finished downloading, go to the Scanner tab, click the “Perform Quick Scan” radio button and then hit the Scan button.

Step 7: After MBAM has finished scanning for Malware Defense virus, as well as any other malware your computer might be hosting, go back to the scanner screen and click the “Show Results”. Make sure you select all the detected infections and then hit the “Remove Selected” button.

Step 8: Now wait for MBAM to remove the Malware Defense virus from your computer, as well as any other malware it detected.

When the removal process is complete, a scan log will pop up in a notepad window. Now you should have successfully removed the Malware Defense virus from your computer. If you had any problems with removing Malware Defense from your computer, please let us know and maybe us, or other readers might find a way to solve your problem.