The first program you need is called RogueKiller, which is free to download and run. You can download this by going to your browser and typing http://tigzy.geekstogo.com/Tools/RogueKiller.exe Don’t worry if you get some pop-ups generated by the malware when you open IE because it’s been hijacked, just close them until you get to your browser and copy and paste that link in. You’ll find the browser won’t block a direct link. Go ahead and save that file to your desktop. Before you save it however, change the name of the file from RogueKiller to Winlogon. If your browser really isn’t happy because of all the bugs, you can also paste that link into a run window. Go to start and then run, and paste the link. This will again open your browser and you may have to close a few windows before you can save the file.

Run the file on your desktop called Winlogon, and you’ll be presented with a DOS screen with some information and six options. RogueKiller will already have identified the process that is causing the problem, so the option you want is number two, for delete. This deletes the process that is locking up your computer. You’ll see a few screens flash by, and you’ll be presented with a report. You don’t need to view the report, it’s just for information, and so close it and you’ll be back at the desktop.

The next piece of free software you need is called Malwarebytes. You can download this by going to http://www.myantispyware.com/mbam You should find you have the use of your browser back, so go ahead and copy and past this into the address bar of IE and download the software. Again, copy it to your desktop, as this is a logical place to find it easily. Run the installation program and just follow the prompts, as it’s all fairly self-explanatory. When you get to two checkboxes at the end asking if you want to run the program and do an update, leave them checked and click finish. You may be asked if you want to buy the full version of Malwarebytes. At this point just decline and you can continue to use the free version.

Once the update has completed, you can go ahead and do a full scan. It will ask which drives to scan, uncheck everything except the C drive and run the scan. This may take some time, so go and do something else. Once it’s finished though, you can reboot your computer, and with fingers crossed your computer will be back to normal. Now’s a great time to update your antivirus software!!

The security program is a portable application that can be started right after downloading it from the Technet servers. It will display a graphical user interface that will list all discovered DHCP servers. A click on the Detect Rogue Server button is required to initiate the scan of the computer network.

The Microsoft Rogue Detection Tool will then display all DHCP servers in the list that it considers rogue servers (It is not clear if it classifies all servers as rogue servers in the beginning). Information like the server IP, gateway address and offered client IP are displayed in the list. It is possible to check the valid DHCP server box to classify the server as a valid server which will make that information persistent.

The program can be configured to run once or at specified intervals. It is furthermore possible to select only specific interfaces. Currently only IPv4 interfaces are supported with plans to add IPv6 interfaces in the future.

Microsoft’s Rogue Detection Tool can be downloaded from the announcement page over at the DHCP Team blog.

Rogue Remover is a little freeware application that scans your hard drives for installed rogue antivirus, antispyware and hard drive utilities and removes them if you choose it. The process is not complicated and even inexperienced users should be able to use rogue remover without help.

Some of the products that Rogue Remover is able to remove are: WinAntiSpyware, WinAntiVirus, SpyAxe, VirusBlast and VirusBursters . A complete list with about one hundred programs is available at the developers homepage.

Update: Rogue Remover has been discontinued. The program has not been updated for a while and is no longer an efficient program to clean rogue antispyware from the Windows system.

Update: Rogue Remover has been discontinued. You can download Malwarebytes Antimalware Free instead which is the program’s unofficial successor. The free version is one of the most popular malware detection and removal tools available on today’s Internet.

When you first start the program you have the option to perform a quick or full scan of the system. It is suggested to run a full scan if you suspect your system to be infected with rogue antispyware. This scan may take a while, depending on the amount of data stored on your computer and the PC’s resources.

The anti malware software displays all malware that is has discovered on the system in a list to you. You can then select the malware that you want removed right away. This is usually all that it takes to remove rogueware from the computer.