Total Security Nightmare

Imagine the horror when I realized that there was a very troublesome spyware which managed to steal its way into my computer a couple of days ago. The spyware Total Security is an impostor. It pretends to be an anti-virus programme and suggests "solutions" for you.

Beware!!! Do not keep it too long in your computer or it'll slow everything down. I have no idea how it got in my computer in the first place. Perhaps I got it by visiting some malicious website and the spyware had the chance to invade my computer system. It looked like a normal anti-virus software and it even displayed the number of "infections" in my computer.



It also had the same display as my Windows Security Center. The Firewall and Automatic Updates were shown as "On" but my Virus Protection was "Off". It said that my Total Security anti-virus was unregistered or something, I don't remember but it prompted me to do something to fix the problem. Then it got irritating as it kept popping up small windows asking me to run updates.

The nightmare was that it's difficult to delete it! I went to Program Files and tried to delete the tsc.exe file but it refused to be deleted. I searched high and low on the Internet and found a number of websites dedicated to the removal of this spyware.

Okay, here's how I finally got rid of it:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open up Windows Task Manager. Under the Applications tab, I clicked on the Total Security task and ended it. I quickly went to Program Files to delete the TS file. Still can't be deleted.


2. I opened up Windows Task Manager again and ended the Total Security task again. Then, under the Processes tab, I simply clicked on an image name that was similar to tsc. Of course, this was somewhat dangerous but it was a risk I was willing to take. :D


3. So I immediately went back to Program Files and tried to delete the TS file. To my relief, the file disappeared. The small TS icons on the bottom right of my desktop also went off.

Here are two websites that I visited to get information on how to remove this Total Security spyware:

Remove Total Security 2009 fake antispyware
Remove Total Security 2009 Total Security Removal Guide

But the comments in this site helped me the most:
How to remove Total Security Protection Center

I also downloaded the Spyware Doctor security software hoping that it'd remove Total Security but all it did was scan my computer for infected files. For it to protect my computer and to remove TS, I'd need to buy the USD29.95 full version. Well, looks like I don't need it anymore!