How to Fix an ExeBug Virus Infection

The ExeBug virus is one of the more irritating and insidious viruses infecting systems to date. It typically comes bundled with other software and activates whenever that software is run. It will only affect Windows systems, and it is most often distributed with suspect spyware or malware that has been downloaded from websites or peer-to-peer sites.
The good news is that the ExeBug virus is relatively simple to uninstall.

The first step is to determine if your computer is indeed infected with the ExeBug virus. Here are the key symptoms:

• Taskbar warnings that your computer may have a virus infection or repeated insistence that you install a certain taskbar add-on to your web browser.
• Strange icons and desktop backgrounds that you did not install.
• Noticeably slower computer performance.
• Webpage resets and redirects.
• Websites appearing that you did not specifically type into your browser.
• Continual pop-ups.
• Aggressive advertisements that attempt to sell you the full-version of a product.
• Appearance of the following message: "Spyware Alert! Your computer is infected with spyware. It could damage your critical files or expose your private data on the Internet. Click here to register your copy of ExeBug and remove spyware threats from your PC."
• System crashes.
• Anti-virus software is blocked from starting, claiming it is infected.

The ExeBug virus can employ some or all of these tactics. Thankfully, there are ways to remove it without damaging your system.

The easiest method is automatic removal. Most anti-virus software is aware of the ExeBug virus and has methods for taking it out. The problem is that part of the purpose of the ExeBug virus is to prevent you from using your security software. To attempt automatic deletion, follow these steps:

1. Restart your computer in Safe Mode with Networking. (To do this, restart your computer and repeatedly press F8 to open the boot options. Then select Safe Mode with Networking from the list.)
2. Allow the ExeBug virus to run its fake virus scan.
3. Close the window when it is finished.
4. Open your security software.
5. Run a scan.

If you are prevented from performing any of the above steps, you will need to perform a manual removal. In order to do that, first restart your computer in Safe Mode following the instructions above. You can use either Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking. Then follow these steps:

1. Open the Windows Task Manager (press ctrl + alt + delete).
2. Click on the tab marked Processes.
3. Find any processes associated with the ExeBug program.
4. Right click on those processes and select End process.
5. Click on your computer's Start button (located at bottom left-hand corner of your screen).
6. Click Run.
7. Type regedit. Click Ok.
8. Search for a registry key such as: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\ExeBug.
9. Right click and select Delete.
10. Search for any programs with a name that matches the extension (for example, %PROGRAMFILES%\EXEBUG).
11. Manually delete all of those that you find.

The ExeBug virus is one of the sneakiest forms of spyware because it infects the registry of your computer, making it harder to find. Thankfully, by searching for processes and programs that share the ExeBug virus name, a manual uninstall is relatively simple. Be wary though. You will be making changes to how your computer runs, so if you are not cautious and careful through every step, you could end up creating permanent errors that will take much longer to fix.

After you have removed ExeBug, make sure your internet security software is up to date to prevent another infection.

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