1. What is Privacy Center?
Privacy Center - not a virus (in some cases erroneously defined as a virus), but misleading application that put at risk the safety of computer system, endangers personal data confidentiality and increases the chances of unauthorized cash transfer. Privacy Center is also known as ControlCenter or PCenter.
Computers, infected by rogue programs like Privacy Center, are provided with internet connection, but not with anti-spyware program, that protect the system. Substantial and negative victims action, leading towards the emergence of the problem - connecting to malicious website, which is the main causer of Privacy Center installation.
Due to the reason that Privacy Center like spyware applications create new Windows Registry values, drop several malicious files in different directories and are not possible to completely remove through Add / Remove Programs, it is recommended to remove Privacy Center spyware using trusted automatic malware detection and removal tool.
The following "Warning!" message is being displayed by Privacy Center, resulting from the icon located in the taskbar area:
As the Windows operating system has been restarted after the infection, it may be that the Privacy Center will abandon computer system from the desktop icon and Start Menu bar display, other than the program itself in the middle of the desktop. When you try to close Privacy Center window, "Error" message will appear stating that "The operation is prohibited. Please check your settings". In order to recover usual desktop and start Privacy Center removal procedure:
Computers, infected by rogue programs like Privacy Center, are provided with internet connection, but not with anti-spyware program, that protect the system. Substantial and negative victims action, leading towards the emergence of the problem - connecting to malicious website, which is the main causer of Privacy Center installation.
Due to the reason that Privacy Center like spyware applications create new Windows Registry values, drop several malicious files in different directories and are not possible to completely remove through Add / Remove Programs, it is recommended to remove Privacy Center spyware using trusted automatic malware detection and removal tool.
The following "Warning!" message is being displayed by Privacy Center, resulting from the icon located in the taskbar area:
- One or several security components reported some problems! Traces of discreditable files (for example, the history of visiting adult sites) and security vulnerability have been found. Click this notification to eliminate vulnerability immediately!
As the Windows operating system has been restarted after the infection, it may be that the Privacy Center will abandon computer system from the desktop icon and Start Menu bar display, other than the program itself in the middle of the desktop. When you try to close Privacy Center window, "Error" message will appear stating that "The operation is prohibited. Please check your settings". In order to recover usual desktop and start Privacy Center removal procedure:
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to enter Task Manager;
- Go to File -> New Task;
- Type in "explorer.exe" (without quotes);
- Click OK
2. Privacy Center screen shot:
3. How to remove Privacy Center:
- Internet connection might be disabled or Internet browser might be blocked by Privacy Center, so it won't be possible to download any files to infected computer. In this case please download all files required for Privacy Center removal to another computer and then transfer them on the infected one using CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
- To remove Privacy Center download Spyware Doctor and install the program (for the installation guide click here). Before installation, make sure all other programs and windows are closed.
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After the installation, computer scan should be started automatically. If so, please move to the next step. If not, click "Status" on the left side menu and press "Scan Now" button to run computer scanner as shown in the picture below:
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After the scan has been completed and scan results have been generated, press "Fix Checked" button to remove Privacy Center.
- Restart the computer to complete Privacy Center removal procedure.
4. Privacy Center files:
agent.exe, flash_player_update.exe (setup file), colin.exe (setup file)5. Hijackthis entries:
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [agent.exe] C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\pc\agent.exe |