Oct 18

Remove ThinkPoint malware – Think Point removal guide

Rogue Anti-Spyware Add comments

Malware Analysis:

ThinkPoint (aka Think Point) is dangerous software that follows the malicious path of its clone called AntiSpy Safeguard. Both of these malware tools exploit the same tactics to get promoted onto computers – they tend to use the Microsoft Security Essentials Alert counterfeiting technique. In other words, you may receive a popup notification informing you about the alleged interception of an Unknown Win32/Trojan infection on your computer. Of course this warning message is falsified so please do not take it for granted. It simply tries to get you clicking the ’Clean computer’ or ‘Apply actions’ button which inevitable leads to background installation of ThinkPoint rogue antivirus. Once on your PC, ThinkPoint will scan it and definitely find some threats and potentially harmful files under the Windows\System32 directory. Please keep in mind that these detections are not real and have no true security value. By displaying imaginary detection ads, ThinkPoint tries to make you purchase its commercial version, promising that it will give you enough assistance to take care of the supposed infections. But in fact, ThinkPoint does none of the helpful stuff it claims to do. It simply attempts to scam you out of money. So make sure you do not fall for ThinkPoint’s bogus alerts. The only right thing to do in case ThinkPoint trespasses your computer system is remove this harmful app – you can use our tutorial below for that.

Determine if your PC is infected with ThinkPoint:

Download ThinkPoint Malware Free Scanner with Remover

ThinkPoint GUI Screenshot:

ThinkPoint

How to remove ThinkPoint manually:

To perform manual removal of ThinkPoint, you should do the following:

Delete ThinkPoint corrupt files:

  • %UserProfile%\Application Data\hotfix.exe
  • %UserProfile%\Application Data\thinkpoint.exe

Remove the following associated registry entries:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PAV
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “thinkpoint”
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon “Shell” = “%Documents and Settings%\[UserName]\Application Data\hotfix.exe”

Please note that manual removal of ThinkPoint is a procedure of high complexity and should be performed with extreme caution. Lack of the required skills and even the slightest deviation from the instructions may lead to irreparable system damage. To ensure trouble-free deletion, it is recommended to use the automatic removal tool below:

Download ThinkPoint Removal Tool

19 Responses to “Remove ThinkPoint malware – Think Point removal guide”

  1. 1. admin Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    ! Important info !
    Considering the fact that ThinkPoint may block the access to your programs and even prevent the normal desktop view, we would like to give you a hint on how to bypass this.

    When your computer starts, you may see a nag screen with ThinkPoint logo offering you do a Safe Startup which eventually leads you to purchasing the scam software.
    Instead of selecting that option, you need to open Task Manager at this stage. So go ahead and click Ctrl+Alt+Del until Task Manager actually opens.
    If you succeed (which you should), please hit Processes at the top and find the hotfix.exe process on the list. You should now END this execuable immediately by clicking the End Process option.
    After this, click the Task Manager’s File menu (at the top also) and select New Task. Then, type explorer.exe in the Create New Task window and hit Ok – this will enable you to boot into normal mode of Windows and finally see your desktop.
    After these operations are completed, please stick to our tutorial above and get rid of ThinkPoint rogueware for good.
    We advise you use the automatic removal tool for eliminating ThinkPoint infection – it’s effective and won’t leave any malicious files on your system.
    Regards,
    Admin

  2. 2. Dylan Says:
    October 21st, 2010 at 10:52 pm

    hey guys, i need help bad. it wouldnt let me go onto firefox or explorer, or even system restore, so i had no option besides to buy it, now im downloading the program from your site here now hoping it deletes it.

  3. 3. NetViking Says:
    October 26th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Just wanted to thank you for this information. I was able to clear the malware and recover the system within just a few minutes. Worked perfectly.. Thank you again for publishing this information.

  4. 4. David Says:
    October 26th, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    This sounds like excellent advice. I will try this when I get home. I am at the library downloading these and hope they work.

    Thanks…. I guess and hope!

  5. 5. chris Says:
    November 12th, 2010 at 2:38 am

    What a nasty little bugger. Thanks for the tips especially bringing back the desktop after failed logon

  6. 6. UMAIR Says:
    November 17th, 2010 at 8:24 pm

    Thanks … its really helpful … very precise and to the point .. really appreciate your help.

  7. 7. Jace Says:
    November 21st, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    Thank you guys so much I have been trying to get rid of this thing all day and I am finally successful.

    Thanks again.

  8. 8. Ken Says:
    November 22nd, 2010 at 9:22 am

    We used your information last night, and it worked perfectly thanks for writing a comprehensive concise article. Ken

  9. 9. steve Says:
    November 23rd, 2010 at 4:30 am

    my desktop completely shut down your tips through task manager really helped

  10. 10. Ray Says:
    November 28th, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    Thanks for the help in removing this thing. Your suggested steps worked and the download seems to have cleared our machine.

    Thanks again!

  11. 11. Bill Says:
    November 28th, 2010 at 4:18 pm

    Good advice! Thanks for the info! It’s too bad that these obviously brilliant people don’t put their ability to productive use in the IT world. This type of ability could earn them an easy six figure salary doing something that would be of great benefit to others.

  12. 12. Pam Says:
    November 29th, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    To my great relief your easy to follow instructions worked precisely as indicated. Thanks for your help!

  13. 13. Geohund Says:
    December 4th, 2010 at 2:39 am

    thanks a lot for the great instruction…it was clear and effective…damn this thinkpoint.i thought im going to reformat my computer again..thanks alot!

  14. 14. Paul Says:
    December 4th, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    Thanks guys I was up all night trying to figure this out

  15. 15. Michael Says:
    December 5th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

    Fantastic advice! Thank you so much!

  16. 16. Nikolabcv Says:
    December 6th, 2010 at 2:01 am

    Thanks a lot!!!you saved me,thanks for help,i have read your instructions from mobile phone!

  17. 17. alex Says:
    December 6th, 2010 at 9:49 am

    thanks you very much !!

  18. 18. Jesse Garcia Says:
    December 9th, 2010 at 1:23 am

    Thats right ken ur good kinda like me, I’ve been doing tech work for the last 20 years since DOS days, batch files, attrib, edlin, Ect ect. u know i remove viruses every day i manage to operate 10+ machines at the same time doing diff tasks on all of them. So i know what it takes to remove dosenastysonsaliches. Lol

  19. 19. Rajen Says:
    December 16th, 2010 at 9:38 am

    Just down loaded form other PC and using Pendrive to load it to my laptop infected with think point virus. Hope it works.

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