ThinkSmart - How to remove

ThinkSmart is a fake anti-spyware from Microsoft Security Essentials impersonators family, similar to Thinkpoint. The infection is spread by Java exploits, faked updates to various software or other kinds of trojans. As the symptoms of ThinkSmart infection might hit a while after actual infection, some of the users can not identify the exact cause.

This kind of malware enters PC in 2 stages: First, it starts showing a faked window of Microsoft Security Essentials, a good and legitimate antivirus, with warning that there is an serious infection. The user is asked to reboot PC to fully remove infection. During that time another application is installed. That application is ThinkSmart – a rogue antivirus, that is quite hard to remove. After the reboot, user is greated with ThinkSmart window which scans the PC and tries to scare the user further.

First, ThinkSmart will start showing various alerts, varying from infections detected to hackers attacking the PC. These alerts are fake. If user clicks on the alerts, a fake scan window will be presented and it is claimed that ThinkSmart removed some of the infections, but requires additional module to remove them from important system files. Coincidently, these files belong to antiviruses and other tools, that can be used to remove this scareware.

To Remove thinkSmart, follow these removal instructions:
1. press Ctrl+shift+esc right after booting up in windows and stop processes mentioned in removal guide (usually hotfix.exe).
2. Press File->New task in task manager and enter full path to explorer.exe
3. Search for hotfix.exe and thinksmart.exe or other mentioned files on your PC, and delete all occurrences under C:\Users, C:\Documents and Settings or in temporary folders.
4. Disable proxy settings in your browser, or use another PC and usb disk to download and install tools in next step
5. Install and scan with TDSS Killer, spyhunter, Hitman Pro and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Perform full scans with last 3 tools and delete everything they find.
6. Update your Antivirus Software. Preferably to internet security version, or use full version of spyhunter or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to protect from similar infections

Automatic Malware removal tools

Manual removal