How to Remove VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore (Detailed Guide!)

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The Virtool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore malware is a common trojan virus that infiltrates computers through dubious websites, spam mail, etc. This virus can steal your valuable data and disrupt your computer’s security system. Today, we’ll discuss more this virus and highlight ways to delete this virus from your computer.

Want to know the quickest way to get rid of this malware? Fortunately, Spy Hunter can automatically remove Virtool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore with no hassles. Spy Hunter detects and removes malware while defending your PC against new security threats.

Is VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore Malware or False Positive?

The VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore is a malicious malware that can harm your PC. This virus can steal personal data and monitor your computer’s activities. While the primary aim of this virus is to compromise your system’s security to bypass its defenses, the hackers behind the infiltration may have other objectives that could lead to financial losses, identity theft, additional malware infections, and other security issues.

Moreover, users infected with this malware have reported that their screens were locked by a scam message instructing them to contact bogus Microsoft support. Ensure you don’t believe these messages. If you call the contact number, you may be duped into paying money to the hacker and risk infecting your computer with additional malware.

This malware can also disable the Windows Defender making it harder to detect and remove. This trojan virus spreads in the same manner as most computer viruses. VirTool: Win32/Defender TamperingRestore can infiltrate your PC in various ways, the most common of which are as follows:

False claims on phishing websites
Bogus Flash Player updates
Malicious spam email attachments and hyperlinks

Cracked software and pirated programs

Automatic Way to Remove Virtool:win32/DefenderTamperingRestore

Our top recommendation for removing the VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore virus from your computer is SpyHunter. Let’s highlight how to use SpyHunter to automatically remove this malware.

Step 1: Visit the SpyHunter download page and download the app. Then, search for the downloaded Spy Hunter file once the download is complete and click on it to install.

Step 2: Click “Yes” when the “User Account Control” confirmation dialog appears and follow the other steps till you complete the installation

Remove Virtoolwin32DefenderTamperingRestore

Step 3: Then, locate the SpyHunter program on your homepage and launch it.

Step 4: Once the app is open, select “Start Computer Scan Now” to start scanning your computer for this virus. When the scan is finished, select “Remove” to delete the malware.

The Most Advanced Guide to Remove VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore Manually (Proceed with Caution!)

If you decide to remove malware manually, follow our step-by-step guide below. Note that this process takes 20-30 minutes and requires some technical skills. If you do not follow our steps carefully, this may damage or corrupt your Windows system, and you will end up paying more to reinstall the system and recover your data than getting malware removal software in the first place.

Before Proceeding to Solutions, You Need to Enter a Safe Mode

Step 1. Search for ‘Recovery Options‘ > Recovery > Advanced start-up > Restart now

Step 2. Then in Choose an option menu go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart

Step 3. Once restarted, select Safe Mode with Networking and press Enter

Now let’s proceed to malware removal steps… Please follow our exact order of solutions to have a higher chance of success.

Solution #1 – Delete Suspicious Tasks in Task Scheduler

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler

Step 2. Open the Task Scheduler Library folder and delete suspicious tasks

Solution #1 - Delete Suspicious Tasks in Task Scheduler — Delete suspicious tasks in Task Scheduler / Image credit: Pigtou

TIP: if you don’t recognize suspicious tasks, filter by ‘Created’ date and check the latest created tasks. Also, suspicious tasks might have a missing Author.

Solution #2 – Delete Suspicious Programs in Programs and Features

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features

Delete Suspicious Programs in Programs and Features - control panel - program — Open Programs and Features / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 2. Sort by ‘Installed On‘ date and delete suspicious programs

Solution #2 - Delete Suspicious Programs in Programs and Features — Delete suspicious programs in Programs and Features / Image credit: Pigtou

TIP: Think about what programs were installed just before your PC got infected.

Solution #3 – Delete Suspicious Files from Task Manager

Step 1. Open Task Manager and go to the Details tab

Step 2. Search for suspicious processes

Step 3. Right-click on suspicious process > Open file location, and delete the file or whole folder

Delete suspicious processes in Task Manager / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 4. Get back to Task Manager and end the suspicious process

Step 5. Then search the Startup tab for suspicious processes > Open the file location, and delete the file or whole folder

Delete suspicious startup processes / Image credit: Pigtou

TIP: If ‘Access is denied’ and you’re unable to delete files, search for Resource Monitor (run as administrator), open and end the process in the Overview tab, then try to delete a file.

Solution #4 – Delete Suspicious Registries from Registry Editor

Step 1. Open Registry Editor (Run as administrator)

Step 2. Delete suspicious registries from:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce locations

Delete suspicious records in Run and RunOnce locations / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 3. Then select Computer and go to Edit > Find, and search Registry by names of suspicious files you remember from previous steps

Search for suspicious records / Image credit: Pigtou

TIP: You can easily delete suspicious registries from Run and RunOnce folders, however, be careful with deleting registries from other folders. This can break your system.

Solution #5 – Disable Suspicious Services in System Configuration

Step 1. Search for Run and type msconfig, then open the Services tab

Disable Suspicious Services in System Configuration - run diag — Type msconfig in Run / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 2. Tick ‘Hide all Microsoft services‘

Solution #5 - Disable Suspicious Services in System Configuration — Disable suspicious services in System Configuration / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 3. Then search a list for suspicious services and untick them

TIP: Missing or unknown Manufacturer can be a good sign of suspicious service

Solution #6 – Delete Temporarily Files

Step 1. Search for Run and type %temp%

Delete Temporarily Files - temporary files — Locate Temp folder and delete everything inside / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 2. Delete everything in the Temp folder

Step 3. Empty Recycle Bin

TIP: all temporary files can be deleted without hesitation. It will not damage your system.

Solution #7 – Check Hosts File

Step 1. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc, and open the hosts file as Notepad

Step 2. Delete everything below ‘# ::1 localhost‘

Solution #7 - Check Hosts File — Delete suspicious records in Hosts file / Image credit: Pigtou

TIP: If a record doesn’t have ‘#’, this is definitely a suspicious record that should be deleted.

Solution #8 – Clean Browsers

Step 1. Search for your browser, right-click and open file location

Step 2. Then right-click on the browser icon and open Properties

Step 3. Delete everything after exe” in Target (for example, Google Chrome’s target should end with chrome.exe”)

Solution #8 - Clean Browsers' Target in properties — Verify Target in browser properties / Image credit: Pigtou

Then you need to open your browser, delete suspicious extensions, notifications, and reset settings to defaults.

• Google Chrome:

Delete suspicious extensions: Settings > Extensions

Remove suspicious notifications: Settings > Privacy and security > Notifications, then remove suspicious notifications under ‘Allowed to send notifications‘

Reset settings to defaults: Settings > Reset and clean up > Restore settings to their original defaults > Reset settings

• Mozilla Firefox:

Delete suspicious add-ons: Menu > Add-ons and themes

Remove suspicious notifications: Menu > Privacy & Security > Notifications > Settings…, then remove websites you do not want to receive notifications from

Reset settings to defaults: Menu > Help > More troubleshooting information > Refresh Firefox > Refresh Firefox

• Opera:

Delete suspicious extensions: Click on Opera icon > Extensions > Extensions

Remove suspicious notifications: Click on Opera icon > Settings > Advanced > Privacy & security > Site Settings > Notifications, then under ‘Allowed to send notifications’ remove websites you do not want to receive notifications from

Reset settings to defaults: Click on Opera icon > Update and recovery > Recover

• Microsoft Edge:

Delete suspicious extensions: Menu > Extensions

Remove suspicious notifications: Menu > Settings > Cookies and site permissions > Notifications, then under ‘Allow‘ remove websites you do not want to receive notifications from

Reset settings to defaults: Menu > Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their default values > Reset

Solution #9 (Optional) – Follow This Solution if Your Browser Does Not Open Any Websites

If your browsers do not open any websites while other software can connect to the internet properly, you need to check internet properties:

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > Internet Options > Connections > LAN settings

Follow This Solution if Your Browser Does Not Open Any Websites lan options — Open LAN settings / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 2. Tick ‘Automatically detect settings’ and untick ‘Use a proxy server for your LAN’

Disable 'Use Proxy for LAN' — Disable proxy server for LAN / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 3. Then disable proxy servers in the browser if connection wasn’t restored yet

• Check AppInit_DLL in Registry

Step 1. Open Registry Editor (Run as administrator)

Step 2. Go to Edit > Find, search for AppInit_DLLs

Step 3. Open the AppInit_DLLs file and make sure Value Data is empty (don’t remove records starting with “SYS:”)

Check Value Data in AppInit_DLL / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 4. If Value Data contains a path to any DLL file, follow that path, find and delete that DLL file, and clean Value Data in AppInit_DLLs file.

TIP: DLL file may be hidden in the destination folder. In that case, change the folder setting by going to View > Options > Change folder and search options > View, then select ‘Show hidden files, folders and drives’

• Check DNS servers

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Network and Sharing Centre, then click on your Connection

Step 2. Open Properties > Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

Step 3. Select ‘Use the following DNS server addresses’ and enter 8.8.8.8 to Preferred DNS server and 8.8.4.4 to Alternative DNS server

Update DNS servers / Image credit: Pigtou

Step 4. Then open Command Prompt and enter the following commands: ipconfig /flushdns then route –f (these commands will clean DNS cache)

Solution #10 (Optional) – Restore the Windows

If the steps above do not remove malware, you can restore your Windows to the earlier point. This will not affect your pictures, documents or personal data, but some programs or drivers might be uninstalled.

Search for Create a restore point > System Restore… > Next > Select a date you want to restore your system to > Next > Finish

Solution #10 (Optional) - Restore the Windows — Restore system to the earlier settings / Image credit: Pigtou

You may also need to decrypt or recover your personal files.

Conclusion

The VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore malware performs several malicious activities that can affect your computer’s performance. For this reason, it’s essential to run regular system scans and remove this virus immediately after you notice it. Remember, use Spy Hunter to remove the VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore malware from your computer.

FAQs

How to remove VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore?

Users can easily remove this virus and prevent it from running malicious activities on their computers. We recommend Spy Hunter as the quickest way to remove this virus from your computer. Moreover, our manual method can also help you remove this malware.

How has VirTool: Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore infected my PC?

This malware typically infects computers through spam emails, malicious websites, torrents, and fake updates. Ensure you only visit trustworthy websites and always scan emails and files to prevent this laptop from infiltrating your system.