PRINT this post on paper and keep it in a safe place!
Palladium is a bogus anti-virus program and belongs to the same rogue software family as Security Shield and Antivirus Action.
Palladium & Palladium Pro infection entry points include clicking on ads you see on legitimate websites, giving the green-light to install an uncertified video codec, opening a spam e-mail attachment, dropping on an unfamilar Entrecard blog, accepting what looks like a message from a friend on AIM or Facebook, and playing a game on a favorite social network.
No matter what, even if you have to pull the power plug on your PC or disconnect the internet connection, NEVER NEVER NEVER answer any questions, click any links or buttons, or type any information into any kind of box that pops up while your computer is under the influence of Palladium. (Even if it looks "familiar" or "friendly"). Palladium steals information such as passwords and credit card/banking information that either your provide or have already stored on your machine. NEVER grant your browser permission to "remember" your passwords - you're asking for trouble!
Despite the hundreds of forums and websites offering removal tools and How-to-remove advice, once this little monster is on your computer, you are baked!
Instructions such as these would simply not work on either of the two cases of Palladium-infected computers that I have recently treated.
The removal tools and true anti-virus programs are
useless because Palladium overrides anything else (including Task Manager) that tries to initiate.
I recently posted about removing Palladium and since have received hundreds of emails requesting additional information, specifically, a simple but effective step-by-step explanation how-to remove Palladium AntiVirus.
Follow these instructions exactly, please:1. Restart your system
2. As your system is booting up, type F5 on some computers, F8 on others to call up the boot menu
3. Select the Safe Mode with Command Prompt option
4. Log-on as administrator if needed***
5. At your command prompt type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
6. Hit Enter
7. This will open the system restore wizard…
You need to rollback the system at least five days BEFORE the Palladium splash screen first appeared on your monitor.
***
You should be at C:/ ::: enter cd.. or cd\ or whatever your system commands are in order to be at the C:/ drive (that's usually your main drive) prompt on the white-on-black screen8. Follow the prompts - don't be alarmed if the computer seems to be idle for long periods of time. Even when the prcess is completed, it will take several minutes between the time your opening system background splash image appears and your icons begin to populate the screen.
9. Once your system is back up and running, make sure you have your anti-virus screens running at all times. The small sacrifice in speed is worth its weight in gold, as the developers of Palladium are writing new code that will make all of the above removal methods IMPOSSIBLE to execute. Your genuine AV program is essential to keep intruders out.
You should also download and deploy these two excellent free tools: malwarebytes from malwarebytes.org and SpyBot, as they will safely clean out anything that has "stuck" to your system, and once in awhile they identify and destroy or quarantine a file that your AV program might miss.
Personally I use and recommend Avast Anti-Virus, the FREE home version.
Tags: Palladium AntiVirus, Palladium Pro, Palladium, Palladium Virus
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