Phantom Program Unwanted AV that won't go away.

A family member was complaining about her laptop running slow so I was assigned to fix it.
The slowness was due to a shell theme program and the fact that CCleaner and the other maintainence programs hadn't been run in roughly a year.
The problem isn't slowness anymore, it's the fact that this "try-to-buy" AV program refuses to disappear.
I've tried to simply unistall it, the problem is that it doesn't show up in the start menu or the add/remove list in the control panel.
I also tried to uncheck it from the list for startup programs through msconfig, and again it's unlisted.
It doesn't even show up in the program files folder.
I was going to do a sys restore but some genius had the create restore points option turned off so that won't work.

I don't really have the option of reformating the drive, though it could really use it.

Edit: It probably doesn't matter a whole lot but while Im thinking about it here's something that might be of some help:
the laptop is running Win XP Pro 2002 Sevice Pac 2

Are there any options that I haven't tried?
Please post if you have any tips or advice.

Thanks in advance,
Fry

 

The AV notification you're getting is a type of malware that tricks the user into purchasing it's software.

A general plan of attack is to install a real antivirus program on you computer like Avira, AVG, or Avast. These are all free and come with anti-malware scanners as well. If the problem still persists after the scan, get a dedicated malware scanner such as Super-antispyware or MalwarebytesAntiMalware. Links to all the software can be found on the stickied thread in this forum.

If the problem has been resolved, you'll need to secure the computer from future attacks. Some things you can do:

• With the install AV program, schedule weekly or daily scans.
• Update Windows regularly! Security patches released by Microsoft are there for a reason.
• Change your browser to a more secure one like Google Chrome (sandboxing), Firefox (with adblock and noscript addons), or even the latest IE8 which resolves MANY security vulnerabilities in IE7.

 

What is the program's name?
Does a search for files with that name bring anything up and/or do you see any dodgy process running?

 

The program is called Antivirus System Pro and like Cloud 9 said, it's type of malware that tricks the user into purchasing it's software.
I would love to check to see if there are any dodgy processes running, but there's some sort of glitch in the taskmanager, I can't click on the tab for processes because it's not there.(that's an old problem that I haven't gotten around to fixing yet).

 

This is known as rogue AV which is some kind of malware.
This rogue AV gives your computer false sense of virus and urge you to buy their products. THIS IS A LIE!
To remove it.
Download SmitfraudFix. This software is made to remove those rogue AVs.
Guide and D/L, http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php
Please do read the guide. (important)

 

OK to the best I can tell, Super-antispyware removed the troublesome malware.
Thanks for the speedy responses.

Fry

 

I will download it and read the guide just incase.
Thanks for the help

Fry

 

You may also want to download, update and run Malwarebytes-Antimalware. It seems to detect infection SAS doesn't

 

will do, thanks for the tip.

Fry