How to Remove the Browser Redirect Virus [Alureon] - After other Anti-Virus Software has Failed

After several years of using a Windows XP laptop, with Windows Firewall Enabled and AVG Free Anti-Virus software installed, I managed to 'catch' a virus. It happened this week, I was browsing on Google and successfully obtained a list of search results. I clicked on the first link but what opened wasn't the page described. It was some random site. Strange! I try the next result; same problem. Maybe it's Google so I swap to AVG search engine and then Yahoo but still have the problem. I'm using the Mozilla Firefox browser so next I try Internet Explorer, but still I can't get past the issue.

There is a work-around. I can click on the Cached link of the search result but this isn't ideal. I can also copy the address and paste it directly into the browser address bar and this will generally work. I'm still not content as I now realise I've got a Virus and don't really understand what other repercussions there could be. I want to get to the bottom of it. So struggle I do, as I try to use my Google workaround to find out what other people have done to resolve this issue.

On the many sites I come across, people refer to using AVG, MalwareBytes and Emsisoft to successfully resolve the issue. I proceeded to test these out, even leaving the laptop running the virus scan overnight as I went to bed. I woke up excited, expecting the problem to have been located and the issue to have gone. How disappointed I was when it still remained even after treating the number of detections that had been revealed.

Option 1: System Restore

I spoke to the IT guy in work and he suggested that I could do a system restore of my PC. This is where you restore the computer to an earlier state, when the virus wasn't present. Here's a brief overview of what you need to do:

1. Press F8 as your computer is loading.

2. Chose to boot in Safe Mode.

3. Log in as Administrator.

4. Navigate to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore

5. Select to restore the computer to an earlier time and click Next.

6. Chose the date that you want to restore from.

This is as far as I got to as I wasn't able to chose back any further than the past couple of weeks as it wouldn't step back to the previous month. I gave up on this method. If you want the experts' steps on this procedure then refer to the Microsoft Web Page.

Option 2: What Worked for Me

On a forum someone had mentioned that they had had success with the Hitman Pro software. I thought - here we go again; another piece of software that won't work. As I was running out of ideas, and not wanting to have to reinstall Windows XP (last resort), I decided to give it a go.

The very first detection was something called Alureon. After some research, I discovered that this was Trojan and Rootkit that could be stealing my data, like passwords etc., by intercepting network traffic. Another symptom of this Trojan is the redirecting of search engines to commit click fraud. Bingo!! This was my problem and Hitman had found it.

I let the scan complete and then chose to fix the issues. I rebooted the laptop and then tested out the search engine again. I clicked as many links as I could and none of them got redirected. RESULT.  Even better, it was the free, 30 day trial that I used.

I'm writing this article because so many suggestions online had failed to fix my problem and after several days trying to get to the bottom of this I finally got the solution I needed. I'm hoping that this will save you time in solving this problem if you are unfortunate to have it.