Avira antivirus 9.1 premium has stopped working

I'm looking for some help on this.
My laptop has recently been coming up with this message, despite the fact i've never installed a programme called "Avira Antivirus"
I can't do anything about it, since it seems multiple windows open at once, and that this file, when I check windows task manager, is taking up 100% cpu.
In order to get my laptop to close, i had to give it a hard shutdown.

If anyone knows anything about this, please tell me.

Does anyone else use your laptop? They might have installed it.

Have you tried going into safe mode and uninstalled it from there?

No-one else uses my laptop, and I've looked in program files and I can't find it.
I've also ran a couple of scans in safe mode to see if it's a virus, but nothing's been picked up.

Have you looked for a folder with avira in it?

try the removal tool located here: http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html (http://www.avira.com/en/support/antivir_removal_tool.html)

also see: http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=106956 and related posts on their forum.

be sure to install some quality AV after cleaning your system, I suggest and recommend Norton NAV2010 for basic AV and NIS2010 if you want a firewall and related protections.

I'm starting to think it's a fake AV, because there are other people with this issue and Avira mentions something here: http://www.avira.com/en/security_news/fake_anti_virus_solutions_imitate_avira.html. Also, Avira is called Antivir, not Antivirus, so that leads me even more to think it's an imitation.
Kaspersky is one of the best AVs, so I wouldn't touch Norton with a burnt stick, sorry Steve. Open up Task manager and tell us what is listed under the Processes Tab.

BTW archer, nav2010 has the best detection and cleaning rates, as well as very low resource usage, compared to any other current AV.

It's currently the most recommended AV by the security experts.

back on topic, you may not see the process running.. (on one link I saw, it was running as explorer.exe - a bad sign)

Remove it with the removal tool, run malwarebytes from safe mode (then again in normal mode) to make sure all related crap is found/removed.

Yeah, I'll try that tommorow.
[been busy today, so y'know.]
I tried the removal tool on their site, but it didn't work.
On task manager, it comes up as running "Avira.exe" with two processes running, even when there are no popups on screen.

I would actually recommend downloading ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix). When downloaded, restart your computer, press F8 (right after the BIOS goes away), and start in Safe Mode with Networking, then start CombFix. After, I would then recommend running MBAM (MalwareBytes) and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

Rukario said:

BTW archer, nav2010 has the best detection and cleaning rates, as well as very low resource usage, compared to any other current AV.

It's currently the most recommended AV by the security experts.

Click to expand...

Well, not really - t's not as horrible as it used to be, and it does the job, but It's far from the best. The retrospective detection rate is quite high, which is important for keeping eye on older threats, but it's heuristic ability is terrible. Tests at the end of last year netted it around 35% detection levels for new viruses, which is not great, considering Kaspersky and Avira have around a 65-70% detection rate.

It's not bad, if you're going to pay for Antivirus, Kaspersky and Nod32 are far better. And from personal experience, most of the computers we get into work that are in need of virus cleanups are running Norton, which isn't exactly a testament to it's success. The latest version isn't too bad, but Symantec is an unreliable company that have always forced their way into OEM installs under the false pretense that they are what the OEM deems to be the best option.

linkinpark187 said:

I would actually recommend downloading ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix). When downloaded, restart your computer, press F8 (right after the BIOS goes away), and start in Safe Mode with Networking, then start CombFix. After, I would then recommend running MBAM (MalwareBytes) and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

Click to expand...

Combofix seems to have done the job.
Thanks for all your help, people.

linkinpark187 said:

I would actually recommend downloading ComboFix (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/combofix/how-to-use-combofix). When downloaded, restart your computer, press F8 (right after the BIOS goes away), and start in Safe Mode with Networking, then start CombFix. After, I would then recommend running MBAM (MalwareBytes) and SpyBot Search & Destroy.

Click to expand...

ComboFix was definitely a good recommendation but just as a point of reference, from what I understand about it, it uses running processes (among other things) to determine what it is going to remove so if it can be run from within a normal environment, it generally performs a little better. It also requires a network connection to download the recovery console so it can back things out if its fix fails, though you covered this with the "with networking" version of safe mode. Please correct me if I'm wrong here though - I may have misunderstood something.

I'm aware this is irrelevant to the current topic as the problem has been resolved but this still may be useful information to other people with a similar problem.