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Published Apr 29, 2005 | Updated Sep 15, 2017

Worm:Win32/Mydoom.AZ@mm

Detected by Microsoft Defender Antivirus

Aliases: No associated aliases

Summary

Win32/Mydoom.AZ@mm is a mass-mailing worm that targets computers running certain versions of Microsoft Windows. The worm can spread through shared folders used by peer-to-peer applications. It can also spread by sending itself to e-mail addresses it finds on the infected computer.
To manually recover from infection by Win32/Mydoom.AZ@mm, perform the following steps:
  1. Disconnect from the Internet.
  2. End the worm process.
  3. Delete the worm files from your computer.
  4. Delete the worm registry entry.
  5. Take steps to prevent re-infection.

Disconnect from the Internet

To ensure that your computer is not actively infecting other computers, you should disconnect it from the Internet before proceeding.

End the worm process

Next you should end the worm process. This helps to stop your computer from infecting other computers. It also resolves the crashing, reboot, and performance degradation issues caused by the worm.
To end the worm process
  1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL once and click Task Manager.
  2. Click the Processes tab.
  3. On the Processes tab, click Image Name to sort the running processes by name.
  4. Select the process taskmon.exe, and click End Process.
This ends the worm processes and stops the worm from running on your computer.

Delete the worm file from your computer

To delete the worm files from your computer
  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Open field, type the name of the system folder--for example, %windir%/system32
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Click the Name column to sort files by name.
  5. Delete the file taskmon.exe.
This removes the worm code from your computer. If deleting taskmon.exe fails, use the following steps to verify that taskmon.exe is not running:
  1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL once and click Task Manager.
  2. Click the Processes tab.
  3. Confirm that taskmon.exe is not in the list.

Delete the worm registry entry

Win32/Mydoom.AZ@mm creates an entry in the Windows registry that attempts to run the worm every time your computer restarts. This entry should be deleted.
To delete the worm registry entry
  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. In the Open field, type regedit
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Navigate to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  5. Right-click the value:
    TaskMon = <system folder>\taskmon.exe
    or
    TaskMon = %temp%\taskmon.exe
  6. Click Delete and click Yes to delete the value.
  7. Close the Registry Editor.

Take steps to prevent re-infection

Do not reconnect your computer to the Internet until the computer is protected from re-infection. See the "Preventing Infection" section for more information.
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