Knowledge Base

Help! My anti-virus protection is disabled automatically by the malware! How to remove this malware?

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 19:27:00 GMT

Case

You have got a suspicion your computer got infected by a virus or malware. Or, you are harassed by the infection directly and just want to remove it rigorously.
But, no matter what anti-virus or anti-malware solution you use, you do not seem to get rid of it.

Solution

A not so commonly know and used modus used by HitmanPro is the so-called 'Force Breach Mode'. When you start HitmanPro this way, it makes sure all unnecessary Windows services (/processes) are killed before starting the scan.
Aside from this, HitmanPro also takes many other protective measures in order to disarm or weaken the malware and its' ability to control Windows (system) services (and calls).

In order to start HitmanPro in Force Breach mode, take these steps:

If applicable, save files you are working on, since several programs will get closed along the process.
Press and hold(!) the left CTRL key
Start HitmanPro (e.g. by double clicking on its Shortcut)
Now hold down the CTRL key all the time until HitmanPro is fully started. During this process, you may see several programs being closed / killed; this is part of the process.
Now, let HitmanPro do a full system scan by clicking 'Next' button.
If malware is found, remove it!

Since some malware is nested deep in your system, you may need to reboot. No worry, you will get a note on this by HitmanPro.

Still not solved?

This could be the case. A last remedy could by to run HitmanPro in EWS (Early Warning Score) mode, but this is only advisable to experienced users.
So, in this case feel free to contact us. We could assist or give you more targeted advice on how to remove specific malware.

Feel free to contact us: Support@CyberTense.com

Have a nice day & all the best.

HitmanPro is slowing down my computer ?!

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 15:50:00 GMT

Case

Since you installed HitmanPro / HitmanPro.Alert, your computer seems to work rather sluggish. You are sure this is the case since installation.

Solution

To be rather clear on this one; both products are heavily tested agains modern-day security solutions and the team is very eager to enable you as user to use the product alongside other solutions you have installed already on your computer.

A small explaination per product.

HitmanPro

HitmanPro is known as a scanner doing static analysis on both files within your system as active processes and their behaviour, but its' purpose is mainly to clean up your computer from cyber threats in a on demand manner.
So, HitmanPro alone is not a real-time product. The scanner is highly effective in detecting and removing those threats.

Key point here, is that HitmanPro is a heavily optimized scanner using a multithreading aproach; during scanning (which most times takes less than a minute) your CPU is not spared :).
This can indeed make your computer a little less responsive during scan. But after this manual scan, HitmanPro wil use none of your system resources anymore.

This is a BIG SURPLUS for technical aware users because their system has no CPU load oftenly seen with realtime products.
For these kind of users, setting a scheduled scan (part of the HitmanPro config options) will meet their expectations just fine.

HitmanPro.Alert

In some way, you may think of HitmanPro.Alert as a successor of HitmanPro; a real-time product protecting you all the time instead of just on demand.
You are thinking in the right direction, but this needs a little nuance.

HitmanPro.Alert is know as a anti-exploit solution (more here) that is monitoring all your commonly used applications on correct behaviour.
More important, the monitored applications are actively protected against commonly used exploits (/exploitation) and we think it is the strongest protection currently against these kind of attacks.
If you take the time to investigate, you find HitmanPro.Alert is a full-blown solution protecting you agains ransomware preventively as well. More on this product can be found here.

Parallel with the installation of HitmanPro.Alert, the HitmanPro engine is used and controlled by HitmanPro.Alert as well, giving you the best of both worlds.
HitmanPro.Alert is also very, very lightweight and does not affect system performance by design!

TL:DR; HitmanPro.Alert may seem to slow down your system performance if you have another anti-exploit installed as well. Especially, when monitoring and hooking into the same process simultaniously with another AE solution.

All anti-virus engines work well with HitmanPro.Alert, but running multiple anti-exploit solutions is a no-go. In fact, you are discouraged to do so with any anti-exploit solution no matter which vendor.

Thus, make your choice. If you encounter other strange behaviour you think is related to HitmanPro.Alert, just let us know. The HitmanPro team is very interested in debugging those corner cases ;)

Please feel free to send us an e-mail : Support@CyberTense.com

When contacting us, please supply us with your CleverBridge invoice reference number(s) or if possible your actual License Key, so we can handle this more fluently.

We will be happy to resolve this issue or direct you to the right department.

Have a nice day.

How to reactivate HitmanPro license on my new computer?

Sun, 02 Dec 2018 09:10:00 GMT

Case

You try to transfer your HitmanPro license to another (new) computer. When you try to activate, you are informed with the message : "The maximum amount of allowed activations has been reached."

Solution

By default HitmanPro / HitmanPro Alert uses a licensing scheme which supports the idea to activate the license on your new computer and (auto)revoking the old license.

However, if you encounter this problem after several retries, your only option is to connect with the support team.

Please feel free to send us an e-mail : Support@CyberTense.com

How to activate HitmanPro License Product Key

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 21:43:42 GMT

Activation of HitmanPro

To activate the productkey of HitmanPro may seem a simple task. And - to be honest - it is indeed fairly simple to do.

Please follow these steps to activate HitmanPro:

Please start your installed copy of HitmanPro via the Windows Start Menu or via the shortcut on your desktop
Once HitmanPro has started, please click on the 'Settings' button on the left-bottom corner

3. In the window which is shown now, click on the tab 'License', import your product key and activate the license

4. If the activation did not succeed:

- If you get an 'error 20', try this link

We hope this information was helpful to you. Have a nice day!

How to fix HitmanPro error code 20 when trying to activate

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 23:03:00 GMT

Problem / Case

Some users may encounter a fixable 'error 20' dialog box when trying to activate their license of HitmanPro.

Typically, you will see this message popup :

Fig. 1 - An error occurred during the activation process (error code: 20).

Solution

Please try these steps :

Have you already retried to activate multiple times? If not, please just retry to activate another time before continuing to the next step.
This means you just have to click another time on the 'Activate' button (step 3 in figure 2).

Fig. 2 - Reactivate your Product Key in this window under 'Settings'

2. Since this problem is related to being unable to access the activation service / cloud, please check if you can properly access some websites on the internet without technical issues.
If you could successfully connect some websites, try next step. If not, of course you will first have to repair your connection.

3. Make sure you have not configured the use of a proxy:

Fig. 3 - Disable the use of a proxy / avoid HitmanPro to use the proxy used by IE

4.Try starting HitmanPro in the so-called force breach mode. To do so, follow this:

a. Press and hold the left Ctrl key

b. Start HitmanPro (whether via shortcut or via Windows Start Menu) and keep holding down the left Ctrl until HitmanPro is fully started.

c. Again go to 'Settings' and try to activate.

5. If all this does not help, you may try a last resort by restarting your computer in Safe mode with Networking and try to activate HitmanPro

We hope this helps you to successfully activate HitmanPro. Feel free to send us an email if you keep encountering a problem.

Have a nice day!