The Nprotect Game Guard software is a part of several free, downloadable MMORPG games that are available on the World Wide Web. The software is designed to act as an anti-cheat iprogram in order to promote fairer play on game servers.
However, the software is very intrusive to your PC system, attaching itself to legitimate Windows applications in order to hide itself and is a severe drain on your PC's resources. You might think uninstalling the game that Game Guard came with would be enough, but unfortunately you'd be wrong! Game Guard buries itself deeply into your system, so even removing the
game leaves behind several hidden files. What's more, there's no option to uninstall it from Windows Device Manager, and it doesn't appear on your Start Menu programs either. So how do you get rid of it?
Unfortunately, there's currently no way to simply remove Game Guard yet continue to play the game as Game Guard integrates itself into the game client, meaning you can't run the game if Game Guard isn't present. The only way to remove Game Guard is to remove the game as well. If you're unlucky enough to be leeched by Game Guard, here's how to rid yourself of the software.
- Uninstall the game which Game Guard is bundled with. While this won't uninstall Game Guard, it will remove some of the .dll files (Dynamic Link Libraries) which Game Guard needs to communicate with the game.
- Browse to the install folder of the original game and locate the 'Game Guard' folder. Chances are it has been left behind by the uninstaller, so delete the file from the directory and empty the recycle bin.
- Make sure you can view hidden system files, and locate the following files:
npptnt2.sys
nppt9x.vxd
They normally reside in the Windows\System32 folder. Once you've found them, delete them.
The next part is the tricky part as it involves editing the registry. Go wrong here and you could render your operating system unusable, so be careful. It might be a good idea to create a system restore point before going further.
- To run the registry editor: Click Start > Run > then type 'Regedit' without the quotes.
- Browse to the following branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\NPPTNT2
- Remove the entire branch. Close Regedit and reboot your PC.
- Download and run a good anti-rootkit detection program, such as Sophos' Anti-Rootkit scanner and run a full system scan. Remove any files found by the software and reboot your PC.
And that's it!