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Spyware and unwanted crap removal


cooper

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So allow me to introduce my sister. She's blond, pretty, married (no, this isn't going to be one of _those_ posts) and a complete idiot when it comes to computers, primarily because when "the computer" tells her to do something and I tell her not to, she trusts the computer over me.

End result was an afternoon spent clearing off spyware and other assorted garbage.

Now, one thing she did mistrust was Window Anti-Virus Pro (or something like that). This is, of course, spyware, that tricks people into installing it on the grounds that it discovered a virus on your system that your own anti-virus missed. So she installed it, and was promptly asked to pay for the full version (or something) so she tried to uninstall it but couldn't. She then went and removed all directories that this program had made, but the service still seemed to start up.

So I come along and do my best to clear out this particular piece of filth aswell, and I'm pretty sure I've gotten all of it, except for 1 thing: The icon still appears on the Configuration Screen. Anybody know how I can kick that one off the system aswell?

SpyBot and AdAware are both reporting the system as being clean again, so whatever it put in to get itself there, those tools won't be helping me getting rid of it.

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This may work in removing everything related to the program but then again I'm not sure. When you wish to uninstall something completely:

1. Find the uninstaller .exe file.

2. Right click on it and select properties

3. Under the 'shortcut' tab find the "target" box.

4. at the end of the target address, type "/clean" (without the quotation marks).

exact example) "C:Program FilesZone LabsZoneAlarmzauninst.exe" /clean

This should then remove all files related to the program, or at least that's what my research in killing norton, itunes, and aim had shown.

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The problem is that this was spyware, so...

1. Find the uninstaller .exe file.

404.

I'll look into finding stray .cpl files. Didn't know they were responsible for the contents of the control panel. Thanks for that!

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