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View Full Version : Manual Removal Guide for AdArmor



Friday
2008-11-28, 18:17
The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "AdArmor" manually.
Use this guide at your own risk; software should usually be better suited to remove malware, since it is able to look deeper.

If this guide was helpful to you, please consider donating towards this site (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=donate).

Threat Details:

Categories:
malware

Description:
AdArmor claims to be an antispyware solution. If it is installed on the computer it detects some spyware even if the computer is a totally clean machine. In order to fix these problems, the user needs to purchase a licence.
Removal Instructions:

Quicklaunch area:

Please remove the following items from your start quick launch area text to the "Start" button in the taskbar at the bottom.
To check where they are pointing to, right-click them and choose "Properties" from the context menu appearing.

Quicklaunch symbols named "Ad Armor.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor.exe".

Autorun:

Please use Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd), RunAlyzer (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=runalyzer) or msconfig.exe to remove the following autorun entries.

Entries named "Ad Armor Monitor" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor_monitor.exe".
Entries named "Ad Armor" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor.exe".
Entries named "AdArmor.exe Monitor" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor_Monitor.exe".

Important: There are more autorun entries that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd) to remove them.

Installed Software List:

You can try to uninstall products with the names listed below; for items identified by other properties or to avoid malware getting active again on uninstallation, use Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd) or RunAlyzer (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=runalyzer) to locate and get rid of these entries.

Products that have a key or property named "Ad Armor".

Files:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these files.

The file at "<$DESKTOP>\AdArmor.lnk".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor.dll".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor.exe".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor_Monitor.exe".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\AdArmor_Updater.exe".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\database.dat".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\Uninstall.exe".
The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\whitelist.dat".
The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Ad Armor\AdArmor Monitor.lnk".
The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Ad Armor\AdArmor.lnk".
The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Ad Armor\Uninstall.lnk".
Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If AdArmor uses rootkit technologies, use the rootkit scanner integrated into Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd) 2.x or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins (http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=3).
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify files!

Important: There are more files that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=spybotsd) to remove them.

Folders:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these folders.

The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor\Quarantine".
The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Ad Armor".
The directory at "<$PROGRAMS>\Ad Armor".
Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If AdArmor uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer (http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=8) or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins (http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=3).
You will have to use a global search for files without a name specified. Be extra careful, because just the name might not be enough to identify folders!

Registry:

You can use regedit.exe (included in Windows) to locate and delete these registry entries.

Delete the registry key "Ad Armor" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
If AdArmor uses rootkit technologies, use our RegAlyzer (http://www.safer-networking.org/index.php?page=regalyzer), RootAlyzer (http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=8) or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins (http://forums.spybot.info/downloads.php?id=3).

Final Words:

If neither Spybot-S&D nor self help did resolve the issue or you would prefer one on one help,
Please read these instructions (http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=288) before requesting assistance,
Then start your own thread in the Malware Removal Forum (http://forums.spybot.info/forumdisplay.php?f=22) where a volunteer analyst will advise you as soon as available.