Manual Removal Guide for Spyware Cleaner

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "Spyware Cleaner" manually.
Use this guide at your own risk; software should usually be better suited to remove malware, since it is able to look deeper.

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Threat Details:

Categories:

• malware

Description:

When Spyware Cleaner is installed on the computer it finds a lot of malware (that does not really exit) and that can only be removed after buying a licence

Supposed Functionality:

Spyware Cleaner pretends to be valid antispy software.

Removal Instructions:

Desktop:

Please remove the following files from your desktop.
To check where they are pointing to, right-click them and choose "Properties" from the context menu appearing.

• Shortcuts named "Spyware Cleaner.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Spyware Cleaner\SpywareCleaner.Exe".

Autorun:

Please use Spybot-S&D, RunAlyzer or msconfig.exe to remove the following autorun entries.

• Entries named "Spyware Cleaner" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Spyware Cleaner\SpywareCleaner.Exe".

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 or RunAlyzer to locate and get rid of these entries.

• Products that have a key or property named "Spyware Cleaner".

Folders:

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

• The directory at "<$PROGRAMS>\Spyware Cleaner".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Spyware Cleaner".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Spyware Cleaner\Backup".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Spyware Cleaner\Options Files".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Spyware Cleaner\Quarantine".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Spyware Cleaner uses rootkit technologies, use our RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.
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 "SpywareCleaner.exe" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\".
• Delete the registry key "Spyware Cleaner" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\".
• Delete the registry key "SpywareCleanerService" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Eventlog\Application\".
• Delete the registry key "SpywareCleanerService" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\".
• Delete the registry key "SpywareCleanerService" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\Application\".
• Delete the registry key "SpywareCleanerService" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\".

If Spyware Cleaner uses rootkit technologies, use our RegAlyzer, RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.

Final Words:

If neither Spybot-S&D nor self help did resolve the issue or you would prefer one on one help,

1. Please read these instructions before requesting assistance,
2. Then start your own thread in the Malware Removal Forum where a volunteer analyst will advise you as soon as available.