Manual Removal Guide for Win32.AdvertMen

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "Win32.AdvertMen" 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:

• trojan

Description:

The downloaded file installs a file called pushow62.dll which contains code for an executable file. There are hints, that browser settings may be changed as well.

Privacy Statement:

[...] 9. OTHER SOFTWARE. You allow that third party software may be installed with the Software and that advertismen.com shall not be liable to anyone with respect to such third party software. [...]

Removal Instructions:

Autorun:

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

• Entries named "shell32" and pointing to "<$SYSDIR>\*.exe".
• Entries named "Windows update" and pointing to "<$SYSDIR>\*.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 "advertismen".

Files:

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

• The file at "<$PROFILE>\Recent\pushow60.dll.lnk".
• A file with an unknown location named "username.exe".
• A file with an unknown location named "pushow60.dll".
• A file with an unknown location named "systb.dll".
• The file at "<$SYSDIR>\pushow62.dll".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Win32.AdvertMen 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 files!

Important: There are more files that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D to remove them.

Registry:

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

• Delete the registry key "{0288B94B-0288-B94B-0288-B94B0288B94B}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\".
• Remove "pushow" from registry value "AppInit_DLLs" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\".

If Win32.AdvertMen uses rootkit technologies, use our RegAlyzer, RootAlyzer or our Total Commander anti-rootkit plugins.

Browser:

The following browser plugins or items can either be removed directly in your browser, or through the help of e.g. Spybot-S&D or RunAlyzer.

• Please check your bookmarks for links to "http://clipstop.com/creatives/hot.html".

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.