Manual Removal Guide for Performance Optimizer

The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "Performance Optimizer" 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.

Threat Details:

Categories:

• malware

Description:

Performance Optimizer claims to be a registry tool to fix errors. While scanning the computer it will find hundreds of errors that are false positives and wants the user to purchase a licence to fix them.

Removal Instructions:

Start Menu:

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

• Items named "Uninstall Performance Optimizer.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\uninstpo.exe".
• Items named "Documentation.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PerfOpt.chm".
• Items named "ReadMe.doc.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\ReadMe.doc".
• Items named "Performance Optimizer Home Page.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Performance Optimizer Home Page.url".
• Items named "Performance Optimizer.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PerfOpt.exe".
• Items named "Performance Optimizer.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PerfOpt.exe".
• Items named "Sellmosoft Home Page.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Sellmosoft Home Page.url".
• Items named "Uninstall Performance Optimizer.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\uninstpo.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 "Performance Optimizer (Trial version)".

Files:

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

• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\po_cfg.ini".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\ReadMe.doc".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\ua_manager.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Performance Optimizer\Documentation\Documentation.lnk".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMS>\Performance Optimizer\Documentation\ReadMe.doc.lnk".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\creader.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\inst.imd".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\install_stat2.tmp".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\pcid.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PerfOpt.chm".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PerfOpt.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PerfOpt.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Performance Optimizer Home Page.url".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\PoChk.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\ReadMe.doc".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Sellmosoft Home Page.url".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\sload.sbd".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\uninstpo.exe".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data001.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data003.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data006.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data007.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data009.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data011.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data013.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data016.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data017.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data020.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data023.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data027.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data030.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data031.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data033.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data040.reg".
• The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks\data042.reg".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Performance Optimizer 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.

Folders:

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

• The directory at "<$PROGRAMS>\Performance Optimizer".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMS>\Performance Optimizer\Documentation".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\com_s".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\cur_s".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Restore".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks".
• The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\Performanceoptimizer (Free)\Tweaks.Bak".

Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If Performance Optimizer 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 "{00BB2D08-A825-441c-8680-B7E46BECD84F}" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
• Delete the registry key "Performanceoptimizer" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
• Delete the registry key "Sellmosoft" at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
• Delete the registry key "Sellmosoft Inc." at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\".
• Delete the registry key "{07029706-196D-44F4-9D9D-F69262999027}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\".
• Delete the registry key "{EAA94617-7939-61CC-C1D4-72DBAC0A2CF1}" at "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TypeLib\".
• Delete the registry key "Performanceoptimizer" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\".
• Delete the registry key "Sellmosoft" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\".

If Performance Optimizer 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.