The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "TheSpywareDetective" 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:
TheSpywareDetective claims to be an antispyware solution and if it is installed on the computer, it finds some entrys as malware which are totally harmless. When the user tries to fix these problems he has to buy a licence and so the programs tries to frighten users by showing false positives.
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 "The Spyware Detective.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\*.exe".

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 "The Spyware Detective.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\*.exe".
  • Items named "Uninstall.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\unins000.exe".

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 "The Spyware Detective.lnk" and pointing to "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\*.exe".

Autorun:

Please use Spybot-S&D, RunAlyzer or msconfig.exe to remove the following autorun entries.
  • Entries named "The Spyware Detective 1.5".
  • Entries named "The Spyware Detective 1.5Clean".

Important: There are more autorun entries that cannot be safely described in simple words. Please use Spybot-S&D 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 or RunAlyzer to locate and get rid of these entries.
  • Products that have a key or property named "{B6031713-7439-4709-B0A3-57DBB3E6322A}_is1".

Files:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these files.
  • The file at "<$COMMONPROGRAMS>\The Spyware Detective\The Spyware Detective Website.url".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\backupdatalist.xml".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\config.ini".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\scanlist.log".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\unins000.dat".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\unins000.exe".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\data\clsid.fln".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\data\element.fln".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\data\files.fln".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\data\regdata.fln".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\help\help_English.chm".
  • The file at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\languages\English.lng".
Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If TheSpywareDetective 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 "<$COMMONPROGRAMS>\The Spyware Detective".
  • The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\data".
  • The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\help".
  • The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\languages".
  • The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro\xml".
  • The directory at "<$PROGRAMFILES>\The Spyware Detective Pro".
Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If TheSpywareDetective 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!

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.