The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "DioCleaner" 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:
DioCleaner pretends to be a serious antispyware application. Seems to in close relation to SpywareBot, which is also a well known rogue antispyware solution.
Privacy Statement:
DioCleaner End-User License Agreement (“EULA”)

This End-User License Agreement ("the Agreement") is a legal contract between you (either an individual, or, if purchased by or for a single business entity, who will be referred to as "the User", “You”) and DioCleaner ( “the Company”) for the DioCleaner software as well as any electronic documentation, printed materials, software updates, web services, add-on components, supplements and any associated media that the Company may provide the User with further referred to as “the Software”. The items described above will be treated as part of the Software and will not be accompanied by a separate License Agreement.

NOTE: PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING THE COMPUTER SOFTWARE. BY DOWNLOADING, INSTALLING, COPYING, ACCESSING AND OTHERWISE USING THE SOFTWARE, THE USER CONFIRMS HIS/HER ACCEPTANCE OF THE SOFTWARE AND AGREES TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT, DO NOT INSTALL, ACCESS OR USE THE SOFTWARE.

1. License

The Software, any of its aspects, parts or components, or any combination of such aspects, parts and components including electronic documentation, printed materials, software updates, web services, add-on components, supplements and any associated media that the Company may provide the User with are the exclusive intellectual property of DioCleaner and are protected by intellectual property laws and treaties.

DioCleaner grants You with a limited, non-exclusive license to use the Software solely on condition that You agree to be bound by all the terms of the present Agreement. If you are a member or agent of a business organization and are entering into this agreement to acquire the Software for use by the organization for business purposes, You agree that You enter into the Agreement as a representative of this organization and that You have the authority to bind the organization in question to the terms and conditions of the Agreement.

By accepting the terms of this Agreement You hereby acknowledge that the limited non-exclusive license granted to You by the Company does not give You ownership rights, nor does it entitle You to any copyright or any other intellectual or industrial property rights to the Software.The Software is licensed, not sold, the limited non-exclusive license being issued for use solely under the terms of the Agreement. The company reserves all rights not expressly granted to the User who owns the media onto which the Software is recorded, but the company reserves ownership of all copies of the Software itself.

2. Restrictions

- The User may install and access one copy of the Software on a single computer. The Software copy may also be shared on a common build/test machine on condition that You or your entity has purchased a single license for that common build/test machine and each developer using it possesses a license. It is prohibited to share, transfer, lease, distribute or publish the license for the Software. The User is allowed to make one copy of the Software solely for backup and archival purposes provided that the User reproduces all copyright and other proprietary notices contained by the original copy of the Software.

- The User may not modify, reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, unless such activity is expressly permitted by the Company and corresponding law. The Software is licensed as a single product, its component parts not being subject to use on more than one computer. Redistributable parts are the only exception.

- The User hereby acknowledges that he/she realizes that if the Software is labeled as “Evaluation Copy” or “Not For Resale” or contains other indications of the kind, then, notwithstanding other sections of the Agreement, the User may not and will not use the Software for commercial purposes and public distribution, sell, or otherwise transfer it for value.

- It is prohibited to remove, modify or make corrections to DioCleaner copyright and trademark notices on any part of the Software, including but not limited to any such notices contained in the physical and/or electronic media or documentation, in any of the runtime resources and/or in any web-presence or web-enabled notices, code, etc. originally contained in the Software.

3. Warranty

The User hereby acknowledges that the Company does not guarantee the Software to be error-free. You also acknowledge that the presence of any errors of the kind shall not constitute a breach of the Agreement by the Company. DioCleaner does not guarantee complete detection and/or removal of spyware, adware, malware, Trojans, keyloggers and trackware, nor does it guarantee complete detection of browser infections and tracking cookies on the User’s machine.

The use of the Software may result in removal or disabling of other programs from your computer, including software that may or may not be classified as Spyware. By using the Software, you acknowledge that You have read this statement and that You agree not to hold the Company responsible for such removal or disabling or the results of such removal or disabling. The User holds sole responsibility for selecting the programs to be removed by the Software from the User’s machine.

You further acknowledge that you realize that the Software will seek to remove malicious codes and that in some cases the removal of the code may cause your breaching a license to use the host software which installed that code or certain host programs to stop functioning. You agree to consult the terms of any license agreement for the host program before removing any Spyware or Adware associated with that program.

DioCleaner, its licensors or their related companies shall not be liable to the User for any damages, whether direct, consequential, indirect or special, punitive or incidental foreseeable or unforeseeable, based on the User’s claims or the claims of a third party, whether based on the Agreement, any commitment performed or undertaken under on or in connection with the Agreement or otherwise, except for cases of personal injury where a corresponding law requires liability.

4. Upgrades

DioCleaner shall provide new releases, revisions or updates to the Software. The User must be licensed to use a product identified by the Company as being eligible for the upgrade in order to use the Software. Software, identified by the Company as an upgrade, substitutes and/or supplements the product that formed the basis for your eligibility for such upgrade. You may use the upgraded product only in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. If the Software is an update of a component of a software package that you licensed as a single product, the Software may be used and transferred only as part of the package and may not be separated for use on more than one machine.

5. Copyright and Trade Marks

You acknowledge that the Software and all the software related products, including but not limited to computer manuals and computer literature, further treated as "Products" are subject to copyright. Hence, the User shall not breach the copyright mentioned in the Agreement during or any time after the expiry or termination of this license or permit any action that would do so.
Removal Instructions:

Desktop:

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

Autorun:

Please use Spybot-S&D, RunAlyzer or msconfig.exe to remove the following autorun entries.
  • Entries named "DioCleaner" and pointing to "<$SYSDRIVE>\Program Files\DioCleaner\DioCleaner.exe".

Files:

Please use Windows Explorer or another file manager of your choice to locate and delete these files.
  • A file with an unknown location named "diosoftware_setup.exe".
Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If DioCleaner 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>\DioCleaner".
Make sure you set your file manager to display hidden and system files. If DioCleaner 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 "diocleaner" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\".
If DioCleaner 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.