cannot delete spybotSD.exe hidden file

[avatapalli]

Hi,

I was trying to uninstall the spybotSD and I could not delete the hidden file. I have gone through the internet to delete the file but could not succeed. I could see that this forum is supporting this issue very well. Could you please help me in uninstalling the spybot with the exe file removed?

Thanks for your help in advance...

Sri.

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

In order to completely uninstall Spybot - Search & Destroy, please consider the following link.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[avatapalli]

I tried he options mentioned by you but in the folder there is a hidden file spybotSD.exe file and I could not delete it. I trird all the options but no luck. could you please help me in this?

[dkperez]

I'm in the same positioin as the OP..... Except that I have FOUR sets of spybotsd.exe files I can't delete..... This problem has been going on for severl months, and it'd be really handy to have an actual solution...

Running XP Pro with SP3.

There's some kind of rootkit problem out there that clobbers Spybot, and when it's done the .exe file is set to hidden, system, and read only, and so far I haven't been able to delete it in XP, Vista, or Safe Mode...

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

The SpybotSD.exe is a hidden system operating file by default.
So do you get any error message in deleting that file?
What about uninstalling Spybot from the add and remove panel in windows?

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[dkperez]

The only message I get is the "Cannot delete SpybotSD: Access is denied.

I've tried changing attributes, even from a command window, and I can't.

I've tried deleting these files from XP, Vista, Safe Mode, and I believe I even tried booting into command mode one time and tried... I've also tried some of the utilities that are "GUARANTEED" to delete files that can't be deleted.

Same result for all these... I've now got 5 "installations" although 4 of them only contain the SpybotSD.exe file... Everything gets deleted.....

I've tried deleting from the Control Panel. I've tried using the uninstall. Not working. And as I said, I can't reinstall over the existing file.

[avatapalli]

Even I had same problem. I installed spybot several times and every time I uninstall it I could not delete the hidden file. I could see in this forum that other members could delete this by posting the logs. Could you please help me in uninstall and removing spybot completely.

[dkperez]

I finally installed Dr Delete. It deleted the spybot files at reboot time.... It couldn't even delete them on the fly....

So far, that's the only way I've been able to get rid of them... Definitely the brute force method, but SOMETHING out there is doing a real number on Spybot...