uninstall help

colbey

New member
got a nasty virus -- AV Security crap. managed to get into Safe Mode. ran SpyBot, it found nothing. tried to update SpyBot. it kept failing. before running a system restore, i thought i'd dump current Spybot and anti-virus programs and get the newest versions when everything was fixed. so i tried to uninstall Spybot thru the Control Panel. thought it worked. did a system restore, then went out to get the latest Spybot.

downloaded version 1.62. tried to run the install and it said a Spybot folder already existed. it appears ver. 1.4 didn't get uninstalled.

tried again to uninstall it thru the Control Panel. got message that i couldn't because unins000.dat is missing.

tried to research this on the site. found nothing. one article said that if you can't uninstall, just delete the Spybot folder. (really??)

so i tried that. now i get an alert that i cannot delete because i cannot access advcheck.

should i just run the new install?? will that delete the old version? i'm thinking this won't work because of all the weirdness i just had with installing the updates.

thank you.
 
Hello,

If the usual uninstall does not work i would suggest to make a fresh install of Spybot, so that you have the legitimate uninstall file.
Download from this link.
Then try again to remove it via the add/remove panel in windows or by using the uninstall file in the Spybot folder.

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

If this does not help please remove the folder by hand:
C:\Programms\Spybot - Search & Destroy

Also remove the following directories, which you will have to remove by hand:

* Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Spybot - Search & Destroy\
* Windows Vista: C:\ProgramData\Spybot - Search & Destroy\

Please note that the Application Data Folder is hidden. So if you can't find this folder please check your folder properties.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot
 
got a nasty virus -- AV Security crap. managed to get into Safe Mode.


Use Malwarebytes' Anti Malware first for this infection:bigthumb:

If your OS is vista, the techniques below WILL NOT "COMPLETELY" uninstall the program from your machine.
 
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Hello DS1DS1,

Perhaps colbey will let us know how spybotsandra's instructions worked out. :)

Best regards.
 
When I followed spybotsandra's instructions below, they did not completely
uninstall all of program on vista OS due to{


current_user_software_Safer Networking Limited_SpybotSnD
local_machine_Safer Networking Limited_HiveManager_SpybotSnD
} being left in registry.

I use spybot on my XP OS machine & like it but had to uninstall & delete from vista OS machine & then REFORMAT. [ What a pain ]
 
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you could also use CCleaner to remove the now-invalid registry entries

possibly also Windows Installer Cleanup to manually remove installer information
 
you could also use CCleaner to remove the now-invalid registry entries

possibly also Windows Installer Cleanup to manually remove installer information


:bigthumb:Thanks for the advice lewisje. This incident happened about 9 months ago and since then (about 8 months ago) I installed CCleaner and use it almost daily and have not had any problems.(knock on wood)
I have not been brave enough to try and reinstall Spybot again on my vista OS machine yet but one day I probably will.
 
Hello lewisje,
CCleaner is much gentler than a typical registry cleaner; it only removes entries that are known for sure to be invalid,
CCleaner is a fine program, I use it myself in regular mode to check stuff. However a registry cleaner is a registry cleaner.

Always back up first.

http://chris.pirillo.com/are-registry-cleaners-safe-to-use/

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/xpperformance/thread/df7e6be7-8749-45c4-9848-4d9022eef944

http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-vista-windows-7-support/417087-ccleaner-messed-up-my-computer-how-fix.html

Best regards.
 
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