What is the PCAntiSpyware program?

If the application that you are trying to uninstall is called “PC-anti-spyware” or PCAntiSpyware program, then you have inadvertently installed a rogue anti-spyware application that you should remove at once. Re-installing it would be a mistake as this application is a form of malware that takes advantage of security holes in your operating system to perform unsolicited functions on your computer such as allowing other forms of malware to enter your computer.

What is Rogue Anti-spyware?

Rogue Anti-spyware is a software application is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is actually a form of malware that attempts to trick computer users into thinking that their machine has numerous virus applications on their computer in order to convince them to purchase a full version of the rogue anti-spyware application.

Removing Rogue Anti-spyware

How you remove rogue anti-spyware is partly a matter of the operating system that you use and partly personal choice. Look through the following options and use the one that best meets your needs. It might be necessary to try more than one of these options in order to remove this application completely.

Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool

If the operating system on your computer is Windows XP or Windows 2000, you have the option to download Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool to remove this particular form of malware as well as any others that exists on your computer.

Microsoft Windows Defender

If the operating system on your computer is Windows Vista, you have the opportunity to download Windows Defender to remove this malware application as well as any other forms of spyware that exist on your computer.

Install a Legitimate Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Application

No matter what operating system you have installed on your computer, you can purchase a reliable and legitimate anti-spyware/anti-virus application to securely remove this particular form of rogue anti-spyware. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus Plus is one such application that I can recommend. You can find out more information on it at the following link: Anti-Virus Plus. Additionally, you can use it for a free trial run that will allow you to see whether or not the application will be able to remove the PCAntiSpyware program.

Remove PCAntiSpyware program in Safe Mode

If you boot up in safe mode and attempt to use the add/delete program utility, you might be able to delete it from your computer. However, the only way to know if this has worked is to reboot your computer and see if the application comes back or not. To boot up into safe mode, press the “F8″ key as soon as you turn the computer on.

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Fact: Almost all of us have Spyware and Adware on our PCs.

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People often ask whether they should use both antivirus and antispyware software

The answer, in short, is: absolutely. Almost invariably, antispyware programs do not provide the same kind of adequate protection from viruses, malware, trojans and downloaders as antivirus programs do, and even worse, they provide a false sense of security that can lead users to develop bad browsing habits.

So what is the difference

Antispyware software is specifically designed to protect your personal information and keep your computer free from programs, plug-ins, toolbars and cookies that can record, store and transmit sensitive data about you and your browsing habits to a third party. These spyware programs aren’t technically viruses; they don’t infect your computer, hijack your internet connection or use your computer to spawn copies of themselves. Although these types of programs occasionally work alongside with, and are complementary to viruses, trying to treat an underlying virus infection with antispyware software is a lot like trying to treat a brain tumor with Tylenol.

Antivirus software, on the other hand, often doesn’t scan for security risks like cookies that record browser habits or dubious tracking programs that piggyback on legitimate installations. Antivirus programs specifically scan for a list of known viruses, trojans, and various other threats that are known to proliferate across the internet, and often scan for new, previously unknown viruses using a method of pattern analysis called heuristics.

Should you get a Security Suite?

Many makers of antivirus and antispyware software often bundle them together with a firewall and market the package as a full-blown (and somewhat expensive) “internet security suite.” Often this degree of protection is unnecessary, but that isn’t to say that antivirus and antispyware software shouldn’t be used together.

PCtools offers well rounded protection

I’ve been using PCtools solutions for several months now. One layer of protection (antivirus) keeps users safe from malicious programs that could potentially destroy the user’s system and infect friends’ computers, while the second layer of protection (antispyware) helps to secure users’ personal data - so they can sleep at night knowing that sensitive data like bank account, credit card and social security numbers aren’t getting into anyone else’s hands.

Direct Download links for Products mentioned in this article

PCtools Spyware Doctor
PCtools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus
PCtools Internet Security Suite 2009

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Spyware has overtaken viruses as the greatest online threat to our privacy …

Fact: Almost all of us have Spyware and Adware on our PCs.

• Scan your PC for free with Spyware Doctor!
• We also recommend PCtools Security Suite 2009

Spyware Definition

The definition of “spyware,” though, depends on who you’re talking to. Companies trying to convince you to purchase a pay-per-use version of their software will usually try to convince you that spyware is anything on your computer that records any kind of information about you at all - including relatively harmless information like cookies that allow a website to “remember you” when you login, like Yahoo or Hotmail.

Spyware comes in many forms

In reality, though, spyware is any program, script or piece of data that records harmful or sensitive information about you and transmits it to someone else. That could mean cookies in which your web browser stores sensitive data, browser helper objects (BHO’s) that load up with and integrate into Internet Explorer, or additional “optional” programs or toolbars that come bundled with commercial software and record data about your browsing habits. Spyware can run in the background, behind the scenes and without your knowledge, or it could sit right out in the open, like many of the “toolbars” installed by companies like Alexa.

Piggybacking and Rogue Antispyware

Spyware isn’t always installed behind your back. Most of the spyware installed on my friends’ computers came bundled with programs they’d already chosen to install, a technique called “piggybacking.” In its most nefarious form, spyware comes masquerading as antispyware, playing off of users’ fears in a modern reproduction of an ancient confidence scheme. Any good antispyware program will alert users to both hidden and user-installed spyware threats.

Those annoying Pop-up Ads

Many antispyware programs also protect against so-called “adware,” programs that hijack your internet browser and open irritating pop-up windows that serve advertisements to you, often pornographic in nature. More than just a mere irritation, these can pose a serious problem if they end up on your work computer. Antispyware programs often include adware protection in their services, and the line between spyware and adware is often blurry.

Most antispyware programs protect against the full range of spyware and adware, but fall short of full-on virus and trojan protection. Please check out the solutions offered by PCtools below, the suite protects you against all web-borne threats while Spyware Doctor really hones in on Spyware and Adware.

Direct Download links for Products mentioned in this article

PCtools Spyware Doctor
PCtools Internet Security Suite 2009

Feedback

Do you have experience with this product? Please share your thoughts or ask questions below …

Well, there is good news and bad news… the bad news is there is a spyware program on your computer. The good news is, we can fix it. Spyware is a kind of malware - or malicious code - that runs a destructive program on your computer. The infection that you are describing that redirects your online activity might be trying to advertise products and, as you mentioned, might try to download additional unwanted programs to your computer. These might be more malware or they might be trial versions of unsolicited programs, in either case, you don’t want them on your system.

One important thing to be aware of is that, sometimes, just going to the website that the spyware redirects you to is enough for another malware program to be uploaded to your computer, so you should stop browsing online until you have gotten rid of the infection. There are some simple steps to take to clean your system and get it back in working order.

Steps to Take

Remove Recent Downloads

1. Remove any recent downloads. If you suspect that an application, attachment, program or email that you recently downloaded or opened on your computer could be the source of the problem, try to remove it now. To remove a program or application, open the Start Menu, select the Control Panel, and then choose Add or Remove Programs. Find the name of the file that you want to remove and remove the check from the box beside it. If this is the infected file, there is a chance that it is programmed to refuse removal - let’s check a few other options to remove it.

Scan your System

1. The next thing to do is run a full system virus scan. Before you do, try to visit the website of the manufacturer of your security suite and look for updates. Keeping your antivirus program up to date helps detect new malware programs that might get access to your computer. Now run the scan. If it finds the spyware, or any other infectious code, follow the steps it gives you to contain and remove it.

Consider Alternatives

1. If the virus scan doesn’t find or can’t remove the malware, lastly, you might want to consider, if you don’t already have one, installing a spyware/adware detection program like Xoftspy or Adaware. Both are very good at finding and helping you remove spyware and adware programs that other security programs might miss or not be able to deal with. Specifically developed to find and remove this type of program, anti-spyware and adware programs are the second step, after an antivirus program, in keeping your computer safe online.

Use Caution

1. As always, be careful about what you open and allow to access your computer. Don’t open suspicious or unknown attachments or programs and don’t open links to websites from unknown email sources.

Dealing with a spyware program is important because it might be running additional instructions in the background. While the only problem you see right now is annoying redirection, it might also be gathering your personal information from your computer and making you vulnerable to identification or credit theft. It is important that you keep these programs off your computer, and with the right security software it should be painless.

In many cases, this is a false positive and no spyware actually exists on the computer except for the application that is creating the pops. Unfortunately, if an unsuspecting individual does what the message suggests and obtains the advertised “so called” anti-spyware application, he is sure to be installing a spyware program.

In order to convince the user that the program is legitimate, the advertised anti-spyware application will mimic legitimate anti-spyware applications in an attempt to convince the user that it is legitimate. In fact, once the computer user downloads this program, the pop ups will stop. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the spyware has gone away, but rather, it has simply taken on a new appearance.

The easiest and most secure way to stop these unwanted pop ups from occurring is to run an anti-spyware application. A number of legitimate programs are available for purchase as well as for free use. Each of these programs will efficiently remove the spyware including the recurring pop up ads from the computer.
It’s important to note that any anti-spyware or anti-virus application that you install on your computer needs to be updated on a regular basis. The individuals who create spyware and viruses are constantly changing their applications in an effort to stay one step ahead of anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. Therefore, as modifications are made to various forms of malware, so too must the anti-spyware and anti-virus programs adapt themselves to these changes.

In order to rid your computer of this annoying pop up as well as any other spyware and other forms of malware, it will be necessary to download and install a legitimate program that has proven to be reliable. In fact, since you are already familiar with the filetonic web site, I suggest getting their free download for their spyware and adware scanner.

Once you click on the download box, a pop up window for the program will appear with the name of the program: XoftSpySE_RW.exe and the option to save or cancel. Save the program to your hard drive and run it immediately. The pop ups should stop appearing once you have run either or another anti-spyware program.

Additional applications that you can consider installing on your computer to rid it of spyware and adware are available. One that I can also recommend is Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. This anti-spyware program is excellent at ridding your computer of unwanted applications such as adware and spyware. If you decide to download this application, be careful that you download the free version unless you want the paid version.

Also, if you’re using Internet Explorer 7.0, make sure that the Pop-up blocker feature is enabled. Go to Tools > Pop-up Blocker and make your adjustments. 

A cookie solves that for you. This tiny file resides on your computer. The next time you visit the Web site, the cookie allows all of your preferences to be displayed on the Web site. This includes personal preferences as well as data that you’ve previously supplied such as credit card information, phone numbers, and addresses. In addition, the cookie tells the Web site owner a bit about your computer such as what your IP address is, browser type, and where you came from (such as a referral source).

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Another type of cookie involves advertising. Web sites regularly feature advertisements. These advertisements place tracking cookies on your computer and are not designed with your convenience in mind. Instead, these advertisements are often part of a huge network of ads. Your single cookie with its own unique identifier is recorded any time you land on a Web site that also uses the advertising network. For example, let’s say you visit twenty web sites, fifteen of which participate in this advertising network. The advertising network knows that you visited these fifteen different websites.

So what? Over time, the advertiser builds a database of your interests based on the types of sites you visit. From this information, the advertiser makes assumptions about your Internet habits and interests and begins serving up targeted advertisements. Privacy concerns surround this type of cookie usage.

Fortunately, your Web browser has settings for accepting or rejecting cookies as well as an area where you can delete cookies. To adjust cookie settings in Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, and click on the Privacy tab. From here, you can adjust how your browser deals with cookies. To delete existing cookies, go to the General tab, Browsing History, Delete, Delete Cookies.

Internet cookies have their good and bad points. They’re great for personalized Web site experiences but terrible when used to track surfing behaviors. Set your computer’s Web browser up so that you have adequate protection against the bad cookies and yet can still enjoy returning to legitimate Web sites. Periodically delete all cookies from your computer.

Since downloading doesn’t appear to be an option, try http://housecall.trendmicro.com/  This is a free web-based scanning tool from Trend Micro, a well respected anti-virus and anti-spyware company. This tool should be able to detect and repair malware on your computer.

If you have Windows Vista, your computer should also have Windows Defender installed on it. This is a built-in tool that scans for malware. While Windows Defender does provide real time protection, if the malware is new, it may not have been caught upon installation. Update Windows Defender and run a full scan to see what Defender finds. Go to the Start button, type in Windows Defender, click the program icon, and then click the arrow next to the question mark. Click Check for Updates. Once updated, click on Scan > Full Scan.

Likewise, run a full scan with your existing anti-virus program. Many anti-virus programs do not provide real time detection. This means that viruses can get in and won’t be detected until a scan takes place.

If your computer comes up clean and the registry program is legitimate, it should have a “restore” feature. For example, RegCure, which is a legitimate registry cleaner from another well respected software developer (ParetoLogic Software), makes backups of the registry before making repairs. Should you ever have undesirable results after a RegCure registry fix, you can always go into the software, click on the Backup button, and restore your registry to its original condition. Check your registry fix utility for such a feature and restore your registry if available. By restoring the registry, your related problems should disappear.

Since your desktop is a mess, and you can’t use System Restore via normal methods, try going into Safe Mode and entering the command prompt for System Restore which is:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Instructions for doing so are found in this Microsoft Knowledgebase article.

Does Antispyware software affect my PC Performance

The truth is, any software that you install on your computer will, to a certain extent, slow down your computer. The question is which brand of antispyware you’ve installed, how well it plays together with your existing antivirus software (you are using antivirus software, right?), and whether or not your antispyware software stays resident in your memory, scanning for threats, even when you’re not using it.

Through the years I’ve learned that some brands of antispyware software are well-known to be system resource hogs, using up valuable CPU cycles and RAM without necessarily providing you with the best protection. One particularly notable culprit is the antispyware protection that comes with Norton Internet Security, which takes up a massive amount of system resources and tends to be more trouble than it’s worth.

Others are lean and tight, using the barest minimum of resources required to stay on top of things. Both the free and paid versions of AVG’s Antispyware software run light and clean and integrate easily over preexisting antivirus software. I’m a control freak when it comes to programs running in the background, and AVG has always been my antispyware program of choice.

When it comes to keeping your computer running fast, though, what’s more important than the brand of antispyware software is the presence or lack of “real-time” protection. Antispyware programs that constantly monitor your computer and attempt to stop threats in real time tend to use more system resources. “On-demand” antispyware software, which doesn’t do anything until you remember to run a scan, tends to run much lighter and use up less of your computer’s processing power and memory.

My advice: don’t bother with “real-time” protection for antispyware programs unless you’re truly paranoid or, of course, unless you truly have something to hide. The threats posed by spyware are far less severe than those posed by viruses, and if you can remember to scan your computer for spyware once or twice a week, you should be fine - and, depending on your specs, your computer may run noticeably faster.

While both monitoring software and spyware are intrusive, they aren’t the same thing. First, monitoring software is often installed with your knowledge. Employers may have clear policies covering computer and e-mail usage with full disclosure that monitoring software is in place.

Why would your employer want to monitor computer usage? One of the main reasons has to do with productivity. Employees at workstations “look” like they’re working. However, are they really working or are they checking out the latest You Tube videos? Another reason involves liability. For example, if an employee is viewing porn and co-workers are uncomfortable when passing by and seeing the images, a “hostile work environment” has been created.

At home, monitoring software is often used to keep tabs on how the children are using their computers. This type of monitoring software is typically categorized as “parental controls.” Parents can allow and block certain classes of Web sites and games as well as monitor Instant Messages and e-mail. Additional features include setting computer time limits, program usage, and download restrictions.

In addition, legitimate monitoring software could be used for spying. For example, if you have a jealous or suspicious spouse, monitoring software may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge. This type of monitoring reports back to your partner which Web sites you have visited, e-mails sent and received, Instant Messaging and chat transcripts, pictures or videos you have viewed, and other information. These programs are designed to run in the background without your knowledge. You won’t find a desktop icon or the program in your Programs list.

Spyware is another type of program that monitors computer usage. Spyware is installed without your knowledge, often as a hitchhiker to a legitimate download. Once installed, these programs collect data and transmit it to a third party. Each spyware program has its own mission ranging from sending you targeted advertisements based on your Internet history to stealing your financial information by capturing your keystrokes.

There’s not a whole lot that you can do about your employer’s monitoring software other than play by the rules and perform your job as expected. Likewise, if you suspect your spouse has installed monitoring software, you have trust and privacy issues that you will need to work out as well as a potentially dangerous situation should your partner have violent tendencies.  Of all the different types of monitoring, spyware is the easiest to deal with. A good anti-spyware program such as ParetoLogic’s XoftSpySE or Anti-Virus Plus removes existing spyware infections and prevents future ones.

Over time, files and folders on your computer build up. Numerous programs and applications take a lot of space on both your RAM and your hard drive. Even if you have deleted data by moving it to the recycling bin or trash can, the information continues to be stored on the computer until the trash or recycling is emptied. If your computer has slowed down over time, check the recycling bin and make sure that you don’t need anything in there before emptying the contents.

Another thing that can slow your computer down is a buildup of information on the registry. Every time your computer executes a command, it makes a log of the action and stores it on the registry, which is like a catalogue of the computer’s processes. When too many bits on data build up on the registry it becomes cluttered. As a result, the clutter on the registry makes the computer work harder to process commands and perform tasks, as it has to search through the entire contents of the registry to find the appropriate data. You can avoid this by running a registry cleaner, available online for download or purchase, which will search the registry for bits of data belonging to replaced, deleted, or redundant programs and prompt the user to remove them, Cleaning the registry will speed up performance and optimize the system.

If these suggestions don’t speed things up, and you think you have a spyware program running on your system, you should perform an up-to-date virus scan. Make sure that you have all the latest updates and patches from you security software provider’s website and run the scan until it comes up clean.

Be very careful whenever downloading security software, hackers and malware programmers are known to hide their viruses inside so called anti-virus packages. To protect yourself against downloading spyware programs, there are security utilities, like ParetoLogic Anti-Spyware, that are specifically designed to create a barrier around your system and watch for unwanted and persistent downloads. If a program is attempting the get on to your system, the anti-spyware tool will alert you and offer a range of blocking options. Rather than only finding and removing destructive programs operating on your system, anti-spyware programs are active in defending your computer, allowing you to program scheduled scans and other personalized preferences.