Over the last few days, Empower has seen for some reason a large increase in requests for removal of DriveCleaner. Therefore, I thought I would do a post on what it is, why IT IS VERY BAD, and how to get rid of it.
DriveCleaner is a program designed to delete temporary internet files, cookies, most recently used program lists, history and other items in your computer and browser that can leave tracks of where you’ve been on the Internet. Its a program very similar to the well known Window Washer product, but it marketed in a VERY different way.
Drive Cleaner uses blatant scare tactics to try to get users to purchase their product. I’m not against using programs such as Drive Cleaner to clean up your computer, but I am against the tactics used to promote it.
A popup caused by Drive Cleaner states the following
“Warning! Your computer has tracks of all adult sites you had visited. In most cases, you are not even aware of the files taht get installed by themselves, violate your online privacy and could compromise your career and your marriage.
These files leave tracks of your online behavior and even compromise your credit card’s security. It is possible to clean up all the temporary and history records of your computer to remove these tracks.
Registration is required, continue? ”
Talk about scaring someone! If I didn’t know better I would think the FBI is going to bust my door down if I don’t buy this program. This isn’t the way to sell this software
How Do I Know If DriveCleaner is Installed?
If you download Hijackthis and run it, you’ll see the following items that point to DriveCleaner
O3 - Toolbar: DriveCleaner Toolbar - {06E7A650-1DD1-4e27-A356-DE0E986550EA} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\DriveCleaner Free\DCToolbar.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [DriveCleaner Free] “C:\Program Files\DriveCleaner Free\UDC.exe” /min
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SDR6_Check] “C:\Program Files\Common Files\DriveCleaner Free\udcsdr.exe”
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PAS_Check] “C:\Program Files\Common Files\DriveCleaner Free\udcpas.exe”
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UDC6cw] “C:\Program Files\DriveCleaner Free\UDC6cw.exe” -c
Step by Step Procedure for Removing DriveCleaner
Before attempting this removal procedure, download the following removal tools to your desktop and install them.
HijackThis 1.99.1 - Essential tool for finding spyware, virus, trojan, and other problems
Removal Procedure
1) Download HijackThis to your desktop and unzip it.
2) Click on Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs
3) Click on DriveCleaner in the list of installed programs and click Remove
4) Once the removal has finished, restart your computer in Safe Mode
5) Open Hijackthis and do a system scan. Find the following items in the list, select them, and click Fix Checked to remove them. Then Close HijackThis.
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SDR6_Check] “C:\Program Files\Common Files\DriveCleaner Free\udcsdr.exe”
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [PAS_Check] “C:\Program Files\Common Files\DriveCleaner Free\udcpas.exe”
6) Open My Computer, double-click on Drive C, double-click on Program Files, double-click on Common Files
7) Right-click and Delete the DriveCleaner folder
8. Goto Drive C, Program Files, and DriveCleaner or DriveCleaner Free and right-click and Delete it if it still exists as well.
9) Restart your computer in normal mode
You can also use Spybot Search and Destroy help rid your system of unwanted spyware. It is a great program, and like HijackThis, it’s Free
Powered by FireStats
August 27th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Often when I go to my email website(juno) and login, I’m getting redireted to the message: your computer has tracks to adult sites…. followed by being redirected to the drive cleaner website, but I’ve never installed the drive cleaner software, and I see no signs of it in my registry using hijackthis, but still the annoying popup when I go to my online juno mailbox occur occasionally. I’ve run both mcafee and panda softwares virus scans and lavasoft’s adaware spyware scanner, and none of them find anything. I should mention that recently I did receive several online greetings cards from someone. So it is likely that I have some kind of infection, but I can’t seem to track its source.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Bob you likley have a cookie or some sort of temp file that is causing the popup. I would run Spybot Search and destroy, let it clean your system and then check again to see if the pop ups still occur. You probably don’t have the issues just something that is pushing you to hit the download.
Spybot is free and can be downloaded at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
Good luck and let me know if this works for you.
Jason
September 1st, 2007 at 3:00 am
See my thread here:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=67021
Have not yet heard back from Juno support.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Good comment.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Popups gone for me now for around a week. Juno has also emailed me indicating the problem should be fixed.