AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is a special tool from Xplode. It tries to remove unwanted toolbars, PUPs (Potential Unwanted Programs), etc.

http://general-changelog-team.fr/en/tools/15-adwcleaner

It is mentioned at http://www.raymond.cc/blog/adwcleaner-search-and-delete-adware-pup-toolbar-and-homepage-hijacker/

It is for example used at http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ when one-on-one cleaning is done.

As with all special tools it has to be used with caution. It is more for when you ask special help by an expert, for example at BleepingComputer. For example there is a "note" at http://general-changelog-team.fr/en/tools/15-adwcleaner giving a warning.

The current version is 2.107.

 

I've been using it for longer time now and never had issues with it. Works ok and does it's job.

The only thing I would like to see is resetting search (all possible ones) back to original/Google. It's still a job I have to do after every cleanup...

 

I want a realtime PUP solution.. Thus far, no product I have tried even comes close to dealing with the PUP issue.

By far, the VAST MAJORITY of machines I work on are infiltrated by these, and some of them very very closely resemble trojans. We need a product to deal with these in realtime, not sure why nobody does. It might be a legal reason, but that's easy to solve with a disclaimer that makes it 'optional' to remove it.