Windows 10: ADW Cleaner: what do all those items mean?

I have been recommended to use aDWCleaner from time to time. I have just run it for the first time and don't know how to react to one list: Registry. (Please see attachment). One site says "HKLM is part of Windows Registry , it contains information about your software and Windows and in general it is essentials to the system, however some viruses might hide there or add some value there that could detect by Anti-Virus software. " Another says "HKLM software is a registry hive that contains configuration information about the different software installed on the machine."I am very wary indeed about delving into the Registry, especially when I don't know what HKLM actually does. ADW invites me to uncheck all of them if I want to keep them. Do I?

I seems strange that ADW is offering to delete files which are "essential to the system" (see above). I have read that ADW can be rather aggressive in deleting files.

What should I do with these please?





:)

 

Japanese message showing up at startup

I cannot identify what you see in the Autoruns report..

Please use Autoruns to delete 13 entries where the words “File not found” appear. With Autoruns you can uncheck an item, which disables it from starting, or you can right click an item and then delete it. Click the
Everything tab and look for the rows highlighted in yellow. To delete a disabled item you need to recheck it before you can delete it.

Please download and run ADWCleaner and upload a copy of the report produced to your OneDrive. Remove all that it finds.

Before running ADW Cleaner close all open programmes. When ADW Cleaner is run four options are offered. Click
Scan. You can review the results by clicking Log File or each or any of the Results tabs. To remove all items, click
Clean and reboot the computer. On restarting an ADW Cleaner window opens. Select Log File, and click File, Save As to create a report of what has been removed.

AdwCleaner

ADW Cleaner documentation:

ToolsLib

 

My windows update is not working. It keeps checking for updates forever.

Please download and run ADWCleaner and upload a copy of the report produced to your OneDrive. Remove all that it finds.



Before running ADW Cleaner close all open programmes. When ADW Cleaner is run four options are offered. Click
Scan. You can review the results by clicking Log File or each or any of the Results tabs. To remove all items, click
Clean and reboot the computer. On restarting an ADW Cleaner window opens. Select Log File, and click File, Save As to create a report of what has been removed.

AdwCleaner



ADW Cleaner documentation:

ToolsLib

 

Create a system restore call it virus so you know then remove all the threats its rare for it to make mistakes and you have a restore for safety

 

Hi, @Stevekir:

Just because the AdwCleaner logs show registry keys/files as flagged for removal does not mean that removing those items will hurt your computer.

However....
@Samuria's advice to create a system restore point before running AdwCleaner is very sound.

AdwCleaner is generally quite safe.
But, like any other malware/junkware removal tool, AdwCleaner *can* have false positives.

>>It you are not sure what to let it remove and what to keep, then it might be best to get some expert/experienced help running it and reviewing the logs BEFORE you perform the cleaning.

Just a thought,
MM

 

After running the Scan only, (and not Cleaning yet), you can select Logfile, and post the log here, and we'll have a look at it for you. But, from what I can see from your snip, you definitely want to get rid of those script helpers and BHOs. *Smile

 

For simrick


Attached are 3 files showing the log files for you to look at.

Thanks

AdwCleaner[S0].txtAdwCleaner[S1].txtAdwCleaner[S2].txt

 

Okay thanks. you must have performed the "scan" 3 times; Looks like the 2nd one is most recent, so I'll evaluate that one.

These are from AVG Tuneup utility. Tuneup utilities, in general, are not good for systems, and can cause more problems than help. No one here on this forum will ever recommend you use a tuneup utility. Get rid of it. *Smile

Again, AVG Tuneup and also their Secure Search, which is characterized as spyware. Get rid of it. *Smile

Good.

Again, alot of this refers to the AVG items listed above.
mysearch.avg.com is also considered a browser hijacker as well as spyware.
SearchScopes is a browser hijacker.

So, I would go to Program and Features in Control Panel and uninstall all the AVG stuff. Then I would reboot, and run ADWCleaner Scan, then Clean. Your computer will reboot again.

For your reading pleasure:
Whats the best free antivirus? - Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, and Privacy Software
See post #2 for some interesting information on AVG....

Hope that helps! *Smile

 

Thank you. Very helpful.

 

Quite welcome. *Smile If you're satisfied, please go ahead and mark the thread as solved. Cheers!

 

As it happens, late yesterday I got a bug in google mail where the bottom of the window where you enter text was too tall so that about a cm of the bottom was hidden behind the task bar. This obscured the Send button. I could not rectify this by pulling the window up. I ran AdwCleaner and it got rid of the problem.

 

Glad to hear it! *Smile