This details how I was able to remove one of my most difficult spyware popup infections to date: ad.yieldmanager.com.
This insidious spyware was extremely persistent, avoiding cleaning by my normal set of favorite cleaners: Kaspersky, AVG Antivirus, AVG Antispyware, Spybot, Ad-Aware, Panda Online, HijackThis, l2mfix, VundoFix, Easy Cleaner, CleanUp!, and ewido.net.
At first it was even difficult to identify the type of spyware because the popups didn’t leave many clues other than an occasional “New Offer” popup window. However, after letting the PC system “ferment” a little to let the spyware infestation spread, the ad.yieldmanager.com signature appeared in one of the windows.
The best removal sequence I found came mostly from this site: http://www.pchell.com/support/smitfraud.shtml where I followed the steps for removing SmitFraud. I took a guess on this because I saw an earlier SpySheriff infection on the system and I was thinking that perhaps it was not entirely removed.
The set of cleaners I ran from Safe Mode in this order were:
SmitRem by NoahdFear – http://noahdfear.geekstogo.com/
SmitFraudFix – http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix.php
RogueRemover – http://www.majorgeeks.com/RogueRemover_d5360.html
Aproposfix – http://swandog46.geekstogo.com/aproposfix.exe
HijackThis – http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip
CCleaner – http://www.ccleaner.com/
CleanUp! – http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/download.html
Easy Cleaner – http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
Of the set of cleaners I ran, I think RogueRemover and Aproposfix were the critical programs for this particular spyware infection.
After running all these cleaners the ad.yieldmanager.com spyware was removed completely.
Here are a couple products you might want to consider for keeping your PC clean from further ad.yieldmanager infections.
1) First, the best anti-virus program on the market — in my view — is Kaspersky. It’s not as well known as some of the more heavily marketed antivirus programs like Norton and McAfee.
However, I like it because it catches a lot more viruses than Norton and McAfee and it is also a much smaller program. Norton is especially taxing on the system and there is a VERY noticeable slowdown of your PC when you have Norton installed.
The cheapest prices I’ve seen for Kaspersky Antivirus or Kaspersky Internet Security is on eBay. Make sure the seller has a lot of positive feedback when you make your purchase and you’ll save some bucks.
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FREE registration on eBay and you can start saving right away.
2) Second, you should check out this RegCure registry cleaner. It’s a no-frills registry cleaner and has performed quite well in user tests.
