We're commited to using your feedback to improve WinPatrol while other small developers are accepting fees to download unwanted programs that can't easily be removed. We want upgrading to WinPatrol PLUS to reflect your satisfaction, not because you need more help.
Using the steps below work with our Free edition as well.

Repeating Alerts Driving You Crazy?

Frequently, unwanted programs come with partners or in groups which are designed to protect and reactivate each other. Even if you tell Scotty to remove and kill a Startup Program, another partner program may replace the registry entry corrected by WinPatrol. Most of these programs aren't extremely dangerous and make money by redirecting your web search results. To keep their income flowing most of their technology is used prevent removal.

WinPatrol will warn you again which could drive you crazy. If WinPatrol detects the same program repeating itself, Scotty will try and automatically set this program to "Disable" status so it doesn't continue to annoy you.  Look at our list of Startup Programs and instead of using Remove, try selecting and click Disable. This should at least stop the annoying messages.

If you've reached this page you may have been infected with malware but don't panic. Some legitimate programs now use similiar tricks. Many now make a profit by installing software you haven't asked for and surprisingly most users aren't complaining enough to stop it. WinPatrol will never do this. If an unwanted program has been installed when you did a simple update of a legitimate program scream loudly online and make your voice heard or this product placement will continue. New versions of WinPatrol will continue to be designed to fight these unwanted programs even as we receive legal threats from well funded companies.

How to remove an AVG sponsored Toolbar..

How do I remove the MindSpark or Ask powered Toolbars?

The link above may also work for the following toolbars and applications all powered by Ask.com.
BetterJobsSearch, CouponAlert, FilmFanatic, MyScrapNook, RadioRage, TelevisionFanatic, VideoDownloadConverter, WeatherBlink, The following applications may also install a toolbar and change Internet settings: The BetterCareerSearch, Marine Aquarium, BringMeSports, Butterflyfield, Daily Bible Quotes, DictionaryBoss, FromDoctoPDF, SafePCRepair, TotalRecipeSearch

Under ideal conditions you can remove the programs by open the Add/Remove or Uninstall applet in the Windows Control Panel. Check the applet to see if any of the services above are listed and click to Remove.
While the Uninstall/Remove function will remove at least one Startup Program, two IE Helpers and one Service it will not reset your home page and default search. You'll need to go to the options in your browsers and reset the home page and default search provider.

How to Remove Conduit Toobar.

A similar toolbar is installed under a variety of names from a company known as Conduit. While they don't provide a useful page on their website, they provide user forums which is full of complaints and link here with remove instructions.

Sadly, most of these toolbar companies don't monitor the behavior of their partners. Conduit claims over 200,000 publishers. The partners and affiliates of all these toolbar make revenue by installing the toolbar and don't want you removing it. WinPatrol has found many programs designed to prevent you from removing their cash cow.

1. Start by rebooting into the Windows Safe Mode by pressing F8 when rebooting.
   
2. Close down or Exit all the known applications that you have running on your computer. This will help you narrow down the offending programs.
   If possible disconnect your computer from the Internet in case someone has remote access to prevent these steps.
   
3. Open the main WinPatrol tabbed interface by double-clicking on the scotty icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
   Or launch WinPatrol Explorer from the Windows Start button -> Programs -> WinPatrol Explorer
   
   
4. You can stop alert messages by right-clicking on the WinPatrol system tray icon and selecting Exit. The system tray icon allows you to Exit the WinPatrol monitoring component but will still allow you to use the tabbed interface to performace the necessary clean up.
   
   
5. Click the Active Tasks tab to check what programs are still listed.
   
   Sort the Active Task list by "First Detected" column. Files that were installed on the same day/time are most likely working together to replicate each other.
   You may see multiple suspicious programs.
   Some programs may appear to have randomly created filenames. That's a clue to possible mawlare.
   Frequently, malicious programs will be too lazy to fake a company name or copyright information. This isn't always true but may be an additional indicator.
   
   WinPatrol allows you to Kill multiple tasks with one action.  Hold down the CTRL key to select several tasks at once and click to select and highlight each suspicious task.
   Adobe has been using a trick to delay one of their partner apps 10 minutes to purposely decieve users.
   
6. Click on the Kill Task button. This will hopefully shut down all suspicious tasks.  If you accidently kill a legitimate task it won't be deleted and it can be restarted when you reboot.
   
   
7. Once the programs are no longer running you should be able to remove the unwanted programs from the Startup Programs list. If you've been able to kill all of the partner programs the Startup, Service or IE Helper listing will not be recreated. Once removed we recommend rebooting and use WinPatrol to verify no unwanted Startup Programs are still around.
   
   
8. Click on the WinPatrol Hidden Files tab and again sort by First Detected and see if any suspicious new files exist. We don't recommend monitoring Hidden files because many programs create  hidden data files. This list still may be useful in finding malious partner programs.
   
   
   
9. Take a look at IE Helpers and Scheduled Tasks to see if you see any unwanted programs. While the Startup Program list is the most common entry point these locations have also been known to store ways to keep programs on your computer.
   
   

"Delete File on Reboot"
If after trying to remove suspicious or dangerous programs you find it still will not go away, right-click on the title of the program and select "Delete File on Reboot." This action will take place the next time you re-boot. The file will be deleted before Windows starts so it won't be able to recreate the unwanted program.
There is no way to recover the file once it is deleted this way so use this feature only when you are absolutely sure the file is unwanted.

If were successful, we recommend upgrading to WinPatrol PLUS to show your support and give forward to others who may experience the same frustration. Having WinPatrol PLUS can prevent repeating alerts before they start.

Just so you know you're not alone. In the last year the following apps have led the way in annoying anyone who tried to remove them.

WinPatrol is dedicated to fight new trends of legitimate companies making money tricking you into installing software that takes control of your settings. Your support helps continue the development of WinPatrol allowing us to tell toolbar company's where to stick it when they offer us big bucks to install their crapware.

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