How to Completely Remove
TSADBOT trojan horse from your system
Press CTRL-ALT-DEL once to bring up the End
Task dialogue. You may or may not see TSADBOT on the list. Older versions
will appear, however, newer incantations of the trojan are stealth and
will actually hide from you, not appearing on the End Task list even
if they are running. End Task TSADBOT if you can.
Change into your Windows directory (C:\Windows
or C:\Winnt). Delete the following files:
-
tsad.dll
-
FlexActv.dll
-
vcpdll.dll
-
Addon2VB.dll (if found)*
If any of these files will NOT delete (access
denied / in use / sharing violation), you will have to restart in MS-DOS
mode to delete them using the appropriate DOS commands. If running, TSADBOT
may hold a lock on its files preventing them from being deleted.
Now, change into C:\Program Files\. There
will be a directory named TimeSink. Delete the entire directory and anything
in it. Again, if files won't delete, you will have to do it from DOS (use
DELTREE).
Finally, run Registry
Editor and use it to remove the following registry keys:
-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/TimeSink
-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/TimeSink
-
any Conducent entries (incl. TSADBOT) from
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Run
-
anything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current
Version\Shareddlls containing:
FlexAct, tsad.dll,
vcpdll.dll, tsadbot.exe, Addon2VB.dll *
-
Registry keys containing "Conducent" or "TSADBOT"
may be installed by specific software, you can remove these at your discretion.
Note that only the removal of TSADBOT's files
is necessary. Removal of Registry entries simply optimizes the system,
since Windows will no longer have to load the extra keys into memory or
look for the files they reference, but is not necessary to disable TSADBOT.
The procedure above should remove all the
adware's files, and MOST of its registry junk (I may indeed have missed
some!). But at least it won't load and chew up your system resources (&
violate your privacy!) as long as your computer is on.
*Some software from eGames
will install this file in place of FlexActv.dll. Thanks Privacy
Place for this and other information.
