Stubborn WinToolSvc

Question

I had wintools on my system a while back and a I thought I had removed everything. It turns out that I have 4 registry keys for WinToolSvc that refuse to get deleted. Can someone help me with this?

ky331 · Answer

are the registry entries actually causing you a problem?   do they generate any error/warning messages?  or are you just bothered by the fact that they still exist in your registry?   if there's no problem, you might just as well leave things alone ---- there wont be any (humanly noticeable) gain in boot-up speed by deleting these entries.   if you're simply bothered by their presence, you could try to delete them, either by editing the registry, or running a registry cleaner program.   however, both ways are potentially dangerous... if you don't know exactly what you're doing... you can make matters even worse, and possibly even disable your system completely.  (if you insist on proceding, i can tell you more...) Message Edited by ky331 on 04-20-2005 02:00 PM

100mph · Answer

See if this is related: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/adware.websearch.html

genie · Answer

To anwer your question, wintoolsvc does not seem to be doing anything, so i guess i am bothered by it.  everytime i run the spyware software it identifies these 4 keys.  i tried running the automatic removal by symantec but that does not pick anything up.  I started the manual removal but goodness me that list is long.  Is there no easier way to get rid of this?  Also when i run the removal software from symantec office 2000 windows installer starts running?  do you know what that is all about?

ky331 · Answer

since you are still 'bothered' by the registry entries, i'll offer you the following information... ( i stress, information, *NOT* advice):  both procedures involve 'tampering' with your registry, which is potentially VERY DANGEROUS ---- if you make a mistake, you could 'kill' your PC :smileymad:   so, if you decide to proceed, be advised that you're doing so at your own risk... i cannot assume any responsibility for damage inflicted on your pc.   1) Manual method:   since you indicated you already tried manual removal (presumably based on the 'overwhelming' list of entries given in the symantec link cited by 100mph), i'm going to assume you're now familiar with (trying to) edit your registry... most likely, you're using REGEDIT ???  Anyway, rather than going thru the entire Norton list, since you say you have only 4 registry keys that bother you (as being continually picked up by your anti-spyware software)... if you know these 4 exactly, just look specifically for them, and if you find them, you can delete them!   2) Semi-Automatic Method:   you can download a 'registry cleaner'.  there are several free ones available... one such is TweakNow Regcleaner, available from http://www.tweaknow.com/RegCleaner.html download, install, and start to run it. click on SCAN NOW.  it may take a minute or so to complete its scan (it sometimes appears to stall, but just wait it out).  when done, it will present you with a list of 'questionable' registry entries that it found.   the list is divided into three categories: green problems:   (allegedly) safe to delete yellow problems:  NOT fully safe to delete blue problems:  status UNknown don't be surprised if it finds HUNDREDS of problems!   Anyway, if you look thru the list of problems, hopefully you will find some, if not all, of the 4 'stubborn wintoolsvc' registry entries that you want to delete... and ideally, they will be among the green/safe entries to delete.  if so, and IF you want to try this, you can click on (i.e., place a check in) the boxes for these 4, and then hit DELETE. (If you're more daring, you could simply click on SELECT ALL SAFE ITEMS, and then hit DELETE ---  the presumption here being that the program can legitimately determine what is 'safe'.)  By the way, if your 4 items happen to appear in the yellow/UNsafe, or blue/unknown, i'd definitely think twice before removing them.   You now have the information.  decide what, if anything, you want to try... again, you're proceeding at your own risk.   Good luck.

Virus & Spyware

Stubborn WinToolSvc

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