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How to get into Windows when you lost the Administrator password
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Spysheriff blocks my desktop background - how to remove Spysheriff
765 comments. Current rating: 
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Question:
This morning I came to my computer and found an application named Spysheriff running. It supposedly had found a dozen of problems on my computer and demanded a purchase in order to remove them.It also had changed my desktop background image so that it looked like a error message (see the screenshot):
It tries to tell me that my computer is in really bad shape and I am in danger unless I pay them..
I tried to remove that desktop background image using the control panel but it is disabled! What can I do?
Answer:
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Spysheriff is malware and should not be used to clean a PC from spyware/ adware/ malware. It's pretty bad e.g. if you try to use System Restore you will find that Spysheriff erased your restore points, so that won't work. SpySheriff does come with an uninstall program which removes SpySheriff, but it will not undo all the other damage your computer has suffered. |
Instead follow these steps:
- Open task manager by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, and click on the "Processes" tab. Look for Spysheriff there and kill the process if you see it. If you see a process named "winstall" (winstall.exe) then delete this one also.
- In the control panel goto "Add/ Remove Programs" and remove the "SpySheriff" program. If it says that it cannot uninstall, then you still have it running. It will uninstall once it's not running.
- Your desktop background will not be restored by that uninstall. Go into the registry by starting RegEdit.exe from the start button.
If your registry editor does not work, read this document "I cannot open the registry editor". - Look for this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop
It will have about 6 values stored that disable certain things. Delete this whole branch ActiveDesktop - the system will work with default values afterwards.
Also delete this branch in your registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System - Look in your root directory for a file named winstall.exe. Mine was in c:\ and 24064 Bytes in size.
This file is scheduled to execute each time you boot and it will re-install Spysheriff.
Delete that file.
Update:
As MG from Ottawa comments below, there may also be additional executable files that were created at the same time as winstall.exe. Those files may be named 'winstall.exe' and 'ibm00001.exe'. You should delete those files as well. If you have this file ibm0001.exe please see the other article regarding ibm0001.exe. - Restart your system.
Done.
Some people asked about the company that makes SpySheriff. This is their London address:
Company: SpySheriff Development Team Street address: Tooley 73a City: London Zip: EC1Y 1BL Country: United Kingdom |
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Comments:
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HEy, MG... that was awesome... thanks to you the $&/&%$'@ was gone...
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thanks man
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Thanks alot man , you help me getting back my PC from those 'cyber pirate'...thanks man
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Thanks alot man , you help me getting back my PC from those 'cyber pirate'...thanks man
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awesome great help !
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Thanks for the tip. I have my desktop back. Those guys who write programs such as that should be shot. Really.
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Embarissingly- I did provide spysheriff with bank information. I didn't know what to do. I tried to remove it through the Operating utilities and after an hour or two gave up and fell victim to their sorry scam. I did file a complaint with the FTC and credit bureau. I sent them an email telling them to remove my name and info from their company and they sent an email back saying I was reimbursed. It was all removed after I paid them, but do not pay any money to spysheriff. I followed the instructions above to remove from my programs and it worked great. really appreciate it. Is there any more info you have for me? Thanks Billy
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I followed the instructions and was able to remove the spysheriff icon from the desktop and all of the popups. The next day the red circle with the x appeared again and the scrolling banner at the top came back. I tried to do everything again but found that nothing had changed since I did it before. The only file I couldn't find was the ibm0000. How the hell did I get this into my computer?
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I spoke too soon. Popups happen when I type in spysheriff into the explorer search bar, and try to make me get anti spysheriff software.
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Okay, I need help here. I installed SpySheriff (stupidly) because I had a bunch of viruses on my computer and got desperate. I gave them my credit card info! What exactly do I do now? Is my credit card in danger and how do I get reimbursed and how do I remove SpySheriff?
Yeah, I'm an idiot. | ||
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i can not delete winstall.exe. what should i do?
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i got rid of winstall.exe by changing the name of it to something that I would remember and then turned off the computer and when i turned it on again i was able to delete it.
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I'm in the process of removing that dratted piece of crap. I never even installed the durned thing!!! But if you are trying to get rid of winstall.exe, here's what I did...I'm running w98SE but it should work on any Windows system...I went to the task manager (cntl-alt-delete) and then stopped the process winstall.exe. It took a moment, since the system had to tell me it wasn't responding and re-ask me what to do (end the darned thing, duh!!) After that, I could delete it with relish.
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Thanks for the help I had to google search for a solution. Thank you very much! <3
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