How to eliminate SpyBot pop-up during boot "Run Post-Windows 10 Upgrade Re-Installer"

Question

I used SpyBot on my Win7 desktop. Did the Windows 10 Upgrade. After the upgrade I uninstalled SpyBot using the Uninstall option in Control Panel->Programs. Now each time I boot the PC I get a pop-up dialog box asking to run the "SpyBot Post-Windows 10 Upgrade Re-Installer" which I decline by it asks every time I boot.

So I went ahead and had it install the newer SpyBot in order to eliminate then message. Then went into Control Panel->Programs and did the uninstall. Unfortunately the nag message to "reinstall" has resumed its annoying appearance.

Thanks for any suggestions. I've liked SpyBot in the past, but this is very poor behavior from this program/vendor.

Answer 1

1. Go to Task Manager/Startup Tab and disable the task named Test. That will stop the running of it at startup.
2. Run a search for Spybot on your C: drive and you will find some files that can be deleted (specifically a few in \Program Files\Common Files).
3. PERFORM AT YOUR OWN RISK!! You can then run regedit and go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run to remove the Test task, which was disabled in step 1, from your startup list altogether.

By the way, this IS in fact a Spybot thing, not a Windows 10 issue. Spybot will be removed during the upgrade process to Windows 10, and this was placed there to reinstall the Windows 10 version of Spybot once the upgrade was in place. It was running at startup in Windows 7 as well to test and see if you had upgraded yet. As long as the test passed you never saw the pop-up.

Answer 2

I was having the very same issue and found the Spybot installer at this location C:\Program Files\Common Files\AV. Since deleting the folder everything seems fine.

Answer 3

This program refused to uninstall for me. It all looked like it worked but on next boot all files were still there and was getting the re-installer prompt on every logon. Tried reinstalling from the prompt and uninstalling again but was useless.

If you don't know your way around a command prompt and/or regedit, get help from someone who does.

I first exited the program by right-clicking the icon in the notification area.

Using an elevated command prompt, so explorer doesn't force you to change permissions on system folders, I removed the following folders (with rmdir /s) and one file (with del):

• C:\Program Files\Common Files\AV\ (it only had one subfolder named Spybot - Search & Destroy)
• C:\ProgramData\Spybot - Search & Destroy
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot - Search & Destroy 2
• C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Safer-Networking\ (again only subfolders was Spybot - Search and Destroy)
• C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\HTML Help\Spybot2.chw

(checked that the files actually got deleted as some attempts failed)

Then I removed the following registry keys:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree\Safer-Networking
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Safer Networking Limited
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Safer Networking Limited
• HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Safer Networking Limited
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sds (only if your system has it as a Spybot2.SDSFile)
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sdsb (ditto for Spybot2.SDSBFile)
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Spybot2.SDSBFile
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Spybot2.SDSFile

and the following registry values (not keys!):

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run -> SpybotPostWindows10UpgradeReInstall
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run -> SpybotPostWindows10UpgradeReInstall
• values in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UFH\SHC\ where the data contained Spybot references.
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store -> C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot - Search & Destroy 2\SDScan.exe
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store -> C:\Program Files (x86)\Spybot - Search & Destroy 2\unins000.exe
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store -> C:\Program Files\Common Files\AV\Spybot - Search and Destroy\Test.exe
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Compatibility Assistant\Store -> C:\Program Files\Common Files\AV\Spybot - Search and Destroy\Upgrade.exe

Any registry keys/values that reference CURRENT_USER my need to be searched for in HKEY_USERS key if you have other users on your machine. I left all logs the program created.