Uninstallation of combo cleaner impossible

florette -  
 florette -
Hello,

my son installed Combo Cleaner on my PC; he tried to uninstall it but now it no longer appears in the control panel...

However, there is indeed a "combo cleaner" folder in the "programs(x86)" folder. But when I try to delete it directly with a right click, it tells me that I need permission to perform this action.

I tried to install the "revo uninstaller" software but it does not detect this software either...

Thank you for telling me how I should proceed.

5 answers

Panth33ra Posted messages 23103 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   Ambassadeur 2 361
 
Hello,
What operating system is your PC running?
"Combo cleaner" seems to be a "scam"!

--
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florette
 
windows 10

I tried to reinstall it, but it's impossible because it says I already have an antivirus and that I need to uninstall it to install this software.

So, I don’t know how my son managed to install it the first time...
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brucine Posted messages 24668 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 142
 
Hello,

This appears to be an administrator authorization issue: if the current account is (as it should be) a user account, restart under an administrator account (the easiest way is Ctrl-Alt-Delete, switch user).

Beforehand, check in the services (if you don't know where, search for services.msc) if there is an entry for Combo Cleaner; if so, set it to disable via properties, then click stop). It is likely that those people have added a startup entry that is more or less easy to find.
Download autoruns https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns, once installed right-click, run as administrator, uncheck everything related to Combo Cleaner.
The only thing left, in principle, is to manually delete all entries, and there may be quite a few (Program Files, Program Data, Temp Folder, and dedicated Folder in C:\Users\"Me"\Appdata

A simpler Plan B: download Unlocker https://www.commentcamarche.net/telecharger/utilitaires/22737-unlocker/, which will integrate into the context menu, right-click on the stubborn folder, but this won't necessarily clean up the startup entries if there is one in the registry that points to an executable installed not in that folder but under C:\Windows.
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Panth33ra Posted messages 23103 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   2 361
 
To uninstall it:
>> Settings... Apps and features... Click on the "Combo cleaner" application.
2 buttons are present: Modify and Uninstall.
At this stage, you need to go through this page to proceed with this operation.
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florette
 
Thank you. I will start with the simplest one and get back to you after.
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florette
 
In "services," I managed to disable Combo Cleaner. I'm not sure if I did everything right in "autoruns," but it showed me a lot of things and I apparently didn't see anything related to this software....

I tried Unlocker and I must have done something stupid because it deleted a lot of files and software...

But now, I still have that damn Combo Cleaner software...
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brucine Posted messages 24668 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 142
 
There may not be a startup entry (the "run" sections in autoruns or the "run" and "runonce" keys in the registry), and that's a good thing.

Regarding unlocker, you need to right-click on the stubborn folder (in this case, combo cleaner) and select unlocker.

In the left window, go down to delete, and then confirm; regarding a protected folder, the software is likely to throw a tantrum while processing for a certain time, and then send a message stating that uninstallation is impossible unless you restart: obey and choose stop/restart.

If you were unable to delete anything by proceeding this way, the only (bad) luck being that you didn't open unlocker from the context menu and right-click, but rather directly from its shortcut, and you might have selected the wrong folder, and then we won't be in a good situation...
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florette
 
I tried Revo Uninstaller again because I read that there was a "hunter" mode. I opened Combo Cleaner and with the hunter mode, Revo Uninstaller managed to find and delete it!

I got a little scared with Unlocker, I'm not sure what I did... When you're not skilled in IT, it can sometimes be a bit complicated...
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