Microsoft Cleanup Virus - How to remove

Microsoft Cleanup, also known as Microsoft Cleaner, is advertised as a software that is supposed to help its users get rid of junk data, enhance system memory, get rid of unwanted registry items and optimize the registry in general and improve your browsing speed. It promises a lot of features, however, in reality, it functions as a typical Trojan.Clicker. This particular term implies a utility developed by online criminals for the purposes of click fraud.

Microsoft Cleaner, in spite of its name, has nothing to do with Microsoft company. It can be downloaded via its official page. Nevertheless, simply this fact doesn’t yet mean that Microsoft Cleaner is a legitimate utility. Once installed, Microsoft Cleaner can be identified by its special process active in Task Manager named “MicrosoftCleanup”. There is a high probability that the abilities of Microsoft Cleaner to optimize your system are considerably overestimated by its developers. Most likely it is yet another tool that is fairly considered as a PUP (potentially unwanted program) and should be immediately removed.

Microsoft Cleaner looks pretty similar to Registry Doctor, another application involved in click fraud. We discussed it in one of our previous articles, whereas the behavior of these two programs has a lot of things in common. Malicious component of these programs, i.e. Trojan.Clicker part is masked under its so-called optimization features, which are absolutely primitive.

Is Microsoft Cleaner helpful

Unfortunately, there is no any good feature of Microsoft Cleaner that would be the reason to keep it within your system. The program is a totally fake system optimization software. It only claims to be able to fix computer issues, however, the problems it reports are invented. Whenever your system is attacked or infected by viruses, ransomware or other serious threats, Microsoft Cleaner will neither protect the computer nor remove them.

The main mission of Microsoft Cleaner is to perform its illegal activities related to click fraud. There are cases when Microsoft Cleaner can be used for interconnecting the computer with other PUPs (potentially unwanted programs). It may cause browser redirections to the random website of an extremely bad reputation, such as the ones associated with stealing your personal or financial information. No matter how good Microsoft Cleaner is described by its developers, its missions within your system are absolutely hazardous.

Speaking of click fraud function integrated into Microsoft Cleaner, it is used to increase the ad revenue by permanently clicking on certain advertisement banners in order to generate revenue by making the aforesaid fake clicks on ads. This, in fact, drains revenue from the advertisers. Click fraud is a totally illegal work peculiar to many PPC (pay-per-click) advertisement networks.

It is absolutely certain that Microsoft Cleaner is not what it claims to be. It is a fake system optimization utility that instead slows down your computer and does not fix real problems. The worst part of the story about Microsoft Cleaner is that it perform click frauds activities, which are absolutely illegal. For this reason, the program must be immediately deleted from your computer.

How to remove Microsoft Cleaner

Microsoft Cleaner, once installed, provides users with a direct way to remove it easily. It will be specified in the list of installed programs. You need to access the Control Panel and go to the list of available applications. Locate Microsoft Cleaner and uninstall it right away. Note that sometimes it might be first necessary to end the task of MicrosoftCleanup through the Task Manager before uninstalling Microsoft Cleaner manually.

Considering the fact that your computer was used for click fraud purposes by Microsoft Cleaner, it is definitely very important that you additionally scan your system with reliable anti-malware software to be persuaded that your computer is free of other malicious components that could still remain in a secret form. We recommend that you refer to the help of Spyhunter anti-malware software mentioned in the tutorial below.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove Microsoft Cleanup Virus using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like Microsoft Cleanup Virus install some of their components as regular Windows programs as well as additional software. This part of malware can be uninstalled from the Control Panel. To access it, do the following.

• Start→Control Panel (older Windows) or press Windows Key→Search and enter Control Panel and then press Enter (Windows 8, Windows 10).
• Choose Uninstall Program (if you don't see it, click in the upper right next to "View by" and select Category).
• Go through the list of programs and select entries related to Microsoft Cleanup Virus . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make Microsoft Cleanup Virus easier to find.
• Click the Uninstall button. If you're asked if you really want to remove the program, click Yes.
• In many cases anti-malware programs are better at detecting related parasites, thus I recommend installing Spyhunter to identify other programs that might be a part of this infection.