PC SmartCare - How to remove

PC SmartCare is a shady PC optimizer by the dubious company AnswersBy. PC SmartCare offers to help optimize and protect your computer. But its developer does not appear to be trustworthy and PC SmartCare itself may be a potentially unwanted program. It is detected as such by a few anti-malware scanners.

About PC SmartCare:

Type of threat	Potentially unwanted program.
Why PC SmartCare is unwanted	It asks for contact information when being downloaded and after it’s installed, it appears to be outdated, it may be spread as part of a tech support scam or very aggressive tech support sales.
How it’s distributed	Promoted by AnswersBy.
How to remove PC SmartCare	Uninstall manually, delete leftover files, find and remove malware automatically (Spyhunter, Malwarebytes, others).

Problems with PC SmartCare

It’s a potentially unwanted program

PC SmartCare is considered by some security professionals as a potentially unwanted program. This means that though PC SmartCare is not dangerous, the way it’s distributed or the way it behaves may be problematic. It could cause users to do things they don’t want to do. Examples of potentially unwanted programs include Defencebyte Computer Optimizer, WebSecurerr, CleanMyPC by MacPaw.

Here are some ways in which PC SmartCare is suspicious:

• AnswersBy has a blog which it uses to promote its various products. People may not realize that these blog posts are actually advertisements.
• PC SmartCare prominently features a phone number for support by AnswersBy. Programs that do this sort of thing usually rely a lot on tech support over the phone. This often goes along with pushy sales tactics.
• PC SmartCare asks for your name and phone number just to let you download it. That’s a bit much, isn’t it?
• When it’s installed, PC SmartCare adds itself to the scheduler so that it starts when you log in to your computer. This is unnecessary. It should have instead added itself to startup items, where it’s easier for users to disable it.
• PC SmartCare’s installer is detected by antivirus scanners on (Virustotal.com).

There are some other details, like PC SmartCare recommending me to install Flash on my browser, which is a terrible idea. But it does seem that PC SmartCare is just really old, which would explain this issue.

I doubt that such an old program would be able to keep viruses away, as it promises to on the AnswersBy website. Malware vendors have to work really hard to keep up with the latest threats and strategies used by malicious actors.

AnswersBy has a bad reputation

PC SmartCare is developed by AnswersBy. Other apps by AnswersBy, such as PCFreeScan and PCToolBox, also get detected by a few antivirus programs.

Checking AnswersBy out, we find a Complaintsboard.com page with a few complaints. If we take these complaints seriously, they make the company look like a typical tech support scam:

• Asking for fees of over $200 to fix people’s computers (which is insane you can get a new computer for that money).
• Not actually fixing the computer.
• Charging money when no service was provided.
• Refusing to give people refunds.

It’s heartbreaking to read about people losing $100 or $200. Don’t give your credit card details to strangers. Don’t pay for tech support unless they already fixed things for you. You might have better results asking for tech advice on social media than by talking to PC SmartCare’s creators.

How to remove PC SmartCare

PC SmartCare can be uninstalled in the Control Panel or in App Settings.

Like most shady and potentially unwanted programs, it leaves a bunch of files behind. You can dive into your C:\Program Files folder to hunt them down and delete them. There’s also a version of PC SmartCare in C:\Program Data and a file in AppData, but these folders are hidden. You may need to unhide them – Support.microsoft.com.

You can also use an antivirus program, such as Spyhunter or Malwarebytes, to remove PC SmartCare and the files associated with it. As of me writing this, very few scanners detect PC SmartCare, so you can begin by looking up online if a particular antivirus tool detects PC SmartCare.

If you signed up for support by Answersby.com, I recommend that you try to get a refund. Their support is so expensive, I just don’t see how it can be worth it. However, don’t spend too much time talking with the AnswersBy people, or you might get roped into buying some other product that you probably don’t need.

Automatic Malware removal tools

How to remove PC SmartCare using Windows Control Panel

Many hijackers and adware like PC SmartCare 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 PC SmartCare . You can click on "Name" or "Installed On" to reorder your programs and make PC SmartCare 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.