NetMeter

[Pilgrim]

A few weeks ago I decided to install a bandwidth monitor, after looking here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...load-meter.htm
I installed NetMeter 1.1.3.

I tried it for about a week but found it was not suitable so I uninstalled it.
Ever since then it has remained in my Startup Menu showing NetMeter.exe.
If I delete the entry and the associated registry key it simply comes back.

I have run searches of both files and registry and can find no trace of it.
I have deleted the wbem\repository folder's contents and it is not in the prefetch folder or the layout.ini file.

WinPatrol is repeatedly picking it up and I have been unable to remove it with that either.

Any ideas?

[INDRANIL]

Hi try Revo Uninstaller & see.

[Pilgrim]

I used Revo to uninstall it in the first place.

Apart from WinPatrol and the startup menu NetMeter no longer appears anywhere on the system except for the registry keys relating to the startup menu and as I said, if I delete them they simply come back, even if they are deleted in Safe Mode.

There is a post about this on their forum from a couple of weeks ago and it has never been answered.

[Boyfriend]

Use Autoruns to investigate startup entries and report here.

[Pilgrim]

It's not appearing in Autoruns, probably because I deleted the registry keys yet again and they have not got around to recreating themselves.
The last time I looked in there it said 'File not found'.

Whenever I have had this problem before it has always been down to one of two folders in Windows, wbem or Prefetch, but not this time.

[Boyfriend]

Run chkdsk to ensure file system is OK.

[Alboguy]

It looks like virus disguised as NetMeter.exe to me. Post a HijackThis log here and perform a full scan with MBAM.

[INDRANIL]

Follow the above advices & also scan with Hitman Pro (activate if any malware found).

[Zug]

Also.. how bout possible run of CCleaner.. would that possibly help as well?

[Pilgrim]

Thank you all for your replies.

The file system is clean and there is no malware.

After I posted yesterday I updated to the latest version of SAS Pro, as it has done every time since it was installed it crashed the system, (they are trying to find out why), prior to that the only program that had flagged up NetMeter was WinPatrol.
When I rebooted, Spybot TeaTimer flagged it up for the first time and I used that to block it.

Since then NetMeter has disappeared from both WinPatrol and the Startup Menu.
The question that remains is whether the cause of the problem has been removed or if it is simply being blocked, I suspect the latter.
Anyway I am no longer being plagued by constant pop-ups.


This problem has made me think about other times when I have had similar problems, as I said I have usually resolved them by removing any information retained in the Windows folder.
Even after doing that there have been a couple of occasions when a program has left behind one or more DLL's and I only found them purely by chance, I am sure that there are more that I have not found.

If you hold the curser over a DLL it will often show you the developing company's name, yet there is no program that I know of where if you entered that name into a search you would pick up that DLL.
I do not know if it is even possible but what is needed is a program that will.
The only alternative is if you could obtain from developers a list of all the files that their programs installed and I can't see that happening.

Has anybody got any thoughts on the subject?

EDIT: I know that there are several programs that will take snapshots before and after installations but that does not solve the problem of files left over from programs that were previously uninstalled.