Trojan.Adclicker

Trojan.Adclicker is a common type of Trojan virus. It was developed to artificially produce traffic to certain websites on the Internet. Trojan Adclicker works by sending HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) requests that will produce pop-up banner advertisements, inflate Web counter statistics, and embed banner ads in the Web page.

Trojan.Adclicker is also known as:

• TROJ_VB.SR;
• Adware.Hiu.c;
• Trojan-Clicker.Win32.VB.nd;
• AdWare.Win32.Agent.ak;
• W32/Adclicker.IM;
• AdWare.Win32.Age; and
• Trojan.Adclicker Variants.

Before discussing how to remove Trojan.Adclicker from your system, it is best to know first the different variants of this virus. This will help you understand better how to remove them. The following are the kinds of Trojan.Adclicker:

TROJ_ADCLICKE.AH – It exhibits fake error messages to allow unsuspecting computer users to connect to various advertising websites.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.GH. – Every time Internet Explorer runs, this variant of Trojan.Adclicker registers itself into the system as a Browser Helper Object (BHO) to confirm automatic execution.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.AX. – Every time Internet Explorer runs, it registers itself as a Component Object Model (COM) to ensure it is loaded into the memory. It usually appears as a file dropped by other malware.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.BL. – It is either dropped by other malware or downloaded from the Internet. It has the capacity to display a fake pop-up message warning the computer user that his system is infected by malicious software. When the unsuspecting user clicks the message, it will be redirected to a website where malware will be possibly installed and downloaded.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.AD. – It appears either as a file manually downloaded from the Internet or as a part of another malware’s installation package.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.AF. – It is a memory-resident Trojan that registers itself onto the system as a service using several display names to prevent easy detection. It is either downloaded from malicious websites or dropped by other malware programs.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.AG. – It was developed to detect an Internet connection. Once it finds one, it tries to download a possibly malicious file.

TROJ_ADCLICKE.CI. – It is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) component appearing as part of another malware’s installation package. It is used by other malicious software applications to access certain remote sites.

What’s Your Action Against It

When you’re using a Windows XP based computer infected with a Trojan.Adclicker, you can detect and eliminate this malware by performing the following steps:

1. Open Windows Task Manager.
2. Search for an active system process or a background process relevant to the Trojan.Adclicker.
3. Choose the potential file variants of Trojan.Adclicker then right-click it.
4. Click the End Process option.
5. Perform a functional registry scan using a good registry scanning program.
6. List down all potential registry entries associated with the Trojan.Adclicker variants.
7. Click the Windows key plus R then type in regedit.
8. Remove the registry entries found on your list by deleting them. Make sure you have a back up registry before you perform this to prevent system crashes.
9. Save your modifications on the registry then close the Registry Editor.
10. Search for the Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) connected with the registry entries along with the Trojan.Adclicker variants.
11. Un-register the Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) linked with the Trojan.Adclicker variants.
12. Open the Control Panel.
13. Press the Add/Remove Programs icon.
14. Scan the program listings to determine any installed application responsible for the operation of the Trojan.Adclicker variants.
15. Press the Uninstall option.