WeatherBug is a weather reporting program that provides you weather data, alerting from the system tray. It’s only available for US and it provides data based on your Zipcode. International users can  get city weather datas either via Email or Rss. The publisher of WeatherBug is AWS Convergence Technologies Inc. It is created by the founder of Earth Networks company. WeatherBug is formally known as the AWS – Automated Weather Source. The weather data that is reported are the city weather conditions, local weather report, storm alert etc…It collects this data from 8500+ partnered weather stations. It has 1000+ outdoor weather webcams, and a community for people to share local weather information. It is a paid utility although it has a free version that promotes the paid version (WeatherBug Plus for $19.95). To support the free version, it has popup ads and banner ads. It also comes with AOL instant Messenger. It has an app for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Symbian and Blackberry.

Is WeatherBug a spyware?

WeatherBug doesn’t monitor or collect data or Spy your activities on the program or outside the program. So it’s not a spyware. Since its free version is ad-supported, its an adware!They let you uninstall itself from their program, onwards of Version 6.

Free Alternatives without Ads

You can get their paid version – WeatherBug Plus for weather data. As well as there are many free alternatives. The ones Cnet recommended was free and great, but got downgraded in performance and started showing Ads. Currently people are happy with Weather Exchange. You can download this from their website. You can checkout its review on Cnet here.

How to remove WeatherBug?

1. First Kill the Weather.exe process from the task manager.

To do that, press Ctrl + Alt + Del, to open up the Task Manager, locate weather.exe and terminate the process.

2. Next step is to uninstall Weather Bug from the Add/Remove program. To do that,

1. Click START.
2. Select SETTINGS and CONTROL PANEL.
3. Double click ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS.
4. Select “WeatherBug” from the list of applications.
5. Click ADD/REMOVE and follow the instructions on the Uninstallation Wizard.
6. Once uninstalled, restart the Computer.

3. Next step is to delete the registry keys.

Click Start menu, and Click Run.

In the open box, type REGEDIT to open the Windows Registry Editor.

From the registry editor, delete these keys.

For example to delete the first entry, Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER on the left panel, and then expand everything  between the “\” backslash. ie, Expand Software, Microsoft, Windows, CurrentVersion, Run. In the Run directory, search for Weather=C:\Program Files\AWS\WeatherBug\weather.exe, right click and delete this key. Similarly do the remaining entries.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Weather=C:\Program Files\AWS\WeatherBug\weather.exe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Weather=C:\Program Files\AWS\WeatherBug\weather.exe
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AWS
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{014DA6C7-189F-421A-88CD-07CFE51CFF10}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\IE4\DependantComponents\WeatherBug
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\WeatherBug

4. Next step is to delete the directory -> C:\Program Files\AWS\WeatherBug

5. The last step is to run an Anti-Malware Scan. To do that, Download Malware Bytes and run a scan.

Webfetti is an addon (MyWeb search bar), connecting to their web server, that has a list of smileys, cursors, animations, layouts etc… to make your social profile on myspace, facebook and even webpages colorful. This is just another addon like the smiley central. Webfetti itself is an addon along with smiley central, popular screensaver, cursor mania and zwinky. All these are addon for MyWeb search bar owned by InterActiveCorp. The addons are part of Fun Web Products suite. These are not spywares. But they use cookies to track your usage of their program though they claim to not use them. This is fishy. Regardless of that, having an additional, redundant toolbar on your browser slows down its performance. I’d say to remove it, unless you really want them and you are in this page out of some curiosity.

Webfetti on the MyWeb Search bar (Also known as MyWay Searchbar, MyWay Speedbar, MyWay Search Assistant, MyWebSearch, MyAllSearch, and MyWeb Searchbar), looks like the one shown below,

If you have the toolbar you can sure that you either have webfetti or other addons that install MyWeb Search bar.

How to remove Webfetti?

1. Click on Start > Settings > Control panel.

2. Click on Add/Remove.

3. Find MyWebSearch (Webfetti) in the list. Click on the Change/Remove. Then uninstall it.

4. Restart your computer.

5. Next, go to C:\Program Files\ folder

6. Delete the folder, FunWebProducts and MyWebSearch.

7. Webfetti is now uninstalled completely.

8. Run a registry scan to remove the left overs.

Incredimail is an email program that offers users a lot of “animation goodies” as a unique selling proposition and notifies you whenever there you received an email. These animation goodies includes emoticons, other animations, background templates for email, sound, ecards etc… Obviously there are many users who like these goodies. But there are also a large number of people who want to totally get rid of this.

Many addicts of Incredimail use a method to transfer mails to Outlook. Yes people do live in the old age when it comes to email. And these kinda services exists to cater to those people. Well I am only talking to those people who want to remove it. Not the fanboys of these services without much evolution in terms of mail transfer, spam filter, labeling, archiving etc… the kind of features modern email services offer.

How to remove Incredimail?

Well, the normal way of doing this is to go to control panel and then remove it using add/remove program. We’ll walk you through those steps quickly now.

1) Click on Start, Settings, Control Panel

2) Double click on Add/Remove Programs

3) Find “Incredimail” in the list of installed programs and click on Change/Remove to uninstall it.

If that doesn’t work. Well why does the add/remove program always fail? Well that’s a topic for another article. Let’s now talk about how to get around if the normal route of removing a program fails.

Normal uninstallation still leaves major portions of Incredimail intact. There are folders, files and registry keys that are still intact. Which aren’t told the Windows uninstaller to get rid of. We have to do those chores.

If you are using Outlook, even after the normal uninstallation, you get an error “Windows cannot find Incredimail.exe” when trying to open attachments.

To manually remove all those files still intact. Microsoft has an article in their knowledge base to help outlook users about the Incredimail error.

Let’s walk over those steps without getting too technical.

Manually Remove Incredimail.

To delete the registry keys for the Incredimail program:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. For each key that you need to delete, locate the key, right-click the key, and then click Delete:
   • Under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTkey, delete the following keys:
     \.ima
     \.imf
     \.imi
     \.imn
     \.ims
     \.imw
     \Applications\Impcontent.exe
     \Applications\Incredimail
     \Incredicontent
     \Incredimessage

     ---

   • Under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEkey, delete the following keys:
     Software\Classes\.imc
     Software\Clients\Mail\Incredimail
     Software\Elishim\Protect\Browser (remove the Incredimail value)
     Software\Incredimail
     Software\Microsoft\Direct3D\Most Recent Applications\ (remove the NAME value that points to Incredimail.exe)
     \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Incredimail

     ---

   • Finally, delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu\Programs\Incredimail key.
3. Close Registry Editor and restart the system.

That’s it you have now completely removed Incredimail.

What is Windows installer cleanup utility?

Windows Installer Cleanup Utility was a program from Microsoft that solved the uninstallation problem with the applications that were installed with the Windows Installer. Especially due to the reason that application are unable to be uninstalled from the Add/Remove utility which is available on the Control Panel of Windows.

This was discontinued due to its conflict with Microsoft Office 2007.

Windows installer cleanup utility use to only modify/remove registry entries and the files that were installed using the Windows Installer. The usage of this utility was declining as this doesn’t uninstall all of the application files completely and the use of this utility was limited to use it as a last attempt of removing a buggy application. When it started conflicting with Office 2007, Microsoft decided that this utility is no longer needed. Also there are much better ways to uninstall application – that was installed with any installer, not just the windows Installer.

The screengrab on the right shows the Windows Installer Cleanup utility in action.

Since Windows Installer Cleanup Utility is no longer available, what are the available similar programs?

You can still use the version 7.2 of this utility (the last updated version before discontinuing) but not with Office 2007 and it is available at here. But as said earlier this is already discontinued and it can be buggy to use it. While there are better ways of uninstalling a program that are available online. Lets talk about that now.

The way I use to clean up uninstallation leftovers, that is much better is by using a tool called Registry Booster. You can go ahead and download the free scan. I personally have had a terrible experience with uninstaller tools who sole purpose is to uninstall programs just like the Windows Installer Cleanup utility but for all installers. Because those try to uninstall from the add/remove the usual way. And scan the entire system to remove the leftovers and it can take hours depending what you want to uninstall. While Registry Booster does it quickly. Which is impressive about that tool. I recommend you to give it a try.

Reasons to remove McAfee.

When you get the trial version of McAfee preinstalled on your PC and you don’t like it, you want to know how to remove it. Maybe you don’t like McAfee that you have installed and want to install another Antivirus program. Most of the other Antivirus program wants you to uninstall the existing one before installing that, to prevent conflict. Since McAfee is popular virus are often written to wreck it so they aren’t detected before they can infect the system.  While McAfee may show several “false positives” of genuine program as malwares, this is a common nature to all the Antivirus program, and all you can do is report to them immediately.

Most of the antivirus company, McAfee as well,  re-bill you automatically when the license period expires. This is to ensure uninterrupted antivirus protection by their program. However its up to you to make that decision. Wont you agree? However you can get refunded if you were rebilled automatically without asking you. The reasons are many to not want the McAfee on your system.

Now lets talk about how to remove McAfee easily and quickly.

Removal through Add/Remove program.

1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
3. Select the McAfee Security Center product.
4. Click Remove and follow the steps provided.
5. Reboot your computer
6. After rebooting McAfee should be removed from your system.

Problem in Completely uninstalling McAfee.

Removing McAfee from the add or remove programs doesn’t remove it completely. This might not be a problem immediately, but is a problem when you try to install some other AntiVirus say Kaspersky! As shown in the screengrab on the right, even though McAfee is thought to be completely removed, it is not. And Kaspersky detects it as the incompatible software.

You are unable to completely uninstall McAfee as well as install another antivirus program.

So you need to remove leftovers of McAfee to complete the uninstallation process. We’ll talk about that now.

McAfee Removal Tool:

What most of us don’t know is that McAfee themselves provide a complete removal tool. The McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) Tool, by McAfee completely uninstalls any McAfee product installed in the system. Not just the antivirus but “any” McAfee program. This is their way of saying “Thank you for trying our product, Goodbye!”.

Now, lets talk about how to completely remove McAfee using this tool.

1. Download McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) Tool. Click that download link or on the image to the right.

2. Double click on the downloaded file to run it.

[Note:- Windows Vista users need to right click on the downloaded file and then select to “Run as Administrator”.]

3. Now the McAfee cleanup runs showing the removal process in the progress bar as shown below,

4. When the removal process is completed, all the McAfee products are removed completely. This is shown with the message “Cleanup Successful” and a prompt to reboot the system as shown below. Click YES to reboot the system

5. If the cleanup or removal is unsuccessful, the message will be shown as Unsuccessful cleanup. You need to click on the View Log to see the where it went wrong. Mostly its due to any McAfee program running and the tool is unable to abort it. You can contact McAfee support, send the log file to get the issue sorted out.

But the removal process is always Successful.

You have now removed McAfee completely.

Wild Tangent is an online video game company founded in 1998. Their Web driver technology lets you play rich 3D games online without consuming much bandwidth.

Wild Tangent has been distributed by many 3rd party applications, OEMs, ISPS and AOL (The games from them is included in the AIM games section). It comes pre-installed on some computers as well.

The web driver updates itself and installs games without asking you.

Also, Wild tangent’s web driver accesses your Operating System name and version, CPU type and speed, Memory capacity, video card information (brand/model id and driver version), sound card information (name/brand/model id and driver version), DirectX version and path of Wild Tangent’s Web Driver.

This is not a spyware or malware, but their games are installed without asking you. If you don’t want WildTangent accessing those system information and installing games without your know, you can remove it.

It is installed in the location, C:\Program Files\WildTangent

Removing Wild Tangent web driver.

The removal process is pretty easy. Remove it from the add/remove programs in the control panel. Then remove the program directories. Remove the program’s control panel icon. Finally delete the Autorun registry key. Lets talk about the 4 step process one by one now.

1. Remove it from the add/remove programs in the control panel.

• Open Control Panel -> Add/Remove programs
• Select the WildTangent
• Click the Change/Remove.
• Uninstall it.
• Reboot your PC

Note: The software will be also listed as WildTangent Games, HPGames, DellGames, etc in the Add or Remove/Programs.

2. Remove the directory on Windows, Program Files and application data .

After uninstallation, open your Windows directory, and delete the wt folder.
Delete the C:\ProgramFiles\WildTangent and C:\ProgramFiles\WildGames
Now, Click start > run and type %profile%\local settings\application data\wildtangent Delete that folder as well.

3. Remove Wildtangent Control panel icon from the Windows Control panel.

• Open Windows Registry to do that, Click on Start, Run and type REGEDIT and press Enter
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\Cpls
• In the right hand side find the line for wtControlPanel, right click on it and Delete it
• Close the Windows Registry.

You can as well, search the C: \drive for any occurrence of the files “wtcpl.dll” and “wtcpl.cpl” and delete it.

4. Remove the autorun key from Windows Registry

• Open Windows Registry to do that, Click on Start, Run and type REGEDIT and press Enter
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
• Delete WildTangent CDA Key.
• Close the Windows Registry and restart the system for the changes to take place.

This is complete manual removal of Wild Tangent.

On the flipside, other than getting frequent browser crashes and freeze up due to this toolbar, it’s also vulnerable to threats like hacking which was recently a big issue with this toolbar. Many hackers use the loopholes found in the toolbar to get access to your computer through your web browser such as Mozilla Firefox.

So, how to get rid of this toolbar, till a security patch is updated? Well I in this article will go through the steps to uninstall the Yahoo toolbar from Mozilla Firefox. Let’s talk about 2 methods in doing that.

1. Direct  uninstallation:

Click on the pencil icon on the Yahoo toolbar. Click on uninstall from the drop-down menu. Restart Firefox to complete the uninstallation. This is the direct uninstallation method from the toolbar itself. This is the easiest way!

2. Uninstallation from the Firefox extension manager:

From your Firefox, click on Tool menu > Add-Ons > Extensions Tab. Select Yahoo! Toolbar extension, and click uninstall! Restart Firefox. If the Yahoo! Toolbar is still present, then you need to delete the current user profile, because that might be corrupted. To do that, click Windows Start menu > Run > Type firefox.exe -ProfileManager and hit the enter key. The profile window opens up, select the current profile, and click Delete Profile. Click Create Profile to create a new profile. Restart Firefox and now uninstall Yahoo Toolbar from the Firefox Extension manager or direct uninstallation method from the Yahoo! toolbar itself.

These are the 2 methods to get rid of Yahoo! Toolbar from your Firefox. Once yahoo updates its toolbar with its latest security patch and has good reviews across the web, you can install it. But I recommend that you don’t need to install a toolbar at all, because Firefox itself lets you subscribe to feeds with its many addons and also with its default feed subscriber. You can also use the bookmark toolbar in the Firefox to save your mostly used links such as emails and news sites.

So, after you have uninstalled your Yahoo! Toolbar, I also recommend you to use a good registry cleaner tool to clean up your registry of the entries associated with Yahoo! Toolbar that are still up there even after an uninstallation. Those entries are vacant and invalid, but they are not needed; then why not clean it up? You can cleanup manually or by using the registry cleaner tool. I personally use a registry cleaner tool to do that, just because it also optimizes and compacts registry cleaning up the invalid entries left by other softwares uninstalled in the system, thereby making the registry faster which enhances the PC speed!

So, its wise to invest in a registry cleaner tool, check for a free scan download of a registry cleaner tool which I personally use, above this article!

Taking about the potential chances that allow vulnerability, hackers and threats in your system, make sure to update and schedule anti-virus and anti-spyware tool to run periodically. Make sure your anti-virus and anti-spyware are up to date with the latest virus/spyware definition and also with regular security patches. These will protect your system completely!