How to get rid of Lenovo, SuperFish/VisualDiscovery and other potential malware?

Question

How to get rid of Lenovo, SuperFish/VisualDiscovery and other potential malware?

Anonymous

Hi

My Question:

I recently bought a laptop with Windows 8.1, unfortunately it also had programs from Lenovo installed on it. And I wonder how to wipe the computer clean in order to remove all Lenovo apps, but without harming Windows. Some of the drivers were created by Lenovo, does Microsoft offer free driver downloads with Windows 8.1, or are there other, preferably free, drivers to download. I just don't feel safe having any code written by Lenovo running on my laptop.

Facts:

Lenovo installs spyware on computers it manufactures, SuperFish/VisualDiscovery is one known example, but there may be other, yet undiscovered, spyware. Lenovo also preinstalls drivers and some other software, like a power manager.

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Answer 1

You can purchase a retail copy of Windows and install Windows to the drive using a custom installation, deleting the existing partitions first. Rather costly endeavor, of course.

The Lenovo utilities can be removed by yourself if you don't wish to use them -- Control Panel/Programs - uninstall.

I've never used this, but it is often recommended for cleaning up the vendor installed garbage on a new PC:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

The drivers are specific to the hardware. Some will be Lenovo branded, some will be the Microsoft drivers, some will have been created by Lenovo and some will be specific to the device used by Lenovo from a vendor/3rd party. I would not remove drivers. If you were to clean install retail windows, you would likely need to seek out drivers for some of your hardware if not found by Windows on Windows Update.

As for Superfish -- see Lenovo's article and instructions for removing it:

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product_security/superfish

For other potential adware/malware --

Try adwcleaner: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

Try Malwarebytes Antimalware (free version, do not install the trial or Pro version) - http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes\_free/

Try Junkware Removal Tool - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/

Try SuperAntispyware Free version - http://superantispyware.com/download.html

Try the ESET free online scan: http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/

-steve

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How to get rid of Lenovo, SuperFish/VisualDiscovery and other potential malware?

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