Remove SurfSidekick Spyware / Adware

Surfsidekick, Surfsidekick 2 and Surfsidekick 3 are all adware. This program will generate pop-ups as you surf the internet. It will also slow down your system incredibly. It appears that there is a twin to Surfsidekick or it may have evolved into another name. Deluxe Communications have identical ads to surfsidekick and it looks amazingly similar.

In order to remove surf sidekick you should start with what is easy and then if that does not work, move onto the harder methods. The easiest method to remove surfsidekick is to go to the add\remove programs utility and see if it can be removed in that manner. If you can remove it from your system using this utility, then consider yourself lucky. Just look for Surf Sidekick or Surfsidekick and click on the uninstall button. If you do not see sidekick then look for Deluxe Communications or both. That’s all that should be required if you see the option to do this. If not, read on.

The next easiest way is to click on the start menu, chose run, and then enter this code c:\Program Files\SurfSideKick 3\Ssk.exe /u and hit enter or click on ok. This should start the removal process. You might be required to enter a code when prompted. Follow the instructions, reboot the computer and you are done. This should remove surf sidekick from your system if you have surfsidekick 3 residing on your system. If you have Deluxe Communications running, follow the same instructions except use this code: c:\Program Files\DeluxeCommunications\Ssk.exe /u. After you reboot your computer, there is still some work for you to do in order to remove all of the files that are left behind after the removal.

Here is what needs to be removed after you reboot. To do this, reboot in safe mode by pressing F8 while your system boots. You will be making changes to your systems registry files. Do not attempt this if you do not understand what you are doing. If you make a mistake then you can crash your computer system and it may not recover. After you boot in safe mode, go to start menu, select run, type in regedit, and hit enter. You will be searching for the following files delete them when they are found, use the edit, find utility:
o Search for and remove all instances of URLSearchHook {000AB005-FF12-42C2-8DF5-39E12E5F9C91}
o Search for and remove all instances of URLSearchHook {000AB005-FF12-42C2-8DF5-39E12E5F9C91} c:\programf Files\SurfSideKick\SskBho.dll
o Search for and remove all instances of URLSearchHook {A8BD6820-6ED7-423E-9558-2D1486B0FEEA} c:\Program Files\DeluxeCommunications\DxcBho.dll
o Search for and remove all instances of surfsidekick*.*
o Search for and remove all instances of Ssk.exe
o Search for and remove all instances of DeluxeCommunications*.*
o Search for and remove all instances of Dxc.exe
o Search for and remove all instances of DCClient.exe
o Search for and remove all instances of DCMain.exe
o AppInit_Dlls:repairs.dll
o AppInit_Dlls:repairs302972943.dll
o AppInit_Dlls:dxclib303562752.dll

Reboot the computer and remove any files that remain by searching (start menu, search) for SurfsideKick, SurfSidekick 3, VCClient, Deluxe Communications, Ssk.*, Ssk*.*, Dxc*.*

Finally, it is very important that you remove the repairs.dll, the repairs*random number*.dll and dxclib*random number*.dll from the AppInit_Dlls. If you do not remove these files, Surfsidekick will keep reinstalling itself.