84,488,480 programs installed

Should I remove PC Tech Hotline?

What percent of users and experts removed it?
74% remove it26% keep it
Overall Sentiment
Bad
What do people think about it?
(click star to rate)
How common is it?
Global Rank #10,652
United States Rank #5,312
Reach 0.0330%
Lifespan of installation (until removal)
< 6.25 days
184.48 days >
Average installed length: 96.93 days

Versions

VersionDistribution
3.0.0.4 100.00%

Other programs by Crawler

PC Tech Hotline

What is PC Tech Hotline?  (from Crawler)

You may order the Service by submitting a service plan order through the PC Tech Hotline website or by calling PC Tech Hotline. Once PC Tech Hotline accepts the service plan order submitted by you, then you will receive an email from PC Tech Hotline at the email address that you provide or have provided to PC Tech Hotl...  Read more

Overview

PC Tech Hotline is a program developed by Crawler. Upon installation and setup, it defines an auto-start registry entry which makes this program run on each Windows boot for all user logins. It adds a background controller service that is set to automatically run. Delaying the start of this service is possible through the service manager. A scheduled task is added to Windows Task Scheduler in order to launch the program at various scheduled times (the schedule varies depending on the version). The main program executable is pctechhotline.exe. Typically most users end up uninstalling this just after a few days. The software installer includes 9 files and is usually about 4.45 MB (4,665,470 bytes). In comparison to the total number of users, most PCs are running the OS Windows 7 (SP1) as well as Windows 10. While about 94% of users of PC Tech Hotline come from the United States, it is also popular in United Kingdom and France.
  • Possible malware installed by this program
  • Automatically starts with Windows
  • Installs a Windows Service
  • Typically distributed through a pay-per-install bundle
  • Many experts agree, if you don't use it you should remove it!
Warning, multiple anti-virus scanners have detected possible malware in PC Tech Hotline.
PCTechHotline.exe (a63d7a365df7bafc54db0df889874fa2) has been flagged by the following 11 scanners:
Anti-Virus softwareVersionDetection
Antiy-AVL 1.0.0.1 RiskWare[WebToolbar:not-a-virus]/Win32.CrawBar
Baidu-International 4.0.3.141121 Adware.Win32.Crawler.BB
CMC Antivirus 1.1.0.977 Packed.Win32.Obfuscated.10!O
Dr.Web 9.0.0.0325 Program.Unwanted.45
Fortinet FortiGate 11/21/2014 Riskware/CrawBar
Kaspersky 14.0.0.2910 not-a-virus:WebToolbar.Win32.CrawBar
McAfee 5600.6939 Artemis!A63D7A365DF7
McAfee-GW-Edition 7.6939 BehavesLike.Win32.BadFile.tc
Symantec 11/21/2014 rev. 6 PUA.Gen
Trend Micro 10.465.21 TROJ_GEN.R0C1C0OJR14
TrendMicro-HouseCall 7.2.325 TROJ_GEN.R0C1C0OJR14
PCTechHotlineSvc.exe (f6b73c5efec3d07fce8554362c977cdc) has been flagged by the following 9 scanners:
Anti-Virus softwareSoftware versionDetection
Antiy-AVL 1.0.0.1 RiskWare[WebToolbar:not-a-virus]/Win32.CrawBar
Baidu-International 3.5.1.41473 Adware.Win32.Crawler.BB
Dr.Web 7.0.10.8210 Program.Unwanted.45
Fortinet FortiGate 5.0.999.0 Riskware/CrawBar
Kaspersky 12.0.0.1225 not-a-virus:WebToolbar.Win32.CrawBar.c
McAfee 6.0.5.614 Artemis!F6B73C5EFEC3
McAfee-GW-Edition v2014.2 BehavesLike.Win32.BadFile.jh
Symantec 20141.1.0.330 PUA.Gen.2
TrendMicro-HouseCall 9.700.0.1001 Suspicious_GEN.F47V1029
       View all 20 all detections
PC Tech Hotline has been found to be bundled with 3rd party software. If you have not purposefully installed this, you should be safe uninstalling it.

Program detailsProgram details

URL: www.PCTechHotline.com
Installation folder: C:\Program Files\PCTechHotline\
Uninstaller: "C:\Program Files\PCTechHotline\unins000.exe"
Estimated size: 4.45 MB

Program filesFiles installed by PC Tech Hotline

Program executable:pctechhotline.exe
Name:PCTechHotline
Path:C:\Program Files\pctechhotline\pctechhotline.exe
MD5:addd6497f712601ddff70a024dfc681c
Additional files:
  • PCTechHotlineSvc.exe - PCTechHotline (PCTechHotline Service)
  • PCTHdesk.64.dll - PCTechHotline Desk
  • PCTHdesk.dll
  • PCTHHook.dll - PCTechHotline Hook Library
  • PCTHHook.exe - PCTechHotline Hook Application
  • PCTHHook64.dll
  • PCTHHook64.exe
  • unins000.exe - Setup/Uninstall

Program behaviorsBehaviors exhibited

Scheduled Task
  • PCTechHotline.exe is scheduled as a task with the class '{7CF6A367-1794-4F07-A0E7-34A03246BB37}' (runs on registration).
Service
  • PCTechHotlineSvc.exe runs as a service named 'PCTechHotlineService' (PCTechHotlineSvc).
Startup File (All Users Run)
  • PCTechHotline.exe is loaded in the all users (HKLM) registry as a startup file name 'PCTechHotline' which loads as "C:\Program Files\PCTechHotline\PCTechHotline.exe" /STARTUP.

Program resource utilizationResource utilization averages

PCTechHotline.exe
Memory:6.23 MB
21.09 MB average
Total CPU:0.0010084555%
0.031193% average
Kernel CPU:0.00009852%
0.016088% average
User CPU:0.00090994%
0.015104% average
CPU cycles/sec:2,529,902
8,062,084 average
Switches/sec:16
70 average
I/O reads/min:50 Bytes
435.61 KB average
I/O writes/min:606 Bytes
105.02 KB average
PCTechHotlineSvc.exe
Memory:2.12 MB
Kernel CPU:0.00001589%
CPU cycles/sec:33,772
Switches/sec:1
PCTHHook.exe
Memory:824 KB
Total CPU:0.0000985159%
Kernel CPU:0.00003284%
User CPU:0.00006568%
CPU cycles/sec:384,879
Switches/sec:8

How do I remove PC Tech Hotline?

You can uninstall PC Tech Hotline from your computer by using the Add/Remove Program feature in the Window's Control Panel.
  1. On the Start menu (for Windows 8, right-click the screen's bottom-left corner), click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, do one of the following:
    • Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall a Program.
    • Windows XP: Click Add or Remove Programs.
  2. When you find the program PC Tech Hotline, click it, and then do one of the following:
    • Windows Vista/7/8/10: Click Uninstall.
    • Windows XP: Click the Remove or Change/Remove tab (to the right of the program).
  3. Follow the prompts. A progress bar shows you how long it will take to remove PC Tech Hotline.
  4. If for some reason uninstallation fails, please install Microsoft's uninstall fixer utility which will help fix problems with programs that can't be uninstalled at support.microsoft.com.
OS VERSIONS
Win 7 (SP1) 47%
Win Vista 0%
  
HOW IT STARTS
Automatically starts? Yes
(Found in the run registry)
  
USER ACTIONS
Uninstall it 74%
Keep it 26%

Windows OS versionsWindows

Which Windows OS versions does it run on?
Windows 7 49.77%
Windows 10 42.24%
Windows Vista 6.45%
Windows XP 1.54%
Which OS releases does it run on?
Windows 7 Home Premium 37.35%
Windows 8.1 24.69%
Windows 8 12.81%
Windows 7 Professional 6.94%
Windows Vista Home Premiu... 5.40%
Windows 7 Ultimate 4.17%

Distribution by countryGeography

93.62% of installs come from the United States
Which countries install it?
  United States 93.62%
  United Kingdom 3.62%
  France 1.14%
  Canada 0.38%
  Germany 0.29%
  Australia 0.19%
  Belgium 0.10%
  Hungary 0.10%
  Jordan 0.10%
  Japan 0.10%
  Korea 0.10%
  Mexico 0.10%
  Sweden 0.10%
  Singapore 0.10%

OEM distributionPC manufacturers

What PC manufacturers (OEMs) have it installed?
Hewlett-Packard 36.04%
Dell 24.72%
Acer 12.45%
Toshiba 11.51%
ASUS 6.04%
Lenovo 4.91%
Intel 1.51%
Samsung 0.94%
GIGABYTE 0.75%
Alienware 0.57%
Sony 0.57%
Common models
HP 2000 Notebook PC 6.62%
HP 15 Notebook PC 3.83%
HP Pavilion g6 Notebook P... 3.48%
Dell Inspiron 3521 3.14%
Gateway NE56R 2.79%
HP ENVY m6 Notebook PC 2.09%

About Crawler

Run by Xacti Group Companies Crawler provides toolbar type programs for various Web browsers.
Publisher URL: www.crawler.com

comments1 comment

user comment
user comment
AZBILL•over a year ago
Really difficulat to remove from Windows Vista. Get to the point where you can't use the pctechhotle delete but it won't complete the task. When I go to the control panel the program pctechhotline name is not displayed. Will never load any programs from Crawler, Pctechhotline or pcfixspeed; they are a real problem group to deal with.
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