84,488,480 programs installed

Should I remove SW.Booster?

What percent of users and experts removed it?
84% remove it16% keep it
Overall Sentiment
Bad
What do people think about it?
(click star to rate)
How common is it?
Global Rank #19,098
United States Rank #25,643
Reach 0.0119%
Lifespan of installation (until removal)
< 20.07 days
592.05 days >
Average installed length: 311.08 days

Versions

VersionDistribution
4.3.0.1897 0.43%
4.3.0.1841 0.43%
4.3.0.1798 0.43%
4.3.0.1655 0.43%
4.3.0.1575 0.43%
4.3.0.1473 0.43%
4.3.0.1448 0.43%
4.3.0.1437 0.43%
4.3.0.1425 0.43%
4.3.0.1163 0.43%
4.3.0.1093 0.43%
4.3.0.1011 0.43%
4.2.0.1948 0.43%
4.2.0.1865 0.43%
4.2.0.1838 0.43%
4.2.0.1821 0.43%
4.2.0.1780 0.43%
4.2.0.1764 0.43%
4.2.0.1509 0.43%
4.2.0.1192 0.43%
4.2.0.1121 0.43%
4.2.0.1061 0.43%
4.1.0.1966 0.43%
4.1.0.1924 0.43%
4.1.0.1883 0.43%
4.1.0.1826 0.43%
4.1.0.1770 0.43%
4.1.0.1725 0.43%
4.1.0.1699 0.43%
4.1.0.1676 0.43%
4.1.0.1611 0.43%
4.1.0.1593 0.43%
4.1.0.1566 0.43%
4.1.0.1517 0.43%
4.1.0.1435 0.43%
4.1.0.1406 0.43%
4.1.0.1405 0.43%
4.1.0.1304 0.43%
4.1.0.1299 0.43%
4.1.0.1227 0.43%
4.1.0.1226 0.43%
4.1.0.1225 0.43%
4.1.0.1155 0.43%
4.1.0.1124 0.43%
4.1.0.1041 0.43%
4.1.0.1023 0.43%
4.1.0.1015 0.43%
4.0.0.1850 0.43%
4.0.0.1801 0.43%
4.0.0.1793 0.43%
4.0.0.1752 0.43%
235 versions

SW.Booster

What is SW.Booster?

Bundled with various adware installations via the WebPick Internet Holdings bundle, SW Booster (also known as SK Enhancer) is an adware extension that injects various types of advertising in the user's web browser. This particular program is a protector module and is designed specifically to prevent the supporting web browser extensions that performs the ad-injection from being removed by the end user or other software. If the adware it is protecting is removed, the SW.Booster program will re-enable the removed software.

The software is installed typically with bundles signed by Sergey Petrov (a developer of WebPick). As a note, WebPick uses its developers to obtain and sign the files in order to prevent users from knowing the file is distributed via the WebPick InstalleRex platform.

This adware/malware also goes under the following names:
ws-enabler
sk.enhancer
ws-enabler
optimizerpro
sw-booster

Overview

The most common release is 4.3.0.1897, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. During setup, the program registers itself to launch on boot through a Windows Schedule Task in order to automatically start-up (this is typically done to avoid any UAC prompts). The primary executable is named SW.Booster.exe. A majority of users end up uninstalling this less than a week of it being installed. The setup package generally installs about 1 files and is usually about 717.62 KB (734,846 bytes).
  • Malware detected in the program
  • Starts automatically
  • Delivered through a thrid-party offer
  • This program has a poor reputation
  • Most users and experts agree, you should remove it!
Warning, multiple anti-virus scanners have detected possible malware in SW.Booster.
SW.Booster.exe (1d283dd3ae2312eee624e8b8c46f6adb) has been flagged by the following 28 scanners:
Anti-Virus softwareVersionDetection
AhnLab-V3 2014.01.09 Trojan/Win32.Agent
Avira AntiVir 7.11.124.22 TR/Downloader.A.988
avast! 2014.9-140108 Win32:Agent-ASOC [Adw]
AVG 2015.0.3601 Downloader.Generic13
Baidu-International 4.0.3.1418 Trojan.Win32.Agent.50
Bkav FE 1.3.0.4613 W32.SauseiLTAR.Trojan
Commtouch SDK 5.4.1.7 W32/Trojan.IDAE-2984
Comodo Security 17576 TrojWare.Win32.TrojanDownloader.Agent.AFD
Dr.Web 9.0.0.08 Trojan.DownLoad3.30962
ESET-NOD32 8.9264 a variant of Win32/TrojanDownloader.Agent.AFD
Fortinet FortiGate 1/8/2014 W32/Agent.AFD!tr.dldr
G Data 14.1.22 Win32.Trojan-Downloader.Agent.AU
IKARUS anti.virus t3scan.2.2.29 Win32.SuspectCrc
K7 AntiVirus 13.175.10766 Trojan-Downloader
K7GW 13.175.10776 Trojan-Downloader ( 0048ec4f1 )
Kingsoft AntiVirus 331020.49267 Win32.Troj.Generic.a.(kcloud)
Malwarebytes v2014.01.08.11 PUP.Optional.MultiPlug.A
McAfee 5600.7257 RDN/Downloader.a!oi
McAfee-GW-Edition 7.7257 RDN/Downloader.a!oi
NANO AntiVirus 0.28.0.57029 Trojan.Win32.Agent.cojdgu
Norman 10.20140108 Suspicious_Gen4.FKQEC
Panda Antivirus 14.01.08.11 Trj/Genetic.gen
Sophos 4.96 Troj/Agent-AFFX
Symantec 1/8/2014 rev. 4 Trojan.Gen
Trend Micro 10.465.08 TROJ_SPNR.29L213
TrendMicro-HouseCall 7.2.8 TROJ_SPNR.29L213
VIPRE Antivirus 25218 Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT
ViRobot 2011.4.7.4223 Trojan.Win32.S.Agent.729600.B
       View all 28 all detections
SW.Booster 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

Installation folder: C:\ProgramData\puresafe\sw.booster
Uninstaller: "C:\ProgramData\puresafe\sw.booster\sw.booster.exe" /uninstall
Estimated size: 717.62 KB

Program filesFiles installed by SW.Booster

Program executable:SW.Booster.exe (Malware detected)
Path:C:\ProgramData\puresafe\sw.booster\SW.Booster.exe
MD5:1d283dd3ae2312eee624e8b8c46f6adb
  • (Malware detected) SW.Booster.exe

Program behaviorsBehaviors exhibited

Scheduled Task (Boot/Login)
  • SW.Booster.exe is automatically launched at startup through a scheduled task named SW_Booster-S-2021471501.

Program resource utilizationResource utilization averages

SW.Booster.exe
Memory:1024 KB
21.09 MB average
Total CPU:0.0000125145%
0.031193% average
Kernel CPU:0.00000264%
0.016088% average
User CPU:0.00000988%
0.015104% average
CPU cycles/sec:332
8,062,084 average
I/O reads/min:14 Bytes
435.61 KB average

How do I remove SW.Booster?

You can uninstall SW.Booster 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 SW.Booster, 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 SW.Booster.
  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) 57%
Win Vista 0%
 
HOW IT STARTS
Scheduled task? Yes
(Runs on Windows boot)
 
USER ACTIONS
Uninstall it 84%
Keep it 16%

Windows OS versionsWindows

Which Windows OS versions does it run on?
Windows 7 63.83%
Windows 10 25.96%
Windows XP 6.38%
Windows Vista 3.83%
Which OS releases does it run on?
Windows 7 Home Premium 28.02%
Windows 7 Ultimate 19.83%
Windows 7 Professional 9.05%
Windows 8.1 7.76%
Microsoft Windows XP 6.03%
Windows 8.1 Pro 5.60%

Distribution by countryGeography

27.04% of installs come from the United States
Which countries install it?
  United States 27.04%
  France 4.29%
  Turkey 3.43%
  United Kingdom 3.43%
  Italy 3.43%
  India 3.00%
  MA 2.58%
  Mexico 2.58%
  Sweden 2.58%
  Brazil 2.58%
  Indonesia 2.58%
  Portugal 2.15%
  Taiwan 2.15%
  Hong Kong 2.15%

OEM distributionPC manufacturers

What PC manufacturers (OEMs) have it installed?
Hewlett-Packard 20.41%
Acer 20.41%
ASUS 18.37%
Dell 14.97%
Toshiba 7.48%
Samsung 6.12%
GIGABYTE 5.44%
Lenovo 4.76%
Intel 1.36%
American Megatrends 0.68%
Common models
ASUS All Series 3.57%
HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook ... 2.68%
Dell Inspiron N5110 2.68%
innotek GmbH VirtualBox 2.68%
MSI MS-7788 1.79%
TOSHIBA Satellite C855D 1.79%

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