Knowledge - Details


Manually remove CleanInternet (mywebfilter.com, Web Access Filter)
Date Added: 5/21/2021

How to manually remove CleanInternet 1.0.0.1 (as of 5/21/2021)

1) Change the service to not auto-restart when it stops
Open services.msc, find the Web Access filter service (I forget its exact name)
Open that service, go to the Recovery tab, and change all 3 dropdowns to "Take no action".
Click "ok" to save the changes.

2) Get the service's PID:
RUN sc queryex wacsvc

3) Kill that PID:
RUN taskkill /pid 1234 /f

4) Delete the program's files from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacsvc.exe
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacsystray8.exe
and optionally:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacsystray.ico
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacsystray1.ico
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacsvc.log
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacsvclog.log
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\wacuuid.txt

5) Delete the program's registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Web Access Filter (or something like that)

6) Reboot

Now your browsers should all work normally.

That's it!


How to prevent someone from removing CleanInternet:
Most of these steps require administrator permissions on the computer. To prevent someone from removing the filter, just make sure their Windows user account is not in the Administrators group, and that they cannot guess the administrator's password. Even then, it's possible with the right tools (free) to reset the administrator's password without having to know what it was, or to trick Windows into elevating a regular user account to have administrator rights, so you should check on the computer occasionally to make sure the filter is still working. Hopefully, if someone does remove the filter, you'll notice that you have stopped receiving logs from them.



Back to List

Disclaimer: Everything on this website is written for my own use. I disclaim any guarantees that the procedures and advice listed here are accurate, safe, or beneficial for anyone else. If you attempt to follow any procedures or advice shared here, you do it at your own risk. Part of IT work is knowing how to recover from problems.