Eureka! Home     |     NorthStar     |     Planet     |     Policies and Procedures Links

 

 

Removing Kazaa and WinMX

Document number: 19047

 

Kazaa is a security nightmare and does not remove nicely and cleanly from your computer.  WinMx is (supposedly) better behaved in removal, but equally dangerous to the network.  These are just two examples of unauthorized peer-to-peer (or p2p) applications which must be removed.  If there are others on the machine use the same process to remove them.

 

Quick list

Use Task Manger to end the Kazaa and/or WinMX process.

Use Add/Remove programs to uninstall Kazaa and/or WinMX and related applications

Manually delete remaining files and folders

Install registry fix for Kazaa

B3D projector Removal (Usually installed with Kazaa)

Manually remove related files programs

 

Removal process

  1. Stop the Kazaa and/or WinMX processes

    1. Press Control-ALT-delete
    2. Go to the task Manager
    3. Press the { Ctrl}+{ Alt}+{ Del} keys and the Windows Security window appears.
    4. Click on the Task Manager... button and the Windows Task Manager window appears.
    5. Click on the Processes tab.
    6. Find Kazaa in the list, click on it to highlight it.
    7. Click the End Process button. 
    8. Confirm you want to end the process.
    9. Do the same for WinMX.

  2. Remove the applications using Add/Remove Programs

    1. Click the Start button
    2. Select Settings, the Control Panel
    3. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
    4. Find Kazaa in the list, click on it to highlight it, click Remove.
      • You may get a confirmation pop-up, select "Yes" or "OK"
    5. Repeat Steps 1 through 3  looking for:
      • b3d Projector
      • Medialoads
      • New.Net
      • WinMx

  3. Manually delete affected files/folders

    4. Search for the following folders.  If found delete the folders and their contents.

    1. C:\Program Files\Kazaa\
    2. C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\KaZaA\
    3. C:\Windows\Desktop\Kazaa Media Desktop.lnk
    4. C:\Windows\Desktop\My Shared Folder.lnk
    5. C:\Windows\Desktop\Kazaa Promotions.lnk
    6. C:\\Windows\System 32\cd_clint.dll
    7. C:\\Program Files\WinMX

  4. Clean Kazaa from the registry

    1. Click the image to the install the cleaner tool Mydoom cleaner tool.
    2. IE 5.x users, when prompted select Save this file to Disk
      IE 6.x users, when prompted select S ave.
    3. Save the file to a convenient location, such as your downloads folder or the Windows desktop.
    4. Close all the running programs before running the tool.
    5. Double-click the ZapKazaa.reg file to start the registry clean tool.
    6. This might not remove all references.  It is what we have at the moment.  If your machine still shows as contaminated by Kazaa then your machine will need to be rebuilt.

  5. (Brilliant) B3D projector Removal (Usually installed with Kazaa)

    1. Search your computer for a "BDE" folder, which most likely will be found in the "WinNT" or "Windows" directory.
    2. Inside the "BDE" folder is a program called "bdeclean.exe". Double click on this file to run it.

  6. Manually remove related files

    7. Search for the following folders and files, and delete them if you find them.

    1. Brilliant
    2. bdedownloader.dll
    3. bdedata2.dll
    4. bdefdi.dll
    5. bdeinsta2.dll
    6. bdeinstall.exe
    7. bdesecureinstall.cab
    8. bdesecureinstall.exe
    9. bdeverify.exe
    10. bdeverify.dll
    11. important.txt
    12. winmxtrojan.scr

Your computer should now be free of Kazaa and WinMx peer to peer applications.  There are, however, other P2P applications that are equally troublesome and also should not be on your business machine.  If you know they are there, remove them.

 

 

 

 

 

Created by the PeopleSoft Knowledge Management Team.
Copyright © 2001, 2004 All rights reserved.
Created: db 03/05/2004

 

Information Technology       |       Eureka!       |         Feedback