Sober Worm is a worm that spreads itself through email as an attachment, approximately sized 56,808 bytes, with a random name and the file extension .pif, .zip, or .bat. You have to open Sober Worm’s attachment to infect your PC, and once Sober Worm infects your system, Sober Worm may popup a message (”WinZip Self-Extractor, WinZip_Data_Module is missing ~Error:”) and then may scan your system for any email addresses and send itself as an email attachment to these addresses. Sober Worm will save the email addresses it emails in a file named winexerun.dal, winmprot.dal, winroot64.dal, or winsend32.dal. Sober Worm uses its own SMTP engine to send these emails, making it less likely to be detected.

Do You Have Sober Worm?

When you’re infected with badware — whether it’s Sober Worm, spyware, adware, a Trojan, or a virus — there are a few key symptoms. Have you noticed…

• Slow computer performance: It just takes one parasite like Sober Worm to slow your computer dramatically. If your PC takes longer than usual to reboot, or if your Internet connection is unusually slow, you may be infected with Sober Worm.
• New desktop shortcuts or switched homepage: Badware like Sober Worm may change your Internet settings to redirect your homepage to another site. Badware can even add desktop shortcuts to your PC.
• Annoying popups: Badware can bombard your computer with popup ads, even when you’re not online. Through these popups, you may be tricked into downloading more spyware.

How to Remove Sober Worm Manually

Before we get started, you should backup your system and your registry, so it’ll be easy to restore your computer if anything goes wrong.

To remove Sober Worm manually, you need to delete Sober Worm files. Not sure how to delete Sober Worm files? Click here, and I’ll show you. Otherwise, go ahead and…

Stop Sober Worm processes:

Delete Sober Worm registry values:

Remove Sober Worm files:

Note: In any Sober Worm files I mention above, “%UserProfile%” is a variable referring to your current user’s profile folder. If you’re using Windows NT/2000/XP, by default this is “C:\Documents and Settings\[CURRENT USER]” (e.g., “C:\Documents and Settings\JoeSmith”). If you have any questions about manual Sober Worm removal, go ahead and leave a comment.

How Do You Remove Sober Worm Files?

Need help figuring out how to delete Sober Worm files? While there’s some risk involved, and you should only manually remove Sober Worm files if you’re comfortable editing your system, you’ll find it’s fairly easy to delete Sober Worm files in Windows.

How to delete Sober Worm files in Windows XP and Vista:

1. Click your Windows Start menu, and then click “Search.”
2. A speech bubble will pop up asking you, “What do you want to search for?” Click “All files and folders.”
3. Type a Sober Worm file in the search box, and select “Local Hard Drives.”
4. Click “Search.” Once the file is found, delete it.

How to stop Sober Worm processes:

1. Click the Start menu, select Run.
2. Type taskmgr.exe into the the Run command box, and click “OK.” You can also launch the Task Manager by pressing keys CTRL + Shift + ESC.
3. Click Processes tab, and find Sober Worm processes.
4. Once you’ve found the Sober Worm processes, right-click them and select “End Process” to kill Sober Worm.

How to remove Sober Worm registry keys:

Because your registry is such a key piece of your Windows system, you should always backup your registry before you edit it. Editing your registry can be intimidating if you’re not a computer expert, and when you change or a delete a critical registry key or value, there’s a chance you may need to reinstall your entire system. Make sure your backup your registry before editing it.

1. Select your Windows menu “Start,” and click “Run.” An “Open” field will appear. Type “regedit” and click “OK” to open up your Registry Editor.
2. Registry Editor will open as a window with two panes. The left side Registry Editor’s window lets you select various registry keys, and the right side displays the registry values of the registry key you select.
3. To find a registry key, such as any Sober Worm registry keys, select “Edit,” then select “Find,” and in the search bar type any of Sober Worm’s registry keys.
4. As soon as Sober Worm registry key appears, you can delete the Sober Worm registry key by right-clicking it and selecting “Modify,” then clicking “Delete.”

How to delete Sober Worm DLL files:

1. First locate Sober Worm DLL files you want to delete. Open your Windows Start menu, then click “Run.” Type “cmd” in Run, and click “OK.”
2. To change your current directory, type “cd” in the command box, press your “Space” key, and enter the full directory where the Sober Worm DLL file is located. If you’re not sure if the Sober Worm DLL file is located in a particular directory, enter “dir” in the command box to display a directory’s contents. To go one directory back, enter “cd ..” in the command box and press “Enter.”
3. When you’ve located the Sober Worm DLL file you want to remove, type “regsvr32 /u SampleDLLName.dll” (e.g., “regsvr32 /u jl27script.dll”) and press your “Enter” key.

That’s it. If you want to restore any Sober Worm DLL file you removed, type “regsvr32 DLLJustDeleted.dll” (e.g., “regsvr32 jl27script.dll”) into your command box, and press your “Enter” key.

Did Sober Worm change your homepage?

1. Click Windows Start menu > Control Panel > Internet Options.
2. Under Home Page, select the General > Use Default.
3. Type in the URL you want as your home page (e.g., “http://www.homepage.com”).
4. Select Apply > OK.
5. You’ll want to open a fresh web page and make sure that your new default home page pops up.

Sober Worm Removal Tip

Is your computer acting funny after deleting any Sober Worm files? I recommend using a program like File Recover from PC Tools. File Recover saves deleted files that otherwise can’t be recovered by Windows operating sytem.

Want to save time finding Sober Worm files? Download Spyware Doctor, let it find the Sober Worm files for you, and then manually delete Sober Worm files.

How Did You Get Sober Worm?

Wondering how Sober Worm ended up on your PC? If you’re infected with Sober Worm or other badware, perhaps you were using…

• Freeware or shareware: Did you download and install shareware or freeware? These low-cost or free software applications may come bundled with spyware, adware, or programs like Sober Worm. Sometimes adware is attached to the free software to “pay” developers for the cost of creating the software, and more often spyware is secretly attached to free software to harm your computer and steal your personal and financial information.
• Peer-to-peer software: Do you use a peer-to-peer (P2P) program or other application with a shared network? When you use these applications, you put your system at risk for unknowingly downloading an infected file, including applications like Sober Worm.
• Questionable websites: Did you visit a website that’s of questionable nature? When you visit malicious sites that are fishy and phishy, badware may be automatically downloaded and installed onto your computer, sometimes including applications like Sober Worm. I recommend you use Firefox web browser, if you don’t already.

Understanding Sober Worm

If you’re infected with Sober Worm, you should know what you’re fighting. I’ll explain some definitions related to Sober Worm.

Sober Worm May Be a Worm

Worms are virus-like badware with destructive codes. Worms are able to mutate, or replace their own code by automatically, which makes worms very dangerous, difficult to find, and hard to delete. Similar to viruses, worms can spread to the other computers by secretly and automatically emailing themselves to other Internet users in your address book. The main difference between worms and viruses is that a worm wil replace your computer files rather than simply inserting their code into your files.