Remove BargainBuddy

Get rid of BargainBuddy automatically with ParetoLogic Antispyware

Bargain Buddy Summary: Bargain Buddy is a class of spyware that is known as a Browser Helper. Browser Helpers monitor a web page’s keywords and words entered into forms. When a match is made, the Browser Helper displays a targeted advertisement.

Details: In addition, Browser Helpers also can contact its home base and update its software and download advertisements. Bargain Buddy is also known as Bargains, Ikena and Acup.

Bargain Buddy is oftentimes installed by other adware programs such as LimeWire, vCatch, FavoriteMan, and Net2Phone CommCenter. If you have one of these adware programs on your system, you may also have Bargain Buddy.

You may be able to remove Bargain Buddy by using the add/remove programs option in the control panel of Windows. First, if Bargain Buddy appears to be running in your tray bar, right click its icon and choose exit. This stops the program from currently running. You can also access your Task Manager and see if it’s running by hitting Control/Alt/Delete.

Older versions of Bargain Buddy can be removed in the Add/Remove section of the control panel but newer versions can’t. Open the Control Panel and choose “add/remove programs”. If Bargain Buddy is present in the populated list, choose the uninstall option. If you don’t find it in the list, check under the Start Button and then “all programs” to see if the program is present there along with an uninstall option.

Chances are, if you are reading this article, you’ve already tried those options and had no luck finding an uninstall option for Bargain Buddy. In that case, you could either purchase a Bargain Buddy removal tool such as ParetoLogic AntiSpyware, or try these manual steps to remove the individual files yourself.

Go to Windows Explorer and look under “Program Files” for the Bargain Buddy file. Here you will find a series of files named bin, bin1, bin2 etc… each containing a dll called Apuc. Find the path and prepare to enter MSDOS mode to deregister the dll.

Go to the DOS prompt and enter your drive and directory information for your version of Windows. Once there enter:

regsvr32 /u "\Program Files\Bargain Buddy\bin2\apuc.dll (or substitute the correct path if different).

For BargainBuddy/Version, go back to your Windows directory and use the following commands:

regsvr32 /u "\Program Files\Net2Phone CommCenter\CC_Versn.dll".

Use the Task Manager by hitting ctrl-alt-delete and end the 'Bargains' process.

Once the Bargain Buddy process has been halted, delete the 'Bargain Buddy' folder and all of its contents.

Finally, open the registry editor by clicking Start/Run and typing: regedit.

Look under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run – you’re looking for the Bargain Buddy entry. Once found, delete it.

Next look under the following keys and delete:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Bargains;

Or in the case of the Adp variant:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\adp

Some versions of Bargain Buddy have an automated update feature that install updates. If the updates don’t complete properly or if the full download doesn’t finish, they may continue the next time the user is online.

This is why it’s necessary to kill the “bargains” process in the Task Manager before manually deleting the Bargain Buddy folders. Otherwise, it will simply re-download the next time.